Plan Studio is the visual workspace where Product and Finance teams design pricing models, configure entitlements, and deploy rate plans to production — without writing code. Changes are version-controlled and previewed with the built-in bill simulator before you publish.
The workflow is simple: define what you measure (Meters), define what you charge (Rate Plans), and define what customers can access (Entitlements). Plan Studio orchestrates all three into a deployable Offering that maps to a subscription.
Every pricing plan in Aforo is composed of three building blocks. Understanding this anatomy is essential before creating your first plan.
RAW USAGE SIGNALS
Meters
Sensors that capture events from your infrastructure: API calls, tokens consumed, storage bytes, agent sessions. Meters are asynchronous and non-blocking. They feed the billing pipeline without affecting request latency.
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
Rate Plans
The pricing rules that transform raw meter readings into monetary charges. Rate Plans support 8 pricing models (per-unit, flat, percentage, included-quota, graduated, volume-tiered, staircase, outcome-based) and can combine multiple meters into a single charge.
FEATURE GATES
Entitlements
Real-time access controls served from a gateway-edge cache. Entitlements determine which features a customer can access, how much quota remains, and whether margin guards should intervene.
INFO
Meters, Rate Plans, and Entitlements are independently versioned. You can change pricing without touching metering, or add a new feature gate without modifying the rate plan.
Plan Studio supports eight pricing models out of the box. Every model is computed by the same 10-stage billing pipeline, so you can switch between models without re-engineering your billing integration.
ModelLogicBest For
Flat RateFixed charge per billing period regardless of usageSaaS subscriptions, base platform fees, support tiers
GraduatedEach tier charged at its own rateAPI platforms with volume discounts, AI token pricing
Volume TieredEntire volume charged at the tier where the total fallsStorage, bandwidth, wholesale pricing
Included QuotaN units free, then per-unit or per-block overageSaaS with usage caps, block-based overage pricing
StaircaseFlat package price for whichever tier the total lands inNamed bundles — "up to 10k = $99"
Outcome-BasedWeighted by execution outcome (success / error / timeout), 0.0–1.0 per outcomeAI agents billed only for successful work
Additionally, Aforo supports Per-Unit (linear rate times quantity) and Percentage (revenue share with optional minimum fee) models. The Included Quota model supports both per-unit overage and block-based overage (charge per full block of N units using the blockSize parameter).
Describe your pricing model in plain English, and the AI Pricing Architect will decompose it into the right metrics, rate plan configuration, and offering settings. Available as a floating panel across the Metrics, Rate Plans, and Offerings pages.
Three execution modes: Guide (step-by-step walkthrough), Pre-fill (populates the wizard for your review), or Auto-create (creates everything in draft). The AI asks smart follow-up questions for ambiguous descriptions and navigates you across pages as needed.
Every usage event passes through a deterministic 10-stage billing pipeline before it becomes a charge on an invoice. Each stage is independently configurable and auditable.
1Quota Check — Verify the customer has not exceeded their allocated usage quota for the billing period.
2Rollover — Apply any unused included quota carried over from the previous period, when the rate plan enables rollover.
3Aggregate — Sum the raw metered events for this metric + customer + period into a running total.
4Allowance — Subtract the included free quantity; only the overage is billable.
5Rate — Price the billable units with the active rate plan. All eight pricing models are computed here.
6Commit — Enforce minimum spend (true-up) and maximum spend (BLOCK or ALERT).
7Discount — Apply percentage or fixed-amount discounts. Capped at subtotal, so charges never go negative.
8Tax — Calculate tax via the configured provider (Avalara, or a $0 no-op default).
9Route — Send the charge to its settlement path: POSTPAID → invoice, PREPAID → wallet drawdown, HYBRID → wallet first then invoice.
10Settle — Finalize the invoice line item and mark the event settled; publish to the ERP sync queue.
pipeline-flow.txt
Aggregated usage for the period
│
├─ 1. Quota Check ── Hard usage-cap enforcement
├─ 2. Rollover ── Carried-over included quota
├─ 3. Aggregate ── Sum metered events per meter
├─ 4. Allowance ── Subtract included free units
├─ 5. Rate ── Eight pricing models applied
├─ 6. Commit ── Min-spend true-up / max-spend cap
├─ 7. Discount ── % or fixed, capped at subtotal
├─ 8. Tax ── Avalara (or $0 no-op default)
├─ 9. Route ── Invoice / wallet / hybrid split
└─ 10. Settle ── Finalize line item, publish to ERP
│
Invoice or Wallet Drawdown
The Rate Plan Wizard has a built-in bill simulator — dial in usage volumes and watch the resulting invoice, so you can compare pricing models before a real customer is ever billed.
The simulator computes charges with the same math as the billing pipeline, against a draft rate plan and the usage figures you enter. Adjust the volumes, switch models, and the projected invoice updates — then publish when the numbers look right. Existing subscribers stay on their pinned rate-plan version until you migrate them, so a published change never surprises them.
Draft rate plans
Iterate on pricing rules without publishing to production
Usage inputs
Enter any volume or pattern and see the invoice it produces
Compare models
Run the same usage through different models and compare the total
Publish with versioning
Publish when it looks right — existing subscribers keep their pinned version
Every plan created in Plan Studio is automatically protected by the profitability circuit breakers configured by your Finance team. When a customer's usage cost approaches the contracted revenue, Margin Guards intervene at the gateway edge before unprofitable traffic generates compute costs.
🛡
Margin Guards: Profitability Governance
Configure 3-level circuit breakers to protect unit economics at the gateway edge.
For gateway-level integration details, see the , , and gateway guides.