How it works
Each subscription plan includes a number of credits per period. When the renewal invoice is paid, the allowance is added to the customer's balance. Customers who run out before the next renewal buy a top-up pack instead of upgrading or waiting.
The design decisions are whether unused allowance rolls over or resets, whether top-up credits are spent before or after allowance credits, and how top-up pricing compares with the subscription. Top-ups are usually priced slightly higher per credit than the plan, so the subscription stays the best deal for regular users.
Example
A plan costs $20 a month and includes 2,000 credits ($0.010 each). Top-ups are 500 credits for $7 ($0.014 each). A customer who uses 2,600 credits in a month pays $20 plus one $7 top-up, $27 in total, rather than jumping to a $50 plan they would not fully use.
Hybrid credit billing in Cred
A checkout becomes a subscription only when the request sends billing: "recurring"; credits are added after each paid invoice, including renewals, and one-off packs can be bought alongside it through the same hosted checkout.
Subscriptions docsQuestions
- Why not just sell bigger subscription plans?
- Usage varies month to month. Forcing an upgrade for one busy month causes churn or downgrades later. Top-ups let customers pay for the spike and stay on the plan that fits a normal month.
- Should allowance credits roll over?
- Rollover is friendlier but lets balances grow without limit, which increases your liability to deliver service. Resetting keeps liabilities small but can feel punitive. A middle ground is rollover capped at one period's allowance.
- Which credits should be spent first?
- Spend allowance credits before purchased top-ups when allowances reset each period, so customers do not lose what they paid for separately. If allowances roll over, the order matters less, but say clearly which is used first.
