--- title: "Nue Metering | Usage Metering and Billing on One Engine" description: "Meter, rate and bill usage on the engine that priced the quote. Nue Metering locks in contract terms and updates credit balances in under ten seconds." url: https://www.nue.io/metering/ markdown_url: https://www.nue.io/metering.md page_type: product publisher: Nue (https://www.nue.io) language: en generated: 2026-09-29 --- # Usage bills at the terms that closed the deal. ## Summary Meter, rate and bill usage on the engine that priced the quote. Nue Metering locks in contract terms and updates credit balances in under ten seconds. AI changed what companies sell, and consumption now drives revenue. Nue Metering connects it to the quote, so there is one copy of the deal from signature to invoice. What is metering ## Metering turns every unit of use into a line on the bill It works like the meter on a house. It records use as it happens, and the reading becomes a bill. Software is shifting from paying per seat to paying per use. AI breaks the per-seat model, because two people on the same plan can create very different amounts of work. ### Electricity Kilowatt-hours → monthly bill ### AI software Tokens, calls, compute → usage bill Per seat One person, one license, one flat fee Per use Pay for the work the product actually does How metering works ## Every usage event takes four steps to become revenue Rating is the step that has to know the deal. It only works if the price in the meter matches the price in the contract. 1. **1**: Capture Record every event the moment it happens 1. **2**: Measure Group events into time windows and measure them by sum, count, max, min or average 1. **3**: Rate Apply the agreed price to what was measured Where the deal has to be known 1. **4**: Bill Add it to an invoice or draw down a prepaid balance The problem ## Most stacks rate usage against a second copy of the deal Usage gets captured in one place and priced in another, so ramps, tier thresholds, discounts, commits and credits get re-created downstream. That second copy is where drift starts. Copy one · the signed quote Copy two · the metering tool The ramp never made it downstream. Every call in year 2 bills 25% high until someone reconciles. ## When the deal exists twice, every team pays for the gap - **RevOps and billing**: Every change becomes a sync job Upgrades, renewals and amendments get pushed into a second system and checked by hand. - **Finance**: Revenue leaks quietly Drift surfaces at reconciliation, after the invoice has already gone out. - **Pricing**: Packaging waits on engineering Every new tier or model is a ticket before it can bill, so launches slip. What if the deal only existed once? Metering assessment ## How much is your usage billing drifting from the deal? Answer nine quick questions about how you meter, price and bill usage. See your drift score, which terms are most exposed, and what one copy of the deal would change. One engine ## Nue meters, rates and bills on the engine that priced the quote There is one copy of the deal. Not two systems trying to agree. Most stacks today Quote Metering tool Billing Three systems, two copies of the terms, and a reconciliation step between each. With Nue Quote Nue Quote · meter · rate · bill Invoice One engine holds the contract, so the meter always prices with the terms Sales closed. Rated against the contract ## Every usage event rates against the terms that closed the deal When a deal closes in Nue, the commercial terms that were actually agreed to are locked in. Locked when the deal closes - Price - Tiers - Ramps - Discounts - Proration Effective date Usage before the effective date Rated at the original terms Usage after the effective date Rated at the amended terms Amendments split usage at the effective date. Prepaid credit balance - Consumed - Remaining - Overage <10 sec from a usage event to an updated credit balance Real-time credits ## Credit balances update in under ten seconds, not at month end Most teams learn a customer ran out of credits when the invoice arrives. By then the moment has passed. With Nue, overage is visible the moment it starts, not at month end. One contract ## Usage, seats, services, credits and commits share one contract Usage doesn’t have to live in its own silo. - **Usage**: per token, per call - **Seat subscriptions**: per seat, per month - **Professional services**: one-time Shared credits and commits - **Usage burns against the same credits or commits**: The same balance covers usage and the rest of the contract. - **Subscription and consumption models evolve together**: Adding a usage component is a contract change, not a new system. - **No separate version of the deal to meter**: Metering reads the same contract Sales closed. ## Built to rate usage at high volume Scale is part of the architecture, not a tradeoff against getting the contract right. 25.9B+ usage events processed each month 10K+ usage events processed per second, per business Outcomes ## One copy of the deal pays off for every team that touches revenue Each outcome removes a cost that existed only because the deal lived in two systems. - **RevOps and billing**: Faster, cleaner close Usage bills correctly with no second system to set up or sync - **Finance**: Less revenue leakage Rated usage, credit balances, overage and invoice lines match what was sold - **Pricing**: Faster time to market New tiers and models go live without an engineering ticket - **Account teams**: Expansion conversations earlier Live balances show which customers are running low or tipping into overage FAQ ## Questions buyers ask about Nue Metering ### Can third-party usage like AWS come in? Nue Metering ## Frequently asked questions ### Do we have to replace our CPQ? No. Metering runs on the Nue pricing engine, so an account on another CPQ can adopt metering now and move quoting later. ### Can Nue handle our volume? Up to 10,000 events per second. Size against peak usage, not the monthly total. ### What about late usage? It bills at the terms in force when it happened, well past the 33-day window most metering tools allow. ### Can third-party usage like AWS come in? Yes. It lands against the same customer and the same invoice as the usage Nue meters directly. ## Related pages - [Get a metering assessment](https://www.nue.io/metering/assessment/) --- *Markdown edition of https://www.nue.io/metering/, published by Nue for AI assistants and search engines. The HTML page is canonical. About Nue: https://www.nue.io/llms.txt*