Last verified with: 10.8.6.0
Overview #
Usage pricing in LogiSense Billing is designed to help businesses price consumption in a flexible, reusable, and commercially creative way.
Instead of hard-coding one rate directly into one product, the platform separates usage pricing into reusable building blocks. Usage Classes define what is being measured, Usage Rate Groups define when or under what conditions pricing should apply, Usage Rates define how the charge is calculated, and Usage Rate Plans package those pieces together into reusable pricing offers.
That structure gives businesses the freedom to support simple per-unit charging, sophisticated geography-based rating, peak and off-peak pricing, cost-plus models, tiered usage, and many other commercial designs without constantly duplicating catalog setup.
What Usage Pricing Means #
At a business level, usage pricing means charging a customer based on what they consume rather than only charging a fixed recurring subscription amount.
That consumption could be based on:
- data volume,
- airtime or duration,
- API calls,
- transactions,
- messages,
- records,
- bandwidth,
- storage,
- or other measurable units of activity.
The platform treats these usage events as structured records and rates them according to the pricing logic that applies to that specific kind of usage.
This allows businesses to align pricing more closely to customer behavior, service delivery, and commercial value.
The Core Building Blocks #
The flexibility of usage pricing comes from how the platform breaks pricing into reusable layers.
Usage Classes #
Usage Classes define what kind of usage is being measured and charged.
They provide the business meaning behind the event being rated. A Usage Class might represent data, voice, SMS, API usage, storage, transactions, or any other measurable category of consumption.
Usage Classes also establish the measurement model behind the usage so the platform knows whether the event should be treated as time, data, or count based usage.
This matters because it lets businesses create a common usage vocabulary that can be reused across many products and pricing models.
Usage Class Types #
Usage Class Types help organize related Usage Classes into broader families.
This becomes valuable when a business wants a more structured model for usage design, reporting, configuration, or product organization. Instead of treating every Usage Class as a one-off object, businesses can group them into a cleaner pricing taxonomy.
That helps large catalogs remain understandable as more usage products and more pricing scenarios are added over time.
Usage Rate Groups #
Usage Rate Groups define the pricing context under which one or more rates apply.
This is where businesses separate pricing logic into meaningful reusable groupings such as:
- domestic versus international,
- carrier-specific pricing,
- premium versus standard traffic,
- peak versus off-peak charging,
- or cost-based versus sell-price rating.
Rate Groups can also carry conditions, time periods, cost behavior, aggregation behavior, and currency context.
That makes them one of the most important reuse tools in the usage pricing model.
Usage Rates #
Usage Rates define the actual charge to apply when a usage event matches the class and conditions in the selected Rate Group.
This is where the platform determines whether the charge should be:
- per second,
- per minute,
- per message,
- per API call,
- per megabyte,
- per transaction,
- fixed per event,
- markup on a cost,
- or fixed markup on top of a cost.
Rates can also include minimum charges, rounding behavior, location specificity, and additional charging behavior where more than one rate should apply to the same usage event.
Usage Rate Plans #
Usage Rate Plans bring Rate Groups together into a reusable commercial offer.
A plan does not define every individual rate itself. Instead, it acts as the container that assembles the right Rate Groups into a pricing package that can then be attached to services, packages, accounts, or other pricing layers.
This is one of the key reasons the usage model is so flexible. The same Rate Group can be reused in many plans, and the same plan can be applied across many offers.
How They Work Together #
From a business perspective, the model is straightforward:
- A Usage Class defines what kind of usage is being measured.
- One or more Usage Rates are created for that class.
- Those rates are organized into Usage Rate Groups based on pricing context.
- The Usage Rate Groups are assembled into a Usage Rate Plan.
- The Usage Rate Plan is attached at the appropriate commercial level, such as a service, package, account, or owner.
- When usage arrives, the platform identifies the customer, determines the applicable Usage Class, selects the correct Rate Group based on conditions such as time or location, and then applies the matching rate.
This layered design is what allows pricing logic to be reused instead of recreated every time a new offer is introduced.
What Units Can Be Measured #
One of the strengths of the platform is that usage is not limited to one type of unit.
The measurement model supports three broad categories:
- Time: such as seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
- Data: such as bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and binary equivalents.
- Count: such as events, messages, pages, records, transactions, or occurrences.
This matters because many businesses need to monetize more than one kind of usage at the same time.
A telecom provider may rate airtime by minutes, messaging by message count, and data by megabytes. A SaaS provider may rate one service by API calls, another by records processed, and another by storage consumed. The same usage framework can support all of those models.
Creative Pricing Options #
The building blocks above create a wide range of pricing possibilities.
Simple Per-Unit Pricing #
The most direct usage model is a straightforward per-unit charge.
Examples:
- per minute,
- per message,
- per gigabyte,
- or per API call.
Benefit:
- Easy to understand.
- Easy to launch.
- A strong fit for transparent consumption pricing.
Fixed Charges Per Event #
Some usage events are better priced as a flat amount instead of a per-unit calculation.
Examples:
- a flat charge per transaction,
- a fixed fee per session,
- or a one-price event regardless of duration or size.
Benefit:
- Supports event-based monetization.
- Useful when the commercial value is tied to the occurrence, not the volume.
Cost-Plus Pricing #
The platform supports cost-based pricing models where sell pricing is derived from underlying cost rates.
This allows a business to create pricing where the customer charge is based on:
- a percentage markup on cost,
- or a fixed amount added on top of cost.
Benefit:
- Supports wholesale, carrier, marketplace, and partner billing models.
- Helps preserve margin when buy-side costs change.
- Reduces manual repricing effort for cost-driven businesses.
Geography And Location-Based Rating #
Usage can be priced differently based on where it originates, where it terminates, or which configured location group it falls into.
This is especially powerful for telecom and other network-based services, but it is also valuable in broader digital services where geography affects commercial treatment.
Examples:
- domestic versus international,
- in-country versus out-of-country,
- zone-based pricing,
- region-specific tariffs,
- or pricing by network, carrier, or service area.
Benefit:
- Supports highly granular commercial models.
- Makes it easier to price according to regulatory, carrier, or geographic realities.
- Allows providers to reuse the same core service structure across many regional pricing strategies.
Time-Of-Day And Day-Based Pricing #
Rate Groups can be configured so different prices apply at different times or on different days.
Examples:
- peak versus off-peak pricing,
- weekday versus weekend pricing,
- evening discount models,
- or premium daytime charging.
Benefit:
- Supports classic telecom peak/off-peak models.
- Helps align price to demand patterns.
- Enables promotional or behavior-shaping pricing strategies.
Tiered And Aggregate Pricing #
Usage can also be rated on an aggregated basis, with different rate behavior depending on the total amount of usage accumulated during the billing period.
This supports both bracketed and progressive tiering models.
Benefit:
- Supports scale-based pricing.
- Makes growth pricing more sophisticated.
- Creates better commercial alignment for high-volume customers.
Multiple Charges On The Same Usage Event #
The model can also support more than one charge applying to the same usage event in certain scenarios.
For example, a business may want to charge both:
- an access-related fee,
- and a usage-driven fee
against the same event.
Benefit:
- Supports more nuanced usage monetization.
- Helps businesses model layered charging without custom workarounds.
Why Reuse Matters #
One of the biggest strengths of the LogiSense usage model is reuse.
Without reusable pricing components, teams often end up copying the same rates into many products, rebuilding the same logic for every new offer, and creating unnecessary catalog growth.
The usage model avoids that by separating what is being rated from how it is priced and from where that pricing is packaged.
That means businesses can:
- reuse the same Usage Class across many offers,
- reuse the same Rate Group across multiple plans,
- reuse the same Rate Plan across multiple products or accounts,
- and adjust pricing structure without rebuilding the entire catalog.
This improves operational efficiency and makes pricing innovation much easier.
How This Reduces Catalog Complexity #
Creative pricing often causes catalog bloat when every pricing variation is modeled as a separate product.
The LogiSense usage framework provides another path.
Instead of creating a different service for every combination of:
- geography,
- time period,
- cost basis,
- customer segment,
- or pricing rule,
the business can keep the service model cleaner and move much of that variation into reusable Usage Classes, Rate Groups, Rates, and Rate Plans.
That means the same underlying service can support many commercial models with less duplication and less maintenance overhead.
Telecom Examples #
Voice Pricing By Destination And Time #
A telecom provider may want to price voice usage differently for domestic, international, and premium destinations, while also charging different rates for peak and off-peak periods.
Benefit:
- Supports real telecom rating complexity.
- Allows reusable destination and time-based pricing components.
- Avoids creating a separate product for every voice scenario.
Data Pricing By Geography #
A provider may price data differently depending on whether usage is in-country, in-zone, or outside the customer’s home region.
Benefit:
- Supports roaming and zone-based pricing strategies.
- Makes location-sensitive rating operational.
- Helps the provider scale internationally without rebuilding the usage model for each geography.
Cost-Plus Carrier Billing #
A provider may buy usage capacity from an upstream network and sell it onward with a markup.
Benefit:
- Supports wholesale and reseller models.
- Makes margin control easier.
- Reduces the need for manual sell-price maintenance as costs change.
SaaS Examples #
API And Transaction Pricing #
A SaaS provider may charge one service by API call count, another by transactions processed, and another by records or events handled.
Benefit:
- Supports modern platform pricing models.
- Makes it possible to monetize technical consumption in a business-friendly way.
- Reuses the same usage framework across very different product lines.
Regional Data Processing Prices #
A software provider may want different pricing depending on where workloads are processed or where customers operate.
Benefit:
- Supports geography-aware cloud and platform pricing.
- Aligns commercial terms to regional delivery cost or value.
- Avoids duplicating products by region when rating logic can handle the variation.
Peak-Time Premium Processing #
A provider may charge different rates during high-demand time windows or offer discounted overnight processing.
Benefit:
- Supports time-sensitive workload pricing.
- Encourages demand shaping.
- Creates differentiated offers without rebuilding the service catalog.
Why Customers Value This Capability #
Customers value this capability because it gives them room to create pricing that matches how their business actually works.
They are not limited to one flat usage model. They can combine measured units, conditional pricing, geography, time, cost logic, and reusable plans into a commercial structure that fits their market.
Just as importantly, they can do that without turning every pricing variation into a separate product. That combination of flexibility and reuse is what makes the usage model so powerful. It supports creative monetization while keeping the catalog cleaner, more maintainable, and easier to evolve over time.