Tiered Pricing

Tiered pricing sets different per-unit rates for different bands of quantity or usage. The first units cost one rate and later units cost another. It is common for seats, API calls, and other metered resources.

Graduated vs volume tiers

Stripe has two tier modes, and they give different totals for the same quantity:

• Graduated. Each tier's rate applies only to the units inside that tier. The first band is billed at the first rate, the next band at the second rate, and so on.
• Volume. The total quantity picks one tier, and that tier's rate applies to every unit.

Example

Seats cost $10 each for the first 10 and $8 each after that. For 15 seats:

• Graduated: (10 × $10) + (5 × $8) = `$140`.
• Volume: all 15 seats fall in the second tier, so 15 × $8 = `$120`.

The inputs are the same and the bills differ, so pick the mode before you model revenue.

Why it matters

Customers pay less per unit as they grow, and you keep higher rates at low volume. Tiers work with usage-based billing, where each period's metered quantity is priced through the tiers. They also work with seat-based pricing, where the per-seat price drops for larger teams. In Stripe, tiers live on the Price object, and Stripe applies them when it creates the invoice item.