Indicators & Usage-Based Pricing

Indicators are the specific events or actions your AI agents perform. They form the foundation of usage-based pricing: activity-based and outcome-based models.

What are Indicators?

An indicator is a descriptive name for an action or outcome. For example:

• 📝 message-sent
• ✅ ticket-resolved
• 📊 report-generated
• 🎯 meeting-booked

Activity-Based Pricing

Bill customers based on the AI activities they perform - tokens used, API calls made, or actions taken. This is the most common usage-based pricing model.

Scenario: Rachel runs ‘ContentAI’, a service that generates blog posts, social media content, and ad copy using GPT-4 and Claude. Different customers have vastly different needs: a solopreneur might generate 5 articles per month, while a marketing agency generates 500. Charging everyone the same monthly fee would be unfair to light users and leave money on the table with heavy users.

Solution: Rachel uses Paygent to track every content generation request and bill based on actual AI usage:

import { PaygentClient } from '@paygent_org/paygent-sdk-node';
const paygent = PaygentClient.newClient(process.env.PAYGENT_API_KEY);
// Customer requests blog post generation
async function generateBlogPost(customerId: string, prompt: string) {
  // Generate content with AI
  const article = await generateWithAI(prompt);
  
  // Track the activity - Paygent automatically counts tokens & costs
  await paygent.sendUsage(
    'article-generator',          // Agent performing the work
    customerId,                    // Which customer
    'article-generated',           // Indicator: the activity performed
    usageData
  );
  
  return article;
}
// Usage tracked automatically
// - Customer A generates 5 articles → $12.50
// - Customer B generates 500 articles → $1,250
// Both pay exactly what they use!

Activity Indicators Examples:

• article-generated
• image-created
• message-sent
• code-reviewed
• translation-completed
• summary-created

Result: Rachel’s customers love the fair pricing. Light users pay $20-50/month for occasional content generation. Heavy users (agencies) pay$800-1,500/month but get massive value. Rachel’s revenue scales perfectly with her AI costs - she’s never losing money on power users.

Outcome-Based Pricing

Charge based on successful outcomes or results achieved, not just activities performed. Customers only pay when they get real value.

Scenario: David built ‘MeetBot AI’, an AI sales assistant that helps B2B companies book qualified meetings. The AI sends personalized outreach emails, follows up with prospects, and books meetings on the calendar. David’s AI might send 100 emails to only book 5 meetings - but customers don’t care about emails sent, they care about meetings booked. How can David align his pricing with customer value?

Solution: David tracks both activities (emails sent) and outcomes (meetings booked), but only charges for successful outcomes:

import { PaygentClient } from '@paygent_org/paygent-sdk-node';
const paygent = PaygentClient.newClient(process.env.PAYGENT_API_KEY);
// Track activity (not billable - just for analytics)
async function sendOutreachEmail(customerId: string, emailContent: string) {
  await sendEmail(emailContent);
  
  // Track activity but don't charge customer
  await paygent.sendUsage(
    'sales-ai',
    customerId,
    'email-sent',  // Activity indicator (free for customer)
    usageData
  );
}
// Track outcome (BILLABLE - customer pays $50 per meeting)
async function bookMeeting(customerId: string, meetingDetails: any) {
  await createCalendarEvent(meetingDetails);
  
  // Track successful outcome - THIS is what customer pays for
  await paygent.sendUsage(
    'sales-ai',
    customerId,
    'meeting-booked',  // Outcome indicator → $50 charge
    usageData
  );
}
// Customer pays:
// - $0 for 100 emails sent
// - $50 × 5 meetings booked = $250
//
// Clear ROI: $50 per meeting often leads to $10,000+ deals

Outcome Indicators Examples:

• meeting-booked → $50
• ticket-resolved → $5
• sale-closed → $200
• candidate-hired → $1,000
• bug-fixed → $25
• lead-qualified → $15

Prices shown are examples - set yours based on customer value

Result: David’s customers absolutely love outcome-based pricing. They pay $50 per meeting booked, and each meeting typically results in a$10,000-50,000 deal. The ROI is crystal clear. David books $200,000 worth of meetings per month across his customers, charging$50,000 in total. Everyone wins.