Product shapes

Every product has a shape that determines how buyers pay and what you need to meter. All four shapes share the same integration. The API key exchange and usage reporting work identically, so you can add or change shapes without touching your code.

Pay as you go#

No base fee. Every unit of usage is billed at the plan's meter prices. Use it when buyers' usage varies a lot or when they want to try your API without a commitment.

• Plan fields that matter: per-meter unit price and bundle size, plus a spend cap to protect buyers.
• What you meter: everything billable, on every paid action.
• Exhaustion: only at the spend cap. Respond 402 + X-ZeroClick-Reason: spend_cap_reached.

Example: $0.50 per 1,000 API requests (bundle size 1,000, unit price $0.50), spend cap $100/month. A buyer who makes 84,000 requests pays $42.

Subscription#

A flat recurring fee for access. There are no meters. What varies between plans is entitlements, like priority-support or max-resolution: 4k.

• Plan fields that matter: billing interval, base price, entitlements.
• What you meter: nothing. You may still send usage for analytics, but it isn't billed.
• Exhaustion: only when the plan lapses. ZeroClick calls your DELETE exchange endpoint to revoke the key; respond to revoked or expired keys with 402 + X-ZeroClick-Reason: plan_expired.

Example: Pro plan at $29/month with concurrent-jobs: 10; Starter at $9/month with concurrent-jobs: 2. Your API reads the entitlement and enforces the difference.

Subscription + included usage#

A recurring fee that includes a usage allowance, with overage billed per meter. Predictable revenue, plus billing that scales with heavy use.

• Plan fields that matter: billing interval, base price, per-meter included units, overage unit price, credit expiry (expire resets the allowance each period; rollover carries unused units forward), spend cap.
• What you meter: everything billable. ZeroClick tracks consumption against included units first, then bills overage.
• Exhaustion: when included units are gone and overage isn't allowed, or the spend cap is hit. Respond 402 + X-ZeroClick-Reason: usage_exhausted. The agent can then purchase more via /extend.

Example: $19/month including 50,000 API requests, then $0.40 per 1,000. A buyer who makes 80,000 requests pays $19 + $12 = $31.

Prepaid credits#

Buyers purchase a balance upfront (billing interval none) and usage draws it down at the plan's meter prices. A good fit for agents that prefer paying once over managing a recurring relationship.

• Plan fields that matter: base price (the size of the credit purchase), included credits, credit expiry, per-meter prices that define the burn rate.
• What you meter: everything billable. Each reported unit burns unit price × quantity from the balance.
• Exhaustion: when the balance can't cover the next action. Respond 402 + X-ZeroClick-Reason: usage_exhausted. The agent tops up at /extend and retries.

Example: $50 credit pack; image generations burn $0.02 each and upscales $0.08. A generation that would overdraw the balance returns a 402.

Choosing a shape#

Start from how buyers use your API. Variable, occasional work points to pay as you go or prepaid credits. Steady consumption points to subscription + included usage. Pure access gating points to subscription. You can run multiple products with different shapes on the same service.