Concepts
What per-unit pricing is
Per-unit pricing is a pricing model where a single rate applies to every unit, with no brackets at all. The amount is simply the quantity multiplied by the rate.
Because there’s only one rate, there’s no bracket determination, no tier boundaries, and no tier reset period to configure. Per-unit pricing is the simplest of the three models, and it’s also the baseline the other two are compared against.
How it applies to point in time and period of time products
Both product types can use per-unit pricing, but what the “unit” and the “rate” represent still differs between them, the same distinction that runs through every pricing model on this platform.
For PIT products, per-unit pricing is the natural fit for metered usage: every event that gets recorded is billed at the same rate, and the invoice for a period is just the sum of usage in that period multiplied by the rate. There’s no cross-period accumulation to think about, since there’s no bracket boundary that cumulative usage could ever cross.
For POT products, per-unit pricing is expressed per unit per pricing period, for example $20 per seat per month, and quantity is typically a snapshot that changes through amendments rather than usage events. Because the rate never changes with quantity, an amendment doesn’t require any recalculation beyond simple proration: the days before the amendment are billed at the old quantity, and the days after are billed at the new quantity, each at the same unit rate.
Proration
Proration is simpler for per-unit pricing than for tiered or volume pricing, since there’s no bracket split to recompute.
For a PIT prepaid grant, whether the grant is prorated for a partial period or charged in full is itself configurable (partial period handling: prorate or full), with prorate as the default. Because the unit rate is fixed regardless of quantity, proration for per-unit pricing only ever scales the price or the quantity by a day-fraction. It never needs to reconsider which rate applies, the way tiered and volume pricing do.
How it interacts with other pricing features
Per-unit pricing can be combined with other features, and the order they’re applied in matters. Raw usage is first floored by any minimum quantity commitment, then reduced by any quantity discount, and only that effective quantity is multiplied by the unit rate to compute the amount. A minimum spend commitment is evaluated against that amount next, followed by any percentage or fixed discount. Since there’s only one rate, a quantity discount or minimum quantity commitment changes the amount in a straightforward, linear way. There’s no bracket for the adjusted quantity to land in differently, unlike tiered and volume pricing, where an adjusted quantity can shift which rate applies. The full calculation stack is laid out step by step in the reference section below.How-to guides
How to set up per-unit pricing for a metered PIT product
- Open the price editor for the product and set the pricing model to Per Unit, with currency set to the currency you’re billing in.
- Set Price per unit, for example $2.00.
- Leave Usage is metered checked, and select the usage aggregate (meter) that supplies the quantity. Quantity here comes from recorded usage events, not a fixed grant.
- Save. A customer using 150 units in a billing period is billed 150 × 300.00 for that period, as a single line item. There are no tiers to configure and no tier reset period, so usage in one billing period never interacts with usage in another.
How to set up per-unit pricing for a seat-based POT product
- Open the price editor for the product and set the pricing model to Per Unit, with currency set to the currency you’re billing in.
- Set Price per unit, for example $20.00, and set the Pricing Period the rate applies over, for example Monthly.
- Leave Usage is metered unchecked if quantity is a fixed count you set directly (for example, a seat count on the contract) rather than derived from usage events.
- Save. A customer starting the month with 30 seats is billed 30 × 600.00 for the month. If the customer amends the contract mid-period to add seats, the days before the amendment are billed at the old quantity and the days after at the new quantity, both at the same unit rate.
How to change the unit rate on an existing price
A pricing preset can’t be edited or removed once created, only added to. To change the rate:- Create a new pricing preset on the product with the updated Price per unit.
- Mark the new preset as default if it should apply to new contracts going forward, or select it explicitly on the contracts that should use it.
- Existing contracts keep referencing whichever preset they were set up with, so a rate change doesn’t retroactively affect invoices already generated under the old preset.
How to verify a per-unit calculation on an invoice
- Open the invoice and locate the product’s line item.
- Confirm the billed quantity matches the expected usage or seat count for the period.
- Multiply that quantity by the configured Price per unit and confirm it matches the line item amount, before any minimum quantity, quantity discount, minimum spend, or percentage/fixed discount is applied. If any of those features are configured, check the order of operations to see where each one adjusts the amount.
Reference
Per-unit configuration
Required fields
Optional configuration
There are no brackets, no tier boundaries, and no tier reset period for per-unit pricing. The rate is the same regardless of how much or how little is consumed.