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Metered Plans

The Ultimate Multisite: Metered Plans addon transforms how you bill your customers by introducing flexible metered billing capabilities. Instead of rigid hard limits that block users when exceeded, enable overage charges that automatically bill customers for additional usage.

Key Features​

  • Metered Billing: Charge customers based on actual usage rather than fixed tiers
  • Overage Management: Automatically bill for usage exceeding plan limits
  • Usage Tracking: Monitor customer resource consumption in real-time
  • Flexible Pricing: Set custom rates for different resources (storage, bandwidth, sites, etc.)
  • AI Usage Metering: Track, price, limit, and bill AI token usage across customer subsites
  • Automatic Invoicing: Generate invoices automatically when usage thresholds are exceeded
  • Usage Reports: Detailed usage analytics and reporting for customers and administrators

Perfect For​

  • Hosting Providers: Offer scalable plans that grow with customer needs
  • SaaS Platforms: Bill based on actual resource consumption
  • Agency Networks: Flexible pricing models for client projects
  • Reseller Hosting: Enable partners to offer usage-based pricing

How It Works​

  1. Configure metered resources (disk space, bandwidth, number of sites, etc.)
  2. Set base plan limits and overage rates
  3. The system automatically tracks usage across your network
  4. When customers exceed limits, overage charges are calculated
  5. Invoices are generated automatically based on billing cycle
  6. Customers can view their usage and upcoming charges in real-time

AI Token Billing​

AI token billing lets you sell AI features without absorbing unpredictable provider costs. Metered Plans listens for completed AI generation requests, records input and output token counts for the current subsite, and converts those tokens into billable AI spend for the customer's current billing period.

Each request is attributed to the subsite, customer, membership, provider, and model. You can give each plan an included AI allowance, mark up overage above provider cost, block no-card customers at the allowance, and let customers with a payment method continue using AI as paid overage.

For the complete setup, pricing, customer-experience, and launch checklist, see AI Usage Metering.

Configure Per-Token Rates​

AI rates are configured per model as separate input and output rates. Rates are calculated per 1 million tokens, which matches common AI provider pricing pages.

  1. In the network admin, open Multisite Ultimate → AI Token Billing.
  2. Add model rate entries using the model IDs returned by your connector, such as gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini, or another OpenAI-compatible model identifier.
  3. Enter separate Input Rate and Output Rate values in your site currency per 1 million tokens.
  4. Open the product or membership that should bill AI usage.
  5. Enable Metered Plans and AI Usage Metering.
  6. Set the customer's included AI spend allowance and overage markup for the plan.

When an exact model ID is not configured, Metered Plans can match by model prefix. For example, a rate configured for claude-sonnet-4 can apply to timestamped model IDs that start with that prefix. Developers can also adjust the final rate table with the wu_ai_token_rates filter.

Supported AI Connectors​

AI token billing works with connectors that emit WordPress AI Client SDK generation events and include token usage in the response metadata. This includes the Ultimate Multisite AI connector family documented here:

Custom connectors can participate by firing the standard wp_ai_client_before_generate_result and wp_ai_client_after_generate_result events with model, provider, and token usage metadata. Connector settings are enforced from the main site to subsites so customer sites use the network-approved providers and limits. Unpriced models are hidden from subsite model pickers and blocked at runtime.

Customer Account Usage​

Customers see AI usage alongside their other metered resources in their account area. The AI spend row shows the current billing-period total derived from recorded prompt and completion tokens, the configured model rates, and any included allowance on the plan.

If a customer has a payment method on file, usage above the included allowance is treated as billable overage. If the plan is configured for a hard cutoff and the customer has no payment method available, AI requests can be blocked once the allowance is reached and the customer is prompted to add payment details before continuing. Customers can monitor current spend, allowance, remaining allowance, token totals, and projected overage from Dashboard → AI Usage on their subsite.

Supported Resources​

  • Disk storage
  • Bandwidth/Data transfer
  • Number of sites
  • Number of users
  • AI token usage and AI spend
  • Custom resource types

Requirements​

  • Multisite Ultimate 2.0.0 or higher
  • WordPress Multisite installation
  • PHP 7.4 or higher

Installation​

  1. Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/ultimate-multisite-metered-plans
  2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' screen in WordPress
  3. Navigate to Multisite Ultimate → Settings → Metered Plans
  4. Configure your metered resources and pricing
  5. Enable metered billing for products in the product editor

Frequently Asked Questions​

What happens when a customer exceeds their limit?​

Instead of blocking access, the system tracks the overage and adds it to their next invoice based on the rates you've configured.

Can I set different overage rates for different products?​

Yes, each product can have unique metered resources and overage pricing.

How are customers notified about usage?​

Customers can view their current usage in their dashboard and receive optional notifications when approaching or exceeding limits.

How is AI token usage priced?​

AI token usage is priced from the model's configured input and output rates per 1 million tokens. Metered Plans multiplies each request's prompt and completion token counts by those rates, adds the result to the customer's current billing-period AI spend, and applies the plan's allowance or overage rules.

How do I sell AI usage to customers?​

Create a plan with an included AI Usage allowance, configure model rates, and set the AI Usage Overage Markup. Use 1.0 for pass-through cost recovery or a higher multiplier such as 1.5 to add margin. See AI Usage Metering for the full setup and launch checklist.

Can I still use hard limits?​

Yes, metered billing is optional per product. You can mix traditional hard-limit products with metered products.