Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems · 课时

实现按比例计费与计量计费

了解并应用周期中途变更时的按比例计费，并为基于用量的订阅模式设置计量计费。

实现按比例计费与计量计费 是 CoddyKit 上的免费 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课时。这是第 2 节课，共 4 节。你可以在下方免费阅读本课时的完整内容 — 然后在浏览器中使用内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师进行实践。这是 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 学习路径的一部分，你的进度在网页和 CoddyKit 应用中同步。 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课程共包含 4 节课。

本课时的部分内容尚未翻译，以英文显示。

Flexible Billing: Intro

Welcome to advanced subscription features! Many businesses need more flexible billing than just a fixed monthly or yearly fee.

Today, we'll dive into two powerful concepts: prorations and metered billing. These allow you to handle mid-cycle changes and usage-based pricing with ease.

What are Prorations?

Imagine a customer upgrades their subscription plan halfway through their billing cycle. What happens to the money they already paid for the cheaper plan?

Proration is the process of proportionally adjusting charges when a subscription changes mid-cycle. Stripe automatically calculates this for you.

Credit: For the unused portion of the old plan.
Charge: For the new plan's usage up to the end of the current cycle.

Stripe's Proration Logic

When you modify a subscription in Stripe (e.g., changing the price or quantity of a subscription item), Stripe automatically calculates the proration.

It creates line items on the customer's invoice: a credit for the unused time on the old plan and a charge for the new plan from the change date to the end of the current billing period.

This ensures fairness and accuracy for both you and your customers.

Implementing Prorated Changes

When updating a subscription via the Stripe API, prorations are typically handled by default. You can also explicitly control this behavior using the proration_behavior parameter.

CREATE_PRORATIONS ensures that proration items are added to the invoice immediately or at the end of the cycle.

Try running this conceptual Java code:

import com.stripe.Stripe;
import com.stripe.param.SubscriptionUpdateParams;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // In a real app, you'd set Stripe.apiKey and handle exceptions.
    // This snippet focuses on the update parameters.

    String subscriptionItemId = "si_EXISTING_ITEM_ID";
    String newPriceId = "price_NEW_PLAN_ID";

    SubscriptionUpdateParams params =
      SubscriptionUpdateParams.builder()
        .addItem(
          SubscriptionUpdateParams.Item.builder()
            .setId(subscriptionItemId) // ID of the existing subscription item
            .setPrice(newPriceId)     // The new price for the subscription
            .build()
        )
        .setProrationBehavior(SubscriptionUpdateParams.ProrationBehavior.CREATE_PRORATIONS)
        .build();

    System.out.println("Subscription update parameters created:");
    System.out.println("- New Price ID: " + newPriceId);
    System.out.println("- Proration Behavior: CREATE_PRORATIONS");
    System.out.println("Stripe will automatically calculate and apply prorations.");
  }
}

What is Metered Billing?

Metered billing (or usage-based billing) charges customers based on how much of a service they actually use, rather than a fixed amount.

Think of utility bills (electricity, water) or cloud services (data storage, API calls). Customers only pay for what they consume.

Examples: API requests, GB of storage, minutes of video streaming, number of active users.

Setting Up Metered Products

To implement metered billing, you first need to define a Product and a Price in Stripe with a usage_type set to metered.

This tells Stripe that the quantity for this price will be reported by your application, not fixed at subscription creation.

You'll also define the billing scheme (e.g., per_unit or tiered) and optional aggregation method.

Reporting Usage to Stripe

For metered billing, your application needs to track customer usage and report it to Stripe periodically, usually as it occurs or at regular intervals (e.g., daily).

This is done using the Usage Record API. You report the quantity of usage for a specific subscription_item.

Here's a conceptual Java example:

import com.stripe.Stripe;
import com.stripe.param.UsageRecordCreateParams;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // In a real app, you'd set Stripe.apiKey and handle exceptions.
    // This snippet focuses on creating a usage record.

    String subscriptionItemId = "si_METERED_ITEM_ID"; // The ID of the metered subscription item
    long quantityUsed = 10L; // The amount of usage to report

    UsageRecordCreateParams params =
      UsageRecordCreateParams.builder()
        .setQuantity(quantityUsed)
        .setTimestamp(System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L) // Current time in seconds since epoch
        .setAction(UsageRecordCreateParams.Action.INCREMENT) // Add to existing usage
        .build();

    System.out.println("Usage record creation parameters created:");
    System.out.println("- Subscription Item ID: " + subscriptionItemId);
    System.out.println("- Quantity Reported: " + quantityUsed);
    System.out.println("- Action: INCREMENT (adds to previous usage)");
    System.out.println("This usage will be billed at the end of the current billing cycle.");
  }
}

How Metered Usage is Billed

Stripe aggregates all usage records reported for a specific metered subscription item within a billing period.

At the end of the billing cycle (or when an invoice is finalized), Stripe calculates the total usage and applies the corresponding price, adding it to the customer's invoice.

You can define how usage is aggregated (e.g., sum, last_ever, max) when creating the price.

Prorations vs. Metered: Recap

It's important to distinguish between prorations and metered billing:

Prorations: Adjust charges for changes to fixed-price subscription items mid-cycle (e.g., upgrading from Basic to Pro plan).
Metered Billing: Charges based on actual consumption of a service, with usage reported over time (e.g., paying per API call or GB of data).

Both offer powerful ways to make your billing more flexible and customer-friendly.

Quick Check: Flexible Billing

Which of the following scenarios would typically involve metered billing in Stripe?

Recap: Prorations & Metered

Great job! You've learned how to handle flexible billing scenarios with Stripe:

Prorations: Automatically adjust charges when subscriptions change mid-cycle, ensuring fair billing.
Metered Billing: Charge customers based on their actual consumption, requiring you to report usage via the Stripe API.

These features are crucial for building dynamic and scalable SaaS platforms. Keep exploring to master more advanced Stripe capabilities!

常见问题解答

「实现按比例计费与计量计费」课时是免费的吗？

是的 — 「实现按比例计费与计量计费」的完整文本可在网页上免费阅读。要进行交互式练习（内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师）并解锁 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课程的其余内容，请升级到 CoddyKit PRO。 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课程共包含 4 节课。

「实现按比例计费与计量计费」这节课中我会学到什么？

了解并应用周期中途变更时的按比例计费，并为基于用量的订阅模式设置计量计费。你通过在浏览器中直接运行的动手代码来练习 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems，全天候 AI 导师会在你学习这节课的过程中回答你的问题。

学习 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 需要有经验吗？

无需任何先前经验。CoddyKit 上的 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课程适合初学者到高级学习者，你可以从这里开始或从头开始，按照自己的节奏学习。这是第 2 节课，共 4 节。

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大多数 CoddyKit 课程大约需要 5–10 分钟。每节课都很精短且互动，所以你能稳步进步，并在网页和应用中从离开的地方继续。

我能在这节 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课中编写并运行代码吗？

能。每节 Stripe Payments & SaaS Billing Systems 课都包含内置代码编辑器，你可以在浏览器中直接编写并运行真实代码，并获得即时 AI 反馈 — 无需本地设置。

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