About OpenMeter
OpenMeter is open-source monetization infrastructure for AI, API, and other usage-based products. It collects and aggregates high-volume usage events in real time, enforces access based on usage, and handles usage-based billing from pricing and subscriptions to credits and invoices. It is written in Go, uses ClickHouse and Kafka, and is released under the Apache-2.0 license.
The design is API-first and composable: it can own the entire path from raw usage to invoice, or only the pieces your stack lacks, and it works with payment and tax providers you already use, such as Stripe. The README describes it as best suited to products with usage-based or hybrid pricing, prepaid credits, or usage limits.
Documentation includes a quickstart and an API reference. OpenMeter suits product, finance, and platform engineers who need accurate metering and billing without building it from scratch, and who want to keep the billing stack under their control. A managed cloud version is offered by the project.
Key features
- Real-time usage event aggregation
- Usage-based billing and invoicing
- Prepaid credits and subscriptions
- Access enforcement based on usage
- Stripe and other provider integrations
- API-first, composable design
Good fit for
- →Billing AI products by token or request usage
- →Enforcing usage limits on API customers
- Tags
- metering
- usage-based-billing
- billing
- clickhouse
- kafka
- stripe
- finops
- go
OpenMeter: questions and answers
- What is OpenMeter used for?
- OpenMeter is an open-source usage metering and billing infrastructure that turns high-volume events into real-time usage, access limits, and usage-based invoices for AI and API products. It is a good fit for billing AI products by token or request usage and enforcing usage limits on API customers.
- Is OpenMeter open source?
- Yes. OpenMeter is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at openmeterio/openmeter and is written mainly in Go.
- Is OpenMeter free?
- Yes. OpenMeter is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
- Can I self-host OpenMeter?
- Yes. OpenMeter can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is OpenMeter an alternative to?
- OpenMeter is an open-source alternative to Chargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing and Zuora. Other open-source alternatives to Chargebee include Flexprice, Lago and Meteroid.
- Is OpenMeter actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to OpenMeter was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.0.0-beta.235, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 2.4k stars on GitHub.
Open-source alternatives to OpenMeter
See all
Flexprice
Finance & Accounting
Usage-based pricing and billing for developers 🔓 Cloud or self-hosted ⚙️ No-code UI 💰 Re
AGPL-3.0vs Stripe Billing★ 6.9k
Lago
Finance & Accounting
Open-source billing for usage, subscriptions and hybrid pricing. Lago customers include Co
AGPL-3.0vs Chargebee★ 11k
Meteroid
Finance & Accounting
Open-source Pricing and Billing Infrastructure 🚀 Subscription management, Invoicing, Pric
AGPL-3.0vs Chargebee★ 1.2k
Kill Bill
Finance & Accounting
Open-Source Subscription Billing & Payments Platform
Apache-2.0vs Chargebee★ 5.8k
Polar
Finance & Accounting
Polar — A billing platform for the intelligence era
Apache-2.0vs Lemon Squeezy★ 10k
Invoice Ninja
Finance & Accounting
A source-available invoice, quote, project and time-tracking app built with Laravel
OSSvs FreshBooks★ 10k
SaaS alternatives to OpenMeter
See all
Chargebee
Finance & Accounting
Subscription billing and revenue management platform
SaaS
Recurly
Finance & Accounting
Subscription billing and churn management for recurring revenue
SaaS
Stripe Billing
Finance & Accounting
Subscription billing, invoicing and revenue recovery built on Stripe payments
SaaS
Zuora
Finance & Accounting
Enterprise subscription billing and revenue recognition
SaaS
Orb
Finance & Accounting
Usage-based billing platform for metered and subscription pricing
SaaS
Metronome
Finance & Accounting
Usage-based billing platform for metered pricing, acquired by Stripe
SaaS

