AI Tool

Lago Review

Lago is an open-source, API-first billing platform designed for usage-based billing and complex pricing models.

shipped Sep 21, 2026voicepaid

Domain rating69

voicecode

Why it matters

1Supports real-time usage metering for metrics like API calls, tokens, and GPUs.

2Offers an Agent SDK to normalize LLM usage data into billing events.

3Provides SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, SSO, and RBAC for enterprise security.

4Features AI-powered billing intelligence and AI assistants for financial analysis.

Specs

API Docs

View Documentation →

GitHub

View Repository →

API Available

Yes, public API

overview

What is Lago?

Lago is an open-source, API-first billing tool that enables businesses with complex and hybrid pricing models to manage subscriptions, meter usage, generate invoices, process payments, and analyze revenue. It is particularly suited for SaaS, API, infrastructure, and AI sectors, offering granular control over metering, invoicing, and subscription management.

features

Key Features of Lago

Lago provides a comprehensive billing infrastructure with functionalities designed for modern, flexible pricing strategies. Its core features address the entire billing lifecycle from usage tracking to revenue analysis.

Usage Metering: Real-time tracking of consumption for metrics such as API calls, transactions, active users, storage, compute, tokens, and model calls, capable of handling hundreds of thousands of events per second.
Billing & Invoicing: Automated generation and sending of multi-currency invoices.
Prepaid Credits and Wallets: Management of customer prepaid credits and wallets for alternative payment methods.
Entitlements: Direct management of customer entitlements within the billing system.
Cash Collection: Flexible cash collection capabilities for various billing models.
Revenue Analytics: Provision of trustworthy revenue analytics across different income streams.
Flexible Pricing Plans: Creation of recurring, pay-as-you-go, or hybrid models, including coupons, discounts, and add-ons.
Lago AI: AI-powered billing intelligence, connecting AI tools, automating operations, and providing insights.
Lago Embedded: White-label billing solution for integration into other platforms.
Integrations: Connectivity with platforms like OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and Google Gemini.

use cases

Who Should Use Lago?

Lago is designed for organizations requiring robust and flexible billing solutions, particularly those with complex or usage-based pricing models across various industries.

AI Companies: To bill tokens, GPUs, credits, and manage hybrid models for AI products, with an Agent SDK for LLM usage normalization.
Enterprise Businesses: For complex billing requirements with full compliance control, including SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.
Fintechs & Banks: To implement real-time, flexible, and auditable billing infrastructure.
IoT & Telco Providers: To handle complex metering and device-level billing for high-volume data.
Engineering Teams: To avoid building billing infrastructure from scratch, leveraging API-first design and open-source control.
Finance & Operations Teams: To automate accurate invoicing, manage revenue recognition, and centralize invoice data.

how to use

How to Use Lago

Lago provides an API-first approach for integration into existing systems, allowing developers to manage billing programmatically. It supports self-hosted deployment for full control over the billing stack.

1Integrate Lago's API into your product to send usage events.
2Define pricing plans and billing models within the Lago platform.
3Utilize the Agent SDK to collect and normalize usage data from LLMs or AI gateways.
4Generate invoices and manage subscriptions through the platform's interface or API.
5Leverage Lago AI for billing intelligence, revenue forecasting, and financial reporting.
6Deploy Lago self-hosted for complete control over your billing infrastructure.

pricing

Lago Pricing & Plans

Lago operates on a paid model, offering an open-source core that can be self-hosted. Specific pricing details for its premium features or managed services are not publicly disclosed but are available upon inquiry.

Open-source core: Free to use and self-host, providing transparency and control.
Paid plans: Available for advanced features, managed services, and enterprise-grade support, with pricing details provided upon contact.

Pros

+Open-source core provides full control over the billing stack and allows for customization.
+API-first design and clear documentation are developer-friendly, facilitating integration.
+Supports complex and hybrid pricing models, including usage-based billing for AI workloads.
+Real-time usage metering engine handles hundreds of thousands of events per second.
+Includes AI-powered billing intelligence, AI assistants, and an Agent SDK for LLM usage.
+SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ensuring secure data handling and enterprise readiness.

Cons

−May have a learning curve and less smooth onboarding for non-technical users.
−Leveraging its open-source nature requires technical skills and resources.
−Transparency about pricing and licensing for premium versions can be inconsistent.
−Limited payment gateway options compared to some competitors may restrict regional targeting.

Policies

Pricing Page

View Pricing→

Similar Tools

Lago vs Competitors

Lago distinguishes itself in the billing platform market through its open-source, API-first design, and specific focus on complex, usage-based, and AI-centric billing models.

Flexprice↗

Offers an open-source billing core with self-hosting instructions and a managed option, supporting various pricing models including credits-native.

Similar to Lago in its open-source, API-first approach, Flexprice also provides a managed cloud option for those who want to offload infrastructure, offering a comparable open-source path.

OpenMeterOn Stork

Focuses specifically on open-source usage metering and entitlements, designed for companies that already have payment and invoicing systems.

Unlike Lago which offers a full billing platform, OpenMeter deliberately focuses on precise, high-volume usage metering and entitlements, requiring users to integrate with separate billing and invoicing systems.

Kill Bill↗

A mature, robust, Java-based open-source billing and payments platform supporting a wide range of billing models, including usage-based.

Kill Bill is a more established and comprehensive open-source platform, potentially offering deeper feature sets for complex billing and payment scenarios, but might have a steeper learning curve or require more operational overhead than Lago's more modern, API-first focus.

Meteroid↗

Built in Rust for high-performance event processing, specifically designed for IaaS, PaaS, and AI-driven SaaS requiring multi-dimensional usage-based models and processing millions of events per second.

Meteroid excels in high-volume, real-time event processing and multi-dimensional usage aggregation, potentially offering superior performance for extremely high-throughput scenarios compared to Lago, but might be newer or have a smaller community.

See every Lago alternative, compared→