Plans And Features Best Practices

Plans and Features

Define your billing structure in code with PayKit's schema DSL.

Features

A feature is a capability that a plan grants. Two types:

Boolean Features

On/off access. Either the customer has it or doesn't.

import { feature } from "paykitjs"

const customBranding = feature({ id: "custom_branding", type: "boolean" })
const prioritySupport = feature({ id: "priority_support", type: "boolean" })

Metered Features

Tracked usage with a limit that resets on an interval.

const messages = feature({ id: "messages", type: "metered" })
const apiCalls = feature({ id: "api_calls", type: "metered" })
const storage = feature({ id: "storage_gb", type: "metered" })

Metered features require limit and reset when included in a plan.

Feature ID rules: lowercase alphanumeric with _ and -, 1-64 characters.

Plans

A plan bundles features together with optional pricing.

import { plan } from "paykitjs"

const free = plan({
  id: "free",
  group: "base",
  default: true,
  includes: [
    messages({ limit: 100, reset: "month" }),
    apiCalls({ limit: 1_000, reset: "month" }),
  ],
})

const pro = plan({
  id: "pro",
  group: "base",
  price: { amount: 29, interval: "month" },
  includes: [
    messages({ limit: 5_000, reset: "month" }),
    apiCalls({ limit: 50_000, reset: "month" }),
    customBranding(),
    prioritySupport(),
  ],
})

const enterprise = plan({
  id: "enterprise",
  group: "base",
  price: { amount: 99, interval: "month" },
  includes: [
    messages({ limit: 100_000, reset: "month" }),
    apiCalls({ limit: 1_000_000, reset: "month" }),
    customBranding(),
    prioritySupport(),
  ],
})

Plan Options

Pricing

price: { amount: 19, interval: "month" }
price: { amount: 190, interval: "year" }

amount is in the provider's default currency unit (dollars for USD). Max: $999,999.99.

interval: "month" or "year".

Plan Groups

Plans in the same group are mutually exclusive. A customer can only hold one active plan per group at a time. Switching between plans in the same group triggers upgrade/downgrade logic automatically.

// These three plans are mutually exclusive
const free = plan({ id: "free", group: "base", default: true, ... })
const pro = plan({ id: "pro", group: "base", ... })
const enterprise = plan({ id: "enterprise", group: "base", ... })

Default plan: One plan per group can be default: true. New customers are auto-subscribed to it on upsertCustomer.

Feature Reset Intervals

For metered features, reset determines when usage resets:

Reset is lazy. It happens on the next check() or report() call after the reset time passes.

Including Features in Plans

Boolean features take no arguments:

includes: [customBranding(), prioritySupport()]

Metered features require limit and reset:

includes: [messages({ limit: 5_000, reset: "month" })]

The same feature can have different limits across plans:

const free = plan({
  id: "free",
  includes: [messages({ limit: 100, reset: "month" })],
})

const pro = plan({
  id: "pro",
  includes: [messages({ limit: 5_000, reset: "month" })],
})

Passing Plans to PayKit

export const paykit = createPayKit({
  // ...
  plans: [free, pro, enterprise],
})

After changing plans, run npx paykitjs push to sync to the database and Stripe.

Type Inference

Plan and feature IDs are inferred as literal types:

type PlanId = typeof paykit.$infer.planId
// "free" | "pro" | "enterprise"

type FeatureId = typeof paykit.$infer.featureId
// "messages" | "api_calls" | "custom_branding" | "priority_support"

These types flow through to subscribe(), check(), report(), and the client SDK.

Common Billing Models

SaaS with tiers

const free = plan({ id: "free", group: "main", default: true, includes: [...] })
const pro = plan({ id: "pro", group: "main", price: { amount: 29, interval: "month" }, includes: [...] })

Usage-based (AI, API)

const tokens = feature({ id: "tokens", type: "metered" })
const starter = plan({
  id: "starter", group: "main", default: true,
  includes: [tokens({ limit: 10_000, reset: "month" })],
})
const growth = plan({
  id: "growth", group: "main",
  price: { amount: 49, interval: "month" },
  includes: [tokens({ limit: 100_000, reset: "month" })],
})

Feature-gated

const analytics = feature({ id: "analytics", type: "boolean" })
const sso = feature({ id: "sso", type: "boolean" })
const basic = plan({ id: "basic", group: "main", default: true, includes: [] })
const business = plan({
  id: "business", group: "main",
  price: { amount: 79, interval: "month" },
  includes: [analytics(), sso()],
})