Polar Products & Pricing

Polar Products & Pricing

Product management, pricing models, and usage-based billing.

Billing Cycles

Options:

• One-time: Charged once, forever access
• Monthly: Charged every month
• Yearly: Charged every year

Important: Cannot change after product creation

Pricing Types

Fixed Price: Set amount Pay What You Want: Customer decides (optional minimum) Free: No charge

Important: Cannot change after product creation

Advanced Pricing Models

Seat-Based Pricing

• Team access with assignable seats
• Works for recurring or one-time
• Tiered pricing structures
• Customer manages seat assignments

Configuration:

const product = await polar.products.create({
  name: "Team Plan",
  prices: [{
    type: "recurring",
    recurring_interval: "month",
    price_amount: 5000, // per seat
    pricing_type: "fixed"
  }],
  is_seat_based: true,
  max_seats: 100
});

Usage-Based Billing

Architecture: Events → Meters → Metered Prices

1. Events: Usage data from your application

await polar.events.create({
  external_customer_id: "user_123",
  event_name: "api_call",
  properties: {
    tokens: 1000,
    model: "gpt-4"
  }
});

2. Meters: Filter & aggregate events

const meter = await polar.meters.create({
  name: "API Tokens",
  slug: "api_tokens",
  event_name: "api_call",
  aggregation: {
    type: "sum",
    property: "tokens"
  }
});

3. Metered Prices: Billing based on usage

const price = await polar.products.createPrice(productId, {
  type: "metered",
  meter_id: meter.id,
  price_per_unit: 10, // 10 cents per 1000 tokens
  billing_interval: "month"
});

Credits System:

• Pre-purchased usage credits
• Credit customer's meter balance
• Use as subscription benefit
• Balance tracking API

Ingestion Strategies:

• LLM Strategy: AI/ML tracking
• S3 Strategy: Bulk import
• Stream Strategy: Real-time
• Delta Time Strategy: Time-based

Product Features

Metadata

const product = await polar.products.create({
  name: "Pro Plan",
  metadata: {
    feature_x: "enabled",
    tier: "pro",
    custom_field: "value"
  }
});

Custom Fields

const product = await polar.products.create({
  name: "Enterprise Plan",
  custom_fields: [
    {
      slug: "company_name",
      label: "Company Name",
      type: "text",
      required: true
    },
    {
      slug: "employees",
      label: "Number of Employees",
      type: "number"
    }
  ]
});

Data collected at checkout, accessible via Orders/Subscriptions API in custom_field_data.

Trials

• Set on recurring products
• Customer not charged during trial
• Benefits granted immediately
• Configure at product or checkout level

const product = await polar.products.create({
  name: "Pro Plan",
  prices: [{
    type: "recurring",
    recurring_interval: "month",
    price_amount: 2000,
    trial_period_days: 14
  }]
});

Product Operations

Create Product

const product = await polar.products.create({
  organization_id: "org_xxx",
  name: "Pro Plan",
  description: "Professional features",
  prices: [{
    type: "recurring",
    recurring_interval: "month",
    price_amount: 2000,
    pricing_type: "fixed"
  }]
});

List Products

const products = await polar.products.list({
  organization_id: "org_xxx",
  is_archived: false
});

Update Product

const product = await polar.products.update(productId, {
  name: "Pro Plan Updated",
  description: "New description"
});

Archive Product

await polar.products.archive(productId);
// Products can be unarchived later
// Cannot be deleted (maintains order history)

Update Benefits

await polar.products.updateBenefits(productId, {
  benefits: [benefitId1, benefitId2]
});

Important Constraints

1. Cannot change after creation:

   • Billing cycle (one-time, monthly, yearly)
   • Pricing type (fixed, pay-what-you-want, free)

2. Price changes don't affect existing subscribers:

   • Current subscribers keep their original price
   • New subscribers get new price
   • Use separate products for significant changes

3. Products cannot be deleted:

   • Archive instead
   • Maintains order history integrity
   • Archived products not shown to new customers

4. Metadata vs Custom Fields:

   • Metadata: For internal use, not shown to customers
   • Custom Fields: Collected from customers at checkout

Best Practices

1. Product Strategy:

   • Plan billing cycle carefully before creation
   • Use separate products for different tiers
   • Archive unused products rather than delete

2. Pricing Changes:

   • Create new product for major changes
   • Grandfather existing customers
   • Communicate changes clearly

3. Usage-Based:

   • Define clear meter aggregations
   • Set appropriate billing intervals
   • Monitor usage patterns
   • Provide usage dashboards to customers

4. Custom Fields:

   • Collect only necessary information
   • Validate on frontend before checkout
   • Use for personalization and support

5. Trials:

   • Set appropriate trial duration
   • Communicate trial end clearly
   • Notify before trial expires
   • Easy cancellation during trial