Ship the Feature—Let the User Pay the Tokens
Every time your user presses 'Generate,' you pay a tiny invoice. Here's why you should stop gambling on token costs and start building features that forward the cost where it belongs.
Published on 2025-09-11 by Fred
1. SaaS Muscle Memory vs. LLM Physics
Ask any indie hacker how to price a new SaaS and you'll get the same muscle-memory answer: pick a monthly plan, sprinkle a free tier, iterate later. That worked when hosting was pennies. Then LLMs arrived. Every time your user presses "Generate," you pay a tiny invoice—instantly, irreversibly. Multiply that by thousands of curious free-plan clicks and the Old SaaS Playbook turns into a silent cash incinerator.
I watched it happen at my last job. We were building an AI coding assistant, growing nicely, and burning through five-figure euros every month in Anthropic/OpenAI calls. Revenue? Rounding error. Management kept hoping "token prices will drop" or "once we nail PMF the spend won't matter." Spoiler: neither happened.
2. The Token-Efficiency Rabbit Hole
As lead AI engineer, I did what engineers do:
| Tactic | Result |
|---|---|
| Swap gpt-3.5 for chit-chat, GPT-4 for code | ≈ 40% fewer tokens |
| Context trimming & log pruning | ≈ 30% fewer tokens |
| Prompt surgery | minor savings, major headaches |
Charts looked nicer. Finance still hated me. Optimization is great—if you're not the one paying every prompt.
3. The Micro-Invoice Rule
If a user generates the tokens, the user should also generate the invoice.
That one sentence is why Replit, Cursor, Bolt, and half of VC-Twitter eventually pivot to usage-based pricing. The problem? There's no Stripe-easy drop-in for LLM metering, promo caps, or bring-your-own-key. Every founder hacks a half-solution and prays their edge cases are cheap.
4. My Wrong Turn—Codermodel
When I left that startup, my first instinct was more optimization. I shipped Codermodel.com—a gateway that shrank request context on the fly. Cool demo, microscopic audience. A dozen sign-ups kicked the tires; nobody shipped traffic. I'd built aspirin for a headache only three teams even noticed.
5. The Weekend Hack That Stuck
What builders really need is peace of mind:
- OAuth login → identify the user
- User tops up credits (1 credit ≈ $1) or connects their own OpenAI key
- Optional promo-credit bucket (e.g. $0.50) that self-caps
I already had proxy code and Stripe hooks from Codermodel, so one weekend I stapled them together. Monday morning I could finally push a feature without worrying if the next TikTok thread would bankrupt me.
That prototype became AI@YourService.
6. Three Lessons You Don't Need to Pay Five Figures to Learn
- Start usage-based day one. You'll end up there anyway—better to look smart than desperate.
- Cap promo credits. Give users a taste, not your runway.
- Separate your SaaS fee from token spend. Predictable margin + transparent usage beats guesswork every time.
7. Want Proof?
Open our App Agent Template demo, try the agent features, and watch credits tick down your balance—not mine. That's the point. I get to keep shipping; you pay only for what you consume.
8. Ready to Forward the Cost and Keep Building?
I'm opening a limited beta:
- Growth-tier features free for the first 50 projects
- Drop-in proxy URL, no metering code
- BYO key support for security-obsessed teams
👉 Grab access → AI@YourService
Stop gambling on token invoices—ship faster, sleep better.
Fred — indie hacker, prompt-invoice abolitionist.