Use Case · NeoCloud and Infrastructure

Usage-Based Billing for Cloud and GPU Providers

Bill GPU hours, compute, storage, bandwidth and API calls from raw usage, next to reserved capacity, prepaid credits and reseller accounts.

Kill Bill (open source): plans, invoices, resellers, paymentsAviate (enterprise): metering, prepaid credits, monitoring

Last updated: October 2026

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How a cloud or GPU provider is billed with Kill Bill and Aviate: GPU hours, storage, egress and API calls are sent as usage events to Aviate Metering. Each billing meter aggregates its events per billing period, with SUM for GPU hours, egress and API calls, and MAX for storage. Usage plans price each meter, Kill Bill invoices each customer account, and a reseller can pay one summary invoice for its customers. Your platform GPU hours storage GB egress GB API calls events Aviate Metering gpu_hours SUM storage_gb MAX egress_gb SUM api_calls SUM Kill Bill usage plans price each meter one invoice per customer account Reseller (optional) parent account pays a daily summary invoice for its customer accounts hierarchical accounts
Illustration: four resources, four billing meters, one invoice per customer, and an optional reseller.
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Short answer

How do you bill a cloud, GPU or neocloud service by usage?

Send usage events for each resource to Aviate Metering. A billing meter per resource aggregates them per billing period, for example the sum of GPU hours or the maximum storage used, and a usage plan prices each meter. Kill Bill invoices usage in arrears, next to any reserved-capacity fee, and can bill a reseller for its customer accounts. Kill Bill is open source. Metering and Aviate Wallet for prepaid credits are part of Aviate, its enterprise offering.
Kill Bill and Aviate

Who Does What for Cloud Billing

Aviate runs on top of Kill Bill. With Aviate, you keep everything in the left column and add the right one.
Kill Bill

Open source, Apache 2.0. Free, installed and run by you, without support or SLA.

  • Catalog: reserved-capacity plans, usage prices, tiersNew catalog versions through the API
  • Subscriptions and invoicesRecurring fees in advance, usage in arrears
  • Usage records you send per subscriptionSummed per period (CONSUMABLE), or priced by the tier the peak reaches (CAPACITY)
  • Hierarchical accountsA reseller pays a summary invoice for its customers
  • Multi-tenancy and horizontal scalingSeveral tenants per deployment, stateless nodes
  • Payments through gateway plugins, REST API, push notifications
Aviate

The enterprise offering of Kill Bill. Licensed, with Level 3 support from the engineers.

  • Aviate MeteringRaw usage events, billing meters with SUM, COUNT, UNIQUE_COUNT, LATEST or MAX
  • Safe event ingestionBatches of events, retries made safe by trackingId
  • Aviate WalletPrepaid and free credits, automatic top-off, expiration
  • Catalog UICreate usage plans and billing meters without editing XML
  • Aviate HealthQueues, logs, HTTP responses, database pools

Features specific to one edition are tagged Kill Bill or Aviate. Untagged items apply to both.

At a Glance

Cloud Billing at a Glance

Resources
GPU and compute hours, tokens, storage, bandwidth, API calls, or any unit you send as a usage event
Aggregation
Per billing meter: SUM, COUNT, UNIQUE_COUNT, LATEST or MAX
Prices
Flat or tiered prices per block of units
Reserved plus on-demand
A recurring plan and a usage plan, on the same invoice with the account billing cycle
Prepaid credits
Aviate Wallet: paid or free credits, automatic top-off, optional expiration
Resellers
Hierarchical accounts: the parent pays a daily summary invoice for its children
Scale
Stateless nodes behind a load balancer, several tenants per deployment
Open source or Aviate
Kill Bill open source bills usage records you send per subscription. Aviate adds billing meters on raw events, safe batch ingestion, the wallet and Aviate Health
Pricing Models

Cloud Pricing Models and How to Set Them Up

How cloud and GPU providers usually charge, and the Kill Bill and Aviate features behind each model.
Pricing modelExampleHow to set it upEdition
GPU or compute hoursBilled per hour of GPU timeA billing meter that sums the hours, priced per block in a usage planAviate
StorageGB stored during the monthA billing meter that keeps the maximum (MAX) or the latest value (LATEST)Aviate
BandwidthGB of egressA billing meter that sums the GBAviate
API callsPer 1,000 callsA billing meter that sums the call counts you send (SUM), or counts the events (COUNT) if you send one event per callAviate
Volume tiersA lower price above a thresholdTiered prices in the usage planKill Bill
Reserved capacity plus on-demandA monthly commitment, usage on topA recurring plan and a usage plan for the same customer. CatalogKill Bill
Prepaid creditsCredits bought upfrontAviate Wallet with paid credits and automatic top-off. Prepaid creditsAviate
ResellersA partner pays for its customersHierarchical accounts: the parent pays a daily summary invoiceKill Bill
With Kill Bill alone, send usage records per subscription through the usage API: Kill Bill sums them per period (CONSUMABLE) or uses the peak (CAPACITY).
Worked Example

A Reseller Paying for Two Customers

A reseller with two customer accounts, on the demo Cloud Platform catalog. The customers use the service, the reseller pays.
Illustration Illustration of hierarchical accounts: the parent account Reseller Co has two child accounts. Customer A is on Growth monthly at 199 dollars and used 10 GPU hours at 2.50 dollars, 224 dollars in total. Customer B is on Starter monthly at 49 dollars. Payment is delegated to the parent, which receives a summary invoice of 273 dollars. Reseller Co parent account, pays Customer A Growth monthly: $199.00 10 GPU hours at $2.50: $25.00 $224.00 Customer B Starter monthly: $49.00 $49.00 Parent summary invoice: $273.00
Demo prices. The GPU price is an example.
Illustration, not a screenshot
Reseller CoDaily summary invoice
Payment delegatedby both customers
ItemAmount
Customer A
Growth monthly $199.00, GPU hours $25.00		$224.00
Customer B
Starter monthly $49.00		$49.00
Amount due by the reseller$273.00
The customers still get their own invoices, but payment collection is skipped for them: the parent pays the summary.
In the Product

Billing Meters in Aviate and the API

A storage meter that keeps the peak value of the month, and the shape of the usage events your platform sends.
Aviate billing meter
Add new billing meter form in the Aviate catalog: name Storage GB, code storage-gb, aggregation type MAX.
A billing meter for storage, with the MAX aggregation. The other choices are SUM, COUNT, UNIQUE_COUNT and LATEST.
Aviate Metering usage events
POST /plugins/aviate-plugin/v1/metering/billing/{accountId}
[
  {
    "billingMeterCode": "api_calls",
    "subscriptionId": "f3b2a1d4-c5e6-7890-abcd-123456789abc",
    "trackingId": "batch-2026-02-14-001",
    "timestamp": "2026-02-14T10:00:00Z",
    "value": 150
  }
]
Example from the Aviate Metering guide. Events go in batches, with ascending timestamps. Resending an event with the same trackingId is safe.

Screenshot from a test environment.

Capabilities

Features for Cloud Billing

Aviate
Meter Every Resource
Create a billing meter for each resource you charge for: GPU hours, compute, storage, bandwidth, API calls, or any unit.
Usage metering →
Aviate
Pick the Right Aggregation
Each meter aggregates its events per billing period: SUM, COUNT, UNIQUE_COUNT, LATEST or MAX. Sum the GPU hours, keep the peak storage.
Metering guide →
Kill Bill
Reserved Capacity Plus On-Demand
Sell a monthly commitment with a recurring plan, and bill what customers use on top with a usage plan.
Usage billing guide →
Aviate
Prepaid Credits
Sell credits upfront, top them off automatically below a threshold, and let them expire.
Prepaid credits →
Kill Bill
Resellers and Sub-Accounts
Make each customer a child account of a reseller. The reseller pays one daily summary invoice for all its customers.
Hierarchical accounts →
Kill Bill
Scale Out and Multi-Tenant
Add stateless nodes as the load grows. Run several brands or regions as tenants of one deployment.
Features →
How It Works

Set Up Cloud Billing in Three Steps

1
Define Meters and Plans
Create a usage plan with its prices and a recurring plan for reserved capacity. With Aviate, add a billing meter per resource with the right aggregation.
2
Send Usage Events
From your scheduler, gateway or monitoring pipeline, send GPU time, storage, egress or API calls to Aviate Metering. With Kill Bill alone, send usage records through the usage API.
3
Invoice and Collect
Kill Bill invoices the reserved fee in advance and the usage at the end of the period, uses Aviate Wallet credits if any, and collects from the customer or from its reseller.
Why Kill Bill

Why Use Kill Bill for Cloud Billing

Kill Bill
Open Source Core
Kill Bill is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. Bring your own gateways, analytics and integrations.
Usage Data Stays With You
Deploy on your own infrastructure. Usage, invoices and payments live in your database.
Kill Bill
Any Payment Gateway
Collect with Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, Hyperswitch or your own gateway through payment plugins.
Plugins →
In Production Since 2010
Deployments on the platform have invoiced billions of dollars since 2010.
FAQs

Cloud Billing FAQ

How do I bill GPU hours?
Send the GPU time of each job or instance as usage events to Aviate Metering, on a billing meter that sums the hours. Price the meter in a usage plan, per hour or per block of hours. Kill Bill invoices the total at the end of each billing period. With Kill Bill open source, send the hours as usage records through the usage API instead.
Can I bill GPU usage per second or per minute?
Yes. Send GPU seconds as the event value and price the meter per block of units, for example per block of 60 seconds for a per-minute price, or 3,600 seconds for a per-hour price.
How do I bill storage that goes up and down during the month?
Use a billing meter that keeps the maximum (MAX) or the latest value (LATEST) of the period instead of a sum. With Kill Bill open source, you can also record pre-aggregated values and use CAPACITY usage, billed on the maximum value seen over the period.
Can I combine reserved capacity with on-demand usage?
Yes. The customer has a recurring plan for the reserved capacity and a usage plan for what they consume on top. With the account billing cycle, both appear on the same invoice: the reserved fee billed in advance, the usage billed in arrears.
Can a reseller pay for its customers' usage?
Yes, with hierarchical accounts in Kill Bill. Each customer is a child account of the reseller. When payment is delegated to the parent, Kill Bill adds the children's invoice items to a daily summary invoice for the parent, and the parent pays it.
Can I sell prepaid cloud credits?
Yes, with Aviate Wallet. Customers buy credits, which Kill Bill invoices and collects, and the credits pay for usage invoices. The wallet can top off automatically below a threshold you set, and credits can expire.
How does Kill Bill handle high usage volume?
Kill Bill runs as stateless nodes behind a load balancer, and you add nodes as the load grows. Aviate Metering takes events in batches, and a trackingId makes it safe to resend an event.
Can I run several brands or regions on one deployment?
Yes. Kill Bill is multi-tenant: one deployment runs several tenants, and each tenant has its own catalog, accounts and plugin configuration.
Is there open source usage-based billing software for GPU clouds?
Kill Bill is an open source billing platform under the Apache 2.0 license. It bills usage records that you send per subscription through its usage API, summed per period or priced by the peak value, next to recurring plans. Aviate, the enterprise offering of Kill Bill, adds billing meters on raw events, safe batch ingestion, Aviate Wallet for prepaid credits and Aviate Health.

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