opencode-skills-collection 4.0.53 → 4.0.54

package/bundled-skills/usage-based-pricing/SKILL.md

@@ -11,22 +11,17 @@ license_source: https://github.com/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/blob/main/LICE
 ---
 
 # Usage-Based Pricing
-## When to Use
-
-Use this skill when you need design pricing models that developers understand, accept, and can predict. Trigger phrases: usage-based pricing, API pricing, metered billing, developer pricing, pricing page, cost calculator, pay as you go, pricing transparency, competitive pricing, developer billing.
-
 
-Design pricing models that developers understand, accept, and can predict—without surprise bills or confusing metrics.
+## Detailed Guide
 
-## Overview
+Read [the detailed guide](references/detailed-guide.md) before executing this skill. It retains the complete procedure and reference material. Treat its safety, prerequisites, and validation requirements as mandatory. For focused work, load the relevant sections; for end-to-end work, read the guide completely.
 
-Developers are uniquely sensitive to pricing. They'll calculate unit economics, compare alternatives, and write blog posts about surprise bills. Usage-based pricing works well for developer tools because it aligns cost with value, but it can also create anxiety about unpredictable costs.
+## When to Use
 
-The best developer pricing is predictable, transparent, and obviously fair. Developers should be able to estimate their bill before they commit.
+Use this skill when you need design pricing models that developers understand, accept, and can predict. Trigger phrases: usage-based pricing, API pricing, metered billing, developer pricing, pricing page, cost calculator, pay as you go, pricing transparency, competitive pricing, developer billing.
 
-## Before You Start
 
-Review the `/devmarketing-skills/skills/free-tier-strategy` skill to understand how free tiers connect to paid pricing. Your pricing model should feel like a natural extension of the free tier, not a completely different experience.
+Design pricing models that developers understand, accept, and can predict—without surprise bills or confusing metrics.
 
 ## Usage Metrics Developers Accept
 
@@ -99,357 +94,6 @@ Actual usage is unpredictable.
 | MAU | User-facing apps | Machine-to-machine |
 | Seats | Collaboration tools | Individual developers |
 
-## Pricing Page Clarity
-
-### Essential Pricing Page Elements
-
-1. **Price per unit, clearly stated**
-```
-$0.01 per 1,000 API calls
-$0.10 per GB stored
-$5 per team member
-```
-
-2. **Usage calculator**
-```
-Estimate your monthly cost:
-API calls per month: [____]
-Storage (GB): [____]
-
-Estimated cost: $XX/month
-```
-
-3. **Tier comparison table**
-```
-                Free        Pro         Enterprise
-API calls       10,000/mo   100,000/mo  Unlimited
-Storage         1GB         50GB        500GB
-Support         Community   Email       Priority
-Price           $0          $29/mo      $299/mo
-```
-
-4. **FAQ answering real questions**
-- "What happens if I exceed my limit?"
-- "How do I monitor my usage?"
-- "Are there any hidden fees?"
-- "Can I set spending limits?"
-
-### Pricing Page Examples
-
-**Excellent: Stripe**
-- Simple percentage per transaction
-- Clear calculator
-- All fees visible
-- Volume discounts transparent
-
-**Excellent: Cloudflare**
-- Free tier generous
-- Paid features clearly differentiated
-- Per-feature pricing available
-- Enterprise custom pricing framed simply
-
-**Poor patterns:**
-- "Contact sales" for any pricing information
-- Prices hidden until signup
-- Complex unit definitions
-- Multiple interdependent metrics
-
-### Price Communication Principles
-
-1. **Lead with simple cases** - Show the "typical" cost first
-2. **Reveal complexity gradually** - Edge cases in FAQ, not main pricing
-3. **Use real numbers** - "$47/month for a typical SaaS app" beats "$0.001 per request"
-4. **Compare to alternatives** - "50% less than AWS" (if true and provable)
-
-## Cost Predictability and Caps
-
-### Why Predictability Matters
-
-Developers fear:
-- Unexpected month-end bills
-- Usage spikes from bugs or attacks
-- Being unable to explain costs to managers
-- Services that punish success
-
-### Providing Predictability
-
-**Usage dashboards:**
-```
-Current billing period: March 1-31
-
-API calls:     45,000 / 100,000 (45%)
-Storage:       12GB / 50GB (24%)
-Bandwidth:     89GB / 100GB (89%) ⚠️
-
-Projected bill: $47 (current: $38)
-```
-
-**Usage alerts:**
-```
-Alert settings:
-[ ] 50% of monthly limit
-[x] 75% of monthly limit
-[x] 90% of monthly limit
-[x] 100% of monthly limit
-[ ] Daily usage spike (>2x average)
-```
-
-**Spending caps:**
-```
-Monthly spending cap: $100
-
-When reached:
-( ) Hard stop - service pauses
-(x) Soft stop - alert and require approval
-( ) No stop - continue and alert
-```
-
-### Cap Implementation Considerations
-
-**Hard caps:**
-- Service stops at limit
-- Best for: Development, non-critical
-- Risk: Production outages
-
-**Soft caps:**
-- Service continues, alerts sent
-- Best for: Production, alert required
-- Risk: Unexpected overages
-
-**Burst allowance:**
-- Short-term overage allowed
-- Best for: Handling legitimate spikes
-- Risk: Abuse potential
-
-**Automatic scaling:**
-- Auto-upgrade tier temporarily
-- Best for: Predictable growth
-- Risk: Confusion about costs
-
-## Billing Transparency
-
-### The Bill Should Tell a Story
-
-**Bad invoice:**
-```
-Usage charges: $147.00
-Total: $147.00
-```
-
-**Good invoice:**
-```
-API Usage
-- Requests: 245,000 @ $0.01/1,000 = $2.45
-- Bandwidth: 150GB @ $0.10/GB = $15.00
-
-Compute
-- Function invocations: 50,000 @ $0.0001 = $5.00
-- Compute time: 10,000 GB-sec @ $0.0000166 = $0.17
-
-Storage
-- Database: 25GB @ $0.50/GB = $12.50
-
-Platform fee: $29.00 (Pro plan base)
-
-Subtotal: $64.12
-Credits applied: -$10.00 (new user credit)
-
-Total: $54.12
-```
-
-### Usage Visibility
-
-**Dashboard requirements:**
-- Real-time or near-real-time usage
-- Daily/weekly/monthly views
-- Breakdown by resource/project
-- Comparison to previous periods
-- Export for internal analysis
-
-**API for usage data:**
-```bash
-curl https://api.example.com/usage \
-  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxx"
-
-{
-  "period": "2024-03-01/2024-03-31",
-  "api_calls": 245000,
-  "bandwidth_gb": 150,
-  "cost_to_date": 54.12,
-  "projected_cost": 62.00
-}
-```
-
-### Billing Cycle Best Practices
-
-- **Monthly billing** - Standard, predictable
-- **Prepaid credits** - Discount for commitment, reduces uncertainty
-- **Annual contracts** - For enterprise, discount for commitment
-- **Billing date choice** - Let customers align with their accounting
-
-## Communicating Value vs Cost
-
-### The Value Conversation
-
-Don't just communicate price—communicate value relative to alternatives.
-
-**Alternative cost comparisons:**
-```
-Running this yourself:
-- Server costs: $200/mo
-- Engineer time: $5,000/mo
-- Maintenance: $500/mo
-Total: $5,700/mo
-
-Our service: $99/mo
-You save: $5,601/mo
-```
-
-**Time savings:**
-```
-Without [Product]:
-- 2 weeks to build
-- 4 hours/month to maintain
-
-With [Product]:
-- 30 minutes to integrate
-- Zero maintenance
-
-Developer time saved: 120+ hours/year
-```
-
-### ROI Calculators
-
-For enterprise sales, provide ROI tools:
-
-```
-Your company:
-- Developers: [10]
-- Hours/week on auth: [5]
-- Fully-loaded cost/hour: [$150]
-
-Current cost: $3,000/week = $156,000/year
-
-With [Product]:
-- Integration: 20 hours one-time = $3,000
-- Annual cost: $12,000
-- Maintenance: Near zero
-
-First year savings: $141,000
-```
-
-### Pricing Justification
-
-When prices seem high, justify with:
-1. **Feature completeness** - "Includes what others charge extra for"
-2. **Reliability** - "99.99% uptime saves you from outages"
-3. **Support** - "Engineering support, not offshore scripts"
-4. **Scale** - "Handles 10x traffic without config changes"
-5. **Security** - "SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA included"
-
-## Competitive Pricing Research
-
-### Understanding the Landscape
-
-**Map competitors by:**
-1. Direct competitors (same solution)
-2. Adjacent competitors (different approach, same problem)
-3. Build-it-yourself (internal development cost)
-4. Status quo (doing nothing)
-
-**Pricing model analysis:**
-```
-Competitor A: $0.015/request, no free tier, 99.9% SLA
-Competitor B: $0.008/request, generous free tier, 99.5% SLA
-Open source: $0 + hosting costs (~$0.005/request) + maintenance
-```
-
-### Pricing Position Options
-
-**Premium pricing:**
-- Higher price, higher perceived value
-- Works with: Superior product, enterprise focus
-- Requires: Clear differentiation
-
-**Value pricing:**
-- Comparable price, more features
-- Works with: Feature-rich products
-- Requires: Clear comparison
-
-**Penetration pricing:**
-- Lower price, gain market share
-- Works with: Commoditized features
-- Requires: Path to profitability
-
-**Usage-aligned pricing:**
-- Aligned with customer value
-- Works with: Variable usage patterns
-- Requires: Clear value correlation
-
-### Competitive Analysis Template
-
-For each competitor:
-```
-[Competitor Name]
-Pricing model: [Per-seat / usage-based / flat]
-Free tier: [Yes/No, limits]
-Starting price: [$X/mo or $/unit]
-Enterprise: [Custom / listed price]
-Key differentiator: [Feature/price/market]
-Developer sentiment: [From Twitter, HN, Reddit]
-```
-
-### Price Testing
-
-**A/B testing considerations:**
-- Test different price points (carefully, ethically)
-- Test different packaging (bundles vs. à la carte)
-- Test annual vs. monthly emphasis
-- Test value framing ("save $X" vs. "costs $Y")
-
-**Qualitative research:**
-- Win/loss analysis: Why did they choose us/competitor?
-- Price sensitivity interviews: What would change their decision?
-- Value perception: What do they think is fair?
-
-## Pricing Anti-Patterns
-
-### The Surprise Bill
-
-Developers share horror stories:
-- "My $20/month bill became $2,000"
-- "A bug caused infinite loops and I owe $500"
-- No warning, no cap, no mercy
-
-**Solution:** Spending caps, usage alerts, anomaly detection
-
-### The Pricing Maze
-
-- Requires spreadsheet to calculate
-- Different metrics for different features
-- Hidden fees discovered later
-- Changes frequently without notice
-
-**Solution:** Simple, clear, stable pricing
-
-### The Negotiation Game
-
-- "Contact sales" for all meaningful tiers
-- List price is 10x actual price
-- Every customer gets different deal
-- Penalizes customers who don't negotiate
-
-**Solution:** Transparent pricing, volume discounts listed
-
-### The Bait and Switch
-
-- Free tier gets worse over time
-- Prices increase without grandfathering
-- Features move from free to paid
-- "New pricing" disadvantages existing customers
-
-**Solution:** Grandfathering, clear migration paths, community communication
-
 ## Examples: Pricing That Works
 
 ### Stripe
@@ -506,40 +150,6 @@ Some user-based pricing:
 - Viral success = immediate $$$
 - Discourages growth
 
-## Tools
-
-### Billing Platforms
-
-- **Stripe Billing** - Subscription and usage-based billing
-- **Orb** - Usage-based billing infrastructure
-- **Lago** - Open source billing platform
-- **Metronome** - Usage metering and billing
-- **Chargebee** - Subscription management
-
-### Usage Metering
-
-- **Segment** - Event tracking for usage
-- **Rudderstack** - Open source alternative
-- **Custom** - Most companies build their own metering
-
-### Pricing Pages
-
-- **PricingPage.io** - Templates and inspiration
-- **ProfitWell** - Pricing analytics
-- **Baremetrics** - SaaS metrics and pricing tools
-
-### Competitive Intelligence
-
-- **Competitors.app** - Track competitor pricing changes
-- **Manual monitoring** - Sign up for competitor newsletters
-- **Community research** - Reddit, HN, Twitter sentiment
-
-## Related Skills
-
-- `/devmarketing-skills/skills/free-tier-strategy` - Free tier design
-- `/devmarketing-skills/skills/developer-signup-flow` - Getting to the pricing page
-- `/devmarketing-skills/skills/developer-onboarding` - Demonstrating value before price
-
 ## Limitations
 
 - Use this skill only when the task clearly matches its upstream source and local project context.