Why: the goal or problem
Customers need a spending ceiling before consuming variable resources. An unrestricted bill at month-end makes budgeting difficult.
How: work toward a solution
A fictional export tool starts with 1,000 credits, spending one per export. Run the shared months of 100, 300 and 600 exports: balances become 900, 600 and zero. Any further export is blocked until a simulated top-up. Credits here do not expire; purchase price, taxes, fees and refunds are omitted.
Illustrative example
Prepaid credits
Export tool · initial three months: 100 / 300 / 600 exports
credits · 1 per export
Exports completed: 0
Insufficient balance blocks the whole request. No expiry here. Credit purchase price omitted.
Fictional amounts. Taxes, fees and refunds omitted.
A fictional demo within this article. Reset or reload restores its initial state.
What: the concept
Prepaid credits collect payment before usage and reduce a balance as units are consumed. Credit value, expiry and eligible uses depend on the offer.
Explain balance rules; combine with metering.
Discuss this idea
Comments are shared across languages. GitHub login required to post.