Unit-based pricing is ideal for:
- Per-device or per-installation licensing
- Prepaid capacity, such as storage or bandwidth
- Any quantity that isn’t a person and isn’t measured after the fact
- Products where volume discounts should apply to the declared quantity
Choosing between unit-based, seat-based, and metered
Three pricing models charge by quantity. They differ in what the quantity counts and when the customer pays.
Pick seat-based when each unit maps to a person who needs their own access. Polar then handles invitations, seat claims, and per-member benefits.
Pick unit-based for everything else.
Pick metered when Polar counts the quantity for you, from usage events. With unit-based the buyer declares the number themselves, at checkout.
How it works
The buyer chooses a quantity at checkout and pays for it immediately. The price comes from the tiers you configure and the quantity they picked. On a subscription, the quantity carries across billing periods. You can change it at any time, and so can the customer if you let them. Polar prorates the difference. On a one-time purchase, the quantity is fixed at the moment of sale.Creating a unit-based product
1
Create a new product
From your dashboard, create a new product.
2
Configure basic settings
Set your product name, description, and media as usual.
3
Select unit-based pricing
Under Pricing, select:
- Product type: Subscription or One-time
- Billing cycle (subscriptions only): Monthly or Yearly
- Pricing type: Unit-based
4
Name the unit
Set the singular and plural nouns for what you’re selling, such as
device and devices. They appear at checkout, in the Customer Portal, and on invoices. Leave them empty and Polar falls back to “unit” and “units”.5
Choose a tiering model
Under Tiering model, select how the quantity is priced:
Define a tier by an upper bound and a rate. The bound is inclusive, and each tier starts where the previous one ended. Leave the last tier’s bound empty for an open-ended top range.Example with tiers at up to 10: $10 per unit, and beyond: $8 per unit:
- Volume: 14 units = 14 × $8 = $112. Every unit gets the lower rate.
- Graduated: 14 units = 10 × $10 + 4 × $8 = $132. Each range keeps its own rate.
6
Set a minimum
Minimum units is the smallest quantity a customer can buy. It defaults to 1.There is no separate maximum field. If your last tier has a bound, that bound is the ceiling. Leave it open and customers can buy any quantity above the minimum.
7
Add benefits
Configure the benefits the customer receives on purchase.
Combining with other prices
Add a fixed price alongside the unit-based one for a base fee plus a per-unit rate. Metered prices can sit on top of both, so a subscription can charge a flat monthly amount, a rate per device, and usage on a meter.Benefits
The customer receives each benefit once, whatever quantity they buy. Buying 40 devices grants one license key, not 40. If you need one grant per unit, use seat-based pricing.Changing the quantity
You can change the quantity on a subscription from your dashboard or through the API at any time. Customers can change it themselves from the Customer Portal once you allow it. Go to Settings, then Customer portal, and turn on Enable subscription unit changes. It is off by default.Proration
When the quantity changes mid-period, Polar prorates the difference using your organization’s proration behavior:- Increasing the quantity charges for the added units, prorated over the remainder of the period.
- Reducing the quantity credits the removed units for the unused part of the period.
Limitations
- The quantity is a whole number. Fractional quantities need metered billing instead.
- Tier rates are whole cents.
- A product carries at most one unit-based price.
- Unit-based cannot be combined with seat-based or pay-what-you-want pricing.
- One-time purchases cannot change quantity after the sale. The customer buys again instead.