Home / Directory / AI SaaS tooling / AI usage-based billing / Lago
Lago
Open-source usage-based billing platform from Paris that meters events, manages subscriptions and credits, and can run self-hosted or as Lago Cloud.
AI and infrastructure companies that want usage billing with the option to self-host, including teams that already run open-source infrastructure.
Buyers who want a fully turnkey billing SaaS with no open-source operations, or teams that need public Premium list prices.
Verdict
Lago is an open-source usage-based billing company in Paris, France, co-founded by Anh-Tho Chuong and Raffi Sarkissian, with Chuong as CEO. Its platform meters usage, applies plan rules, issues invoices, and manages credits, and it can run self-hosted or on Lago Cloud. AI companies use it when they want billing infrastructure they can see and extend.
Score Breakdown
How Lago scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Lago offers open-source software and Lago Premium. Premium pricing is quoted, not listed.
Lago's open-source project is available to run yourself. Lago Premium adds cloud or supported self-hosted deployment, advanced features, and support, sold through a demo and quote.
The Field at a Glance
How Lago compares with other AI usage-based billing vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Lago scores 7.6 in AI usage-based billing, under Solvimon (7.7), level with Orb (7.6), and ahead of Paid (7.5). Relative cost lands mid-band for this subcategory.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source codebase | Strong | Teams can inspect and self-host the billing engine. |
| Usage metering and credits | Strong | Events, wallets, and prepaid credits are core. |
| AI company adoption | Strong | Used by frontier AI and infrastructure teams. |
| Cloud and self-hosted options | Strong | Premium covers both deployment modes. |
| Public Premium price list | Weak | Premium requires a sales quote. |
| No-ops turnkey billing | Mixed | Self-hosting shifts operations to the customer. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- AI API companies
- Infrastructure startups
- Teams that prefer open source
Poor fit
- Buyers wanting only closed SaaS
- Teams without engineering ownership of billing
- Buyers needing list prices first
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Our team scoured public reviews, forums, and chat rooms to get a balanced view of customers' experience with this company. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
“Lago has been able to follow the pace of our releases and has allowed us to focus on what we do best.”
Lago customers include CoreWeave, Mistral AI and PayPal, and the product covers token metering, credits, invoicing, and tax workflows for AI APIs.
Lago Premium does not publish list prices. Teams that want support, SSO, or hosted deployment have to book a demo to learn cost.
Company Facts
- Founded
- 2021 (CB Insights)
- Headquarters
- Dover, Delaware, United States (CB Insights)
- Employees
- About 27 (Y Combinator)
- Total funding raised
- $22.13M (CB Insights)
- Key investors
- Y Combinator, Romain Huet, Addition, New Wave Capital, Clement Delangue (CB Insights)
- Accelerator
- Y Combinator, Summer 2021 batch (Y Combinator)
- Website
- getlago.com
Key Leadership
Anh-Tho Chuong
Co-founder and CEO
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Lago for buyers comparing options in ai usage-based billing. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Lago did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for ai usage-based billing)
- Open-source billing core
- Usage and credit metering
- Self-host flexibility
- Pricing transparency
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Lago is graded here as ai usage-based billing. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.