Stripe wants to turn AI costs into profit centers

Stripe on Monday released a preview of new features that will help AI startups (and other companies) solve the problem of passing the potential costs of using AI models onto customers.

However, Stripe does more than just pass through the cost of the token. This will allow startups to charge a percentage of markup on token usage. So companies can, for example, automatically charge an additional 30% of the cost of the tokens that a startup pays to a model maker.

As Stripe explains, “Say you’re building an AI app. You want a consistent 30% margin on the cost of raw LLM tokens across providers. Billing automates the process.”

The billing feature allows startups to choose which AI models to use. Track API prices for these models. It then records the customer’s token usage and automatically applies a profit margin markup.

As we previously reported, there are a variety of ways AI startups charge for their products. Many of them charge tiered monthly subscriptions with usage caps. Once these are reached, subscribers may be charged additional fees for exceeding the limits.

For example, Cursor last year changed pricing for some tiers from unlimited usage to rate-limited usage, with additional charges for additional consumption.

Without usage caps, users could charge startups too much for partnering with model makers, pushing startups into the red. This is especially serious for agent startups. Pricing and business model decisions are especially important because the more agents a customer uses, the more tokens they spend from underlying model providers such as OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic.

Stripe also introduced its own AI Gateway, a tool that allows users to access multiple models and choose the best one for the job. However, according to a tweet from a Stripe product manager, the billing tool also works with already popular third-party gateways, such as those offered by Vercel and OpenRouter.

Of course, there are other startups offering cost management capabilities for AI models with their own gateways. For example, OpenRouter, which allows access to over 300 models, charges a flat 5.5% markup on token fees for its tier 1 plan and also offers budget control.

A product manager at X said that Stripe does not currently charge its own markup on the gateway. However, this feature is still in waitlist mode. Either way, Stripe could change the game by making it easy for startups to turn this expense tracking and billing into a revenue stream. Stripe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when the feature would be generally available.