Setup and payments

In this example we’ll create the pricing for a premium AI chatbot. We’re going to have:

A Free plan that gives users 5 chat messages per month for free
A Pro plan that gives users 100 chat messages per month for $20 per month.

Create your pricing plans

Create a plan for each pricing tier that your app offers. In our example we’ll create a “Free” and “Pro” plan, and assign them features.

Browse our Examples for guides on setting up credit systems, top ups and other common pricing models.

CLI
Dashboard

Run the following command in your root directory:

bunx atmn init

npx atmn init

pnpm dlx atmn init

This will prompt you to login or create an account, and create an autumn.config.ts file. Paste in the code below, or view our config schema to build your own.

autumn.config.ts

import { feature, item, plan } from "atmn";

// Features
export const messages = feature({
  id: "messages",
  name: "Messages",
  type: "metered",
  consumable: true,
});

// Plans
export const free = plan({
  id: "free",
  name: "Free",
  autoEnable: true,
  items: [
    // 5 messages per month
    item({
      featureId: messages.id,
      included: 5,
      reset: { interval: "month" },
    }),
  ],
});

export const pro = plan({
  id: "pro",
  name: "Pro",
  price: {
    amount: 20,
    interval: "month",
  },
  items: [
    // 100 messages per month
    item({
      featureId: messages.id,
      included: 100,
      reset: { interval: "month" },
    }),
  ],
});

Then, push your changes to Autumn’s sandbox environment.

bunx atmn push

npx atmn push

pnpm dlx atmn push

If you already have products created in the dashboard, run atmn pull to pull them into your local config.

Create your Autumn account, and the Free and Pro plans in the Plans tab.

Free Plan

On the Plans page, click Create Plan.
Name the plan (eg, “Free”) and select plan type Free
Toggle the auto-enable flag, so that the plan is assigned whenever customers are created
In the plan editor, click Add Feature to Plan, and create a Metered, Consumable feature for “messages”
Configure the plan to grant 5 messages, and set the interval to per month
Click Save

Your Free plan should look like this

Pro Plan

On the Plans page, click Create Plan.
Name the plan (eg, “Pro”) and select plan type Paid, Recurring, and set the price to $20 per month
In the plan editor, click Add Feature to Plan, and add the messages feature that you created in the Free plan
Configure the plan to grant 100 messages, and set the interval to per month
Click Save

Your Pro plan should look like this

Installation

Create an Autumn Secret key, and paste it in your .env variables. Then, install the Autumn SDK. If you’re using the CLI, this will be done for you.

.env

AUTUMN_SECRET_KEY=am_sk_test_42424242...

bun add autumn-js

npm install autumn-js

pnpm add autumn-js

yarn add autumn-js

pip install autumn-sdk

Create an Autumn customer

When the customer signs up, create an Autumn customer for them. Autumn will automatically enable the Free plan, since you marked it with the auto-enable flag.

import { Autumn } from "autumn-js";

const autumn = new Autumn({
    secretKey: "am_sk_42424242",
});

const customer = await autumn.customers.getOrCreate({
    customerId: "user_or_org_id_from_auth",
    name: "John Doe",
    email: "john@example.com",
});

import asyncio
from autumn_sdk import Autumn

autumn = Autumn('am_sk_42424242')

async def main():
    customer = await autumn.customers.get_or_create(
        customer_id="user_or_org_id_from_auth",
        name="John Doe",
        email="john@example.com",
    )

asyncio.run(main())

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.useautumn.com/v1/customers \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer am_sk_42424242' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "customer_id": "user_or_org_id_from_auth",
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com"
}'

Autumn’s customer ID is the same as your internal user or org ID generated from your auth provider. No need to store any extra IDs.

In the Autumn dashboard, you will see your user under the customers page.

Stripe Payment Flow

Call attach when the customer wants to purchase the Pro plan. This will return a Stripe payment URL. Once they’ve paid, Autumn will grant access to “100 messages per month” defined in Step 1.

import { Autumn } from "autumn-js";

const autumn = new Autumn({
    secretKey: "am_sk_42424242",
});

const response = await autumn.billing.attach({
    customerId: "user_or_org_id_from_auth",
    planId: "pro",
    redirectMode: "always",
});

// Redirect customer to complete payment or confirm plan change
redirect(response.paymentUrl);

import asyncio
from autumn_sdk import Autumn

autumn = Autumn('am_sk_42424242')

async def main():
  response = await autumn.billing.attach(
      customer_id='user_or_org_id_from_auth',
      plan_id='pro',
      redirect_mode='always',
  )

asyncio.run(main())

curl -X POST 'https://api.useautumn.com/v1/attach' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer am_sk_42424242' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "customer_id": "user_or_org_id_from_auth",
  "plan_id": "pro",
  "redirect_mode": "always"
}'

Use Stripe’s test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 to make a purchase in sandbox. You can enter any Expiry and CVV.

This can be used for any plan changes scenario (upgrades, downgrades, one-time topups, renewals, etc).Upgrades will happen immediately, and downgrades will be scheduled for the next billing cycle.

The redirectMode: "always" flag will always return a payment URL.New purchases redirect to Stripe Checkout to enter payment details, and subsequent charges redirect to an Autumn hosted, one-click confirmation page.You can build your own billing confirmation flows by using the previewAttach function.

Next: Track and limit usage Now that the plan is enabled and you’ve handled payments, you can now make sure that customers have the access to the right features and limits based on their plan.

Track and limit usage

Enforce usage limits and feature permissions using Autumn’s check and track functions

Getting Started

Configure Pricing

Billing & Subscriptions

Customers

Additional Resources

Setup and payments

Track and limit usage