How is Lava different from Metronome, Stripe Billing, or Orb?

Lava vs. Traditional Billing Tools

There are several usage-based billing tools on the market — Metronome, Orb, Stripe Billing, Chargebee, and others. Here's how Lava is fundamentally different.

The Core Difference: Gateway + Billing

Traditional billing tools are billing-only. You track usage yourself, send events to the billing tool, and it generates invoices. That means:

You build and maintain all the usage tracking code
You handle the integration with AI providers separately
You manually ensure costs align with billing
You build balance-checking logic yourself

Lava combines an AI gateway with billing and payment orchestration in one product. Because we route the actual API calls, we know your exact usage and costs in real time — you don't have to build any of that.

Why This Matters for AI Companies

In the old API era, usage tracking was simple — a few API calls with predictable costs. But AI applications make hundreds of model calls per user action, with variable costs depending on the model, token count, and provider. This makes traditional "you tell us your usage" billing tools insufficient.

With Lava:

Usage is tracked automatically through the gateway — no instrumentation code needed
Costs are known in real time because we see the actual provider responses
Balance is checked before every call — no risk of running up costs for customers who can't pay
Model switching is instant — change providers in the dashboard, not your code

Comparison Summary

Metronome / Orb / Chargebee:

You track usage, they bill for it
No AI gateway or provider routing
No real-time balance checking
Built for general usage-based billing, not AI-specific

Stripe Billing:

Great for subscriptions and simple metered billing
No AI-specific features
No prepaid wallet or credit management
You still need to build all usage tracking

Lava:

AI gateway routes your calls and tracks usage automatically
Prepaid wallet with real-time balance checking
Payment orchestration with automated payouts
Pricing changes from a dashboard, no code needed
Built specifically for AI companies with variable, high-volume usage

Can I Use Lava With Stripe?

Yes. Lava is built on top of Stripe for payment processing. You don't need to set up Stripe yourself — Lava handles the Stripe integration. Your customers pay through Stripe, and you receive payouts through Stripe Connect.