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Billing & Usage Tracking

Billing is entirely optional. If your app is free, there's nothing you need to configure. Alli will still track and report which clients have the app installed, purely for your own visibility, but no billing setup is required. If you do want to charge for your app, Alli supports three billing models. They aren't mutually exclusive, and consumption-based billing itself is never required even for paid apps. A flat subscription is a complete, valid pricing strategy on its own.

  1. Installation-based billing (preferred) A flat, recurring fee charged simply for having the app installed. No usage tracking is required. Alli detects installation state on its own. This is the simplest model to support and the one we recommend by default.
  2. Consumption-based billing via the Partner Usage API (preferred, optional) Each app version defines a set of SKUs used to track billable usage. The partner emits usage data directly to Alli via the Partner Usage API as it occurs on their platform. This is the preferred consumption model because the partner has full visibility into what's being used. There's no dependency on Alli or PMG systems, just the SKUs defined in the app manifest and calls to the API.
  3. Consumption-based billing via Partner Entities (optional) For cases where the partner doesn't have visibility into consumption, most commonly when Alli or a client creates something on the partner's platform through the app (e.g. an audience) and only Alli can see how it's used downstream. Partners can register Partner Entities, and Alli connects usage data against the registered entity and bills accordingly. There are caveats to this billing model: Only a limited set of entity types and metrics are supported today. Registering Partner Entities requires additional development on the partner's end. Billing accuracy depends on the partner platform's own reporting granularity, and we may be unable to support all platforms. If the reporting can't break out activity by individual entity, for example, if an audience is joined with several others before impressions are served, the client may be billed for the full combined amount rather than the isolated portion attributable to that entity. For more information about how to register Partner Entities, see here.