Polar
Polar is a billing and monetization platform positioned as a merchant of record for developers, handling payments, subscriptions and usage-based billing with global tax compliance included. It's aimed at software and AI companies that need to meter usage like tokens, API calls or compute alongside traditional subscriptions. Pricing combines a monthly plan fee with a per-transaction rate that drops as the plan tier increases, starting free at 5% + $0.50 per transaction.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- Pricing
- FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for the Pro plan
- Open source
- NoOpen source components on GitHub; the hosted platform itself is a commercial service
- GitHub stars
- 10,432+139 in the last 30 days
- npm downloads a week
- 382kup 5% on the week before
- Latest release
- @polar-sh/cli@…1 week ago
- Releases in 90 days
- 10about 3 a month
A good fit for
- AI and software companies that need to meter usage like tokens or API calls alongside subscriptions
- Developers who want a merchant of record so they don't handle global sales tax themselves
- Startups that want per-transaction fees to drop as they grow into higher-tier plans
- Teams that want seat management and prepaid credits handled by the billing platform
Not a good fit for
- Very high-volume businesses where a negotiated payments contract elsewhere might beat percentage-based fees
- Teams that want to be the merchant of record themselves rather than delegate that role
- Simple flat-rate products with no usage-based component, where a simpler payment processor may be enough
Polar pricing
Starter is free with 5% + $0.50 per transaction. Pro is $20 a month with a lower 3.8% + $0.40 rate, Growth is $100 a month at 3.6% + $0.35, and Scale is $400 a month at 3.4% + $0.30. A startup program offers the Scale plan free for 12 months to early-stage AI companies.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 a month | 5% + $0.50 per transaction, merchant-of-record tax handling. |
| Pro | $20 a month | 3.8% + $0.40 per transaction. |
| Growth | $100 a month | 3.6% + $0.35 per transaction. |
| Scale | $400 a month | 3.4% + $0.30 per transaction, free for 12 months for qualifying early-stage AI startups. |
Prices in USD, checked on 27 September 2026. Current prices on polar.sh.
Main features
- Merchant of record
- Polar is the seller of record and handles global sales tax and VAT compliance.
- Usage metering
- Real-time tracking of tokens, API calls, compute and storage events for usage-based billing.
- Subscriptions
- Recurring plans with trials, upgrades, downgrades and proration.
- Seat management
- Automatically add, remove and prorate seats for per-seat pricing.
- Prepaid credits
- Maintain customer credit balances that drain as usage occurs.
- Cost insights
- Gross margin per customer, comparing revenue against inference or infrastructure costs.
About Polar
Polar acts as merchant of record for its customers, meaning it is the seller on each transaction and takes on responsibility for payment processing, sales tax and VAT collection and remittance, fraud prevention, refunds and chargebacks across more than 100 markets.
It's built with usage-based pricing in mind, offering real-time metering for events like tokens, API calls, compute and storage, alongside traditional subscription plans with trials, upgrades and proration, seat management, and prepaid credit balances that drain as customers use a product.
Polar also provides cost insight tooling that shows gross margin per customer by comparing revenue against underlying inference or infrastructure costs, aimed particularly at AI companies whose costs scale with usage.
- Made by
- Polar
- Free plan
- Yes: the Starter plan has no monthly fee, only per-transaction fees
- Available on
- Web checkout, REST API, Webhooks
Usage and activity
Weekly npm downloads of @polar-sh/sdk, last 12 months.
Recent releases
- @polar-sh/[email protected]1 week ago
- @polar-sh/[email protected]3 weeks ago
- @polar-sh/[email protected]3 weeks ago
- @polar-sh/[email protected]3 weeks ago
- @polar-sh/[email protected]3 weeks ago
- @polar-sh/[email protected]3 weeks ago
Polar alternatives
Polar compared
Questions about Polar
Is Polar free to use?
The Starter plan has no monthly fee; you pay 5% + $0.50 per transaction. Paid plans lower the per-transaction rate as you move up tiers.
What does merchant of record mean for Polar?
Polar is legally the seller on each transaction, handling sales tax and VAT collection and remittance across more than 100 markets on the merchant's behalf.
Does Polar support usage-based billing?
Yes, it can meter usage such as tokens, API calls, compute and storage in real time and bill based on that usage, in addition to subscriptions.
Is there a discount for early-stage AI startups?
Yes, a startup program offers the Scale plan free for 12 months to qualifying early-stage AI companies.
Sources and links
Work on Polar? Claim this listing. Something wrong or out of date? Suggest a correction. Stats come from the public GitHub and npm APIs and update every day.