---
title: Tanso — Billing and entitlements you run yourself
description: Open-source (AGPL-3.0) billing, metering, and entitlement engine for B2B AI products. Self-hosted via Docker Compose. Stripe optional.
date: 2026-07-14
---

# Billing and entitlements you run yourself

Gate features in real time, meter usage, and bill for what gets used.
Docker Compose. Stripe optional. Open source under AGPL-3.0 (Spring Boot +
Vue 3 + PostgreSQL).

## How Tanso sits in your request path

One call gates the feature. One call meters the usage.

```
Your app -> check entitlement -> allow/deny (in the request path)
        -> serve the request
        -> report usage event -> Tanso meters + bills -> Stripe (optional)
```

- 1 API call to gate a feature
- allow / deny decided in the request path
- AGPL-3.0, no gated tier, full feature set
- Minutes to self-host with Docker Compose

## Enforce, meter, and bill in one box

- **Real-time entitlement enforcement.** One call asks "can this customer use
  this feature?" and returns allow or deny.
- **Usage + subscription billing.** Report usage events. Tanso turns them
  into charges: usage-based, subscription, or both.
- **Credit pools with hard limits.** Grant credits, set hard limits, roll
  over the rest. An empty pool returns deny.

## Built for AI agents

A built-in MCP server. Claude, Cursor, or your own agent checks entitlements
and reports usage directly.

```
claude mcp add --transport http tanso https://your-tanso-host/mcp \
  --header "X-API-Key: <your-api-key>"
```

The server is exposed at /mcp and authenticates with your API key via the
X-API-Key header. Off by default; the operator enables it.

## Self-host the whole thing

```
git clone https://github.com/tansohq/tanso-oss.git
cd tanso-oss/deploy
cp .env.example .env     # set JWT_SECRET
docker compose up -d --build
./setup.sh               # seeds a test account, prints credentials
```

AGPL-3.0 · Stripe optional · full docs at https://tanso.mintlify.app

## Free tools, no signup

- [AI Pricing Finder](https://tansohq.com/ai-pricing-finder): how 80+ AI
  companies price, filterable side by side.
- [Margin Analyzer](https://tansohq.com/margin-analyzer): find which
  customers are profitable. CSV processed in your browser.

## Links

- [Source (AGPL-3.0)](https://github.com/tansohq/tanso-oss)
- [Documentation](https://tanso.mintlify.app)
- [Compare vs Lago, Autumn, Stripe](https://tansohq.com/compare)
- [FAQ](https://tansohq.com/faq)
- [LLM context](https://tansohq.com/llms.txt)
- [Get a demo](https://cal.com/katrina-laszlo/30-minute-meeting)