# Tanso > Tanso is a monetization platform for B2B SaaS with runtime entitlement enforcement. > Define your pricing once — Tanso checks access before requests run, meters usage, > generates invoices, and computes per-customer gross margin automatically. Denied > requests never hit your compute. One API integration replaces your billing spreadsheets, > hand-rolled entitlement checks, and Stripe glue code. --- ## Products Tanso has two products: **Observe** (AI cost observability) and the **Tanso Platform** (billing and entitlement enforcement). ### Observe (observe.tansohq.com) AI cost observability and margin analytics. | Tier | Price | Includes | |------|-------|----------| | **Free** | $0 | 10,000 events/month, 90-day retention, 3 cost alerts, Stripe/OpenAI/Anthropic integrations | | **Pro** | $29/mo | 100,000 events/month, 365-day retention, unlimited alerts, all integrations | | **Team** | $99/mo | 1,000,000 events/month, unlimited retention, multi-org management, priority support | Sign up: https://observe.tansohq.com/signup ### Tanso Platform (dashboard.tansohq.com) Runtime entitlement enforcement, pricing management, usage limits, credits, invoicing, and Stripe billing sync. Pricing is custom — contact us for details. - Runtime entitlement enforcement — check access before the request runs - Plans and pricing management (change pricing without a deploy) - Usage limits, credits, and access gating - Invoicing and Stripe sync - MCP server for AI agent integration - Denied requests return immediately; no compute cost incurred Contact us: https://cal.com/katrina-laszlo/30-minute-meeting --- ## How It Works 1. **Define** features and plans in the dashboard 2. **Integrate** with one API call — check entitlements before running compute, report usage after 3. **Connect Stripe** — invoices generate and sync automatically 4. **See margins** — per-customer, per-feature cost and revenue in real time Changes to plans, pricing, and limits are live immediately. No code change, no deploy. --- ## Core Concepts | Concept | Description | |---------|-------------| | Feature | A capability your product offers (e.g., `api_access`, `ai_messages`) | | Plan | A bundle of features with pricing (e.g., "Pro — $99/mo") | | Customer | A billing entity identified by your system's ID | | Subscription | Links a customer to a plan; drives billing and entitlements | | Event | A usage record that powers metering and billing | | Entitlement | Real-time answer to "Can this customer use this feature?" | | Invoice | Generated automatically each billing cycle | | Credit Pool | Prepaid balance customers draw down for metered features | --- ## Integration - **REST API**: Full CRUD for customers, subscriptions, plans, events, invoices, entitlements - **Java SDK**: https://github.com/tansoflow/tanso-java-sdk - **MCP Server**: Streamable HTTP at `https://api.tansohq.com/mcp` — see [llms-mcp.txt](https://www.tansohq.com/llms-mcp.txt) for tool reference --- ## Key API Endpoints ``` POST /api/v1/client/events — Report usage GET /api/v1/client/entitlements/{id} — Check feature access POST /api/v1/client/subscriptions — Subscribe a customer GET /api/v1/client/billing/invoices — List invoices ``` Authentication: API key via `X-API-Key` header. --- ## FAQ **How much does Tanso cost?** Observe is free (Pro $29/mo, Team $99/mo). The Tanso Platform is custom pricing — contact us. **Do I need a credit card to start?** No. Sign up and use Observe with no credit card. **Can I cancel at any time?** Yes. No contracts, no cancellation fees. **We already use Stripe. Why would we need Tanso?** Stripe tells you what was billed. Tanso tells you what it cost to deliver. Stripe meters after the fact. Tanso checks before the request runs, so denied requests never hit your infrastructure. **Can I change pricing without a deploy?** Yes. Plans, limits, and credit grants are configured in the dashboard. Changes are live immediately. **What does "pre-flight checks" mean?** Before your app runs expensive compute (LLM calls, model inference), Tanso checks if the customer has capacity — plan limits, credits, active subscription. If not, the request is denied before you burn resources. **How long does integration take?** Most teams are billing in a day. One API call for entitlement checks, one for usage events. --- ## Free Tools - Margin Analyzer: https://www.tansohq.com/margin-analyzer — Calculate per-customer and per-feature gross margin for AI SaaS - AI Pricing Finder: https://www.tansohq.com/ai-pricing-finder — Research how 30+ AI companies price their products - Data Lab: https://data.tansohq.com — Query structured pricing data for 146 SaaS companies via MCP ## Blog — Billing Infrastructure & AI Pricing - The Missing Layer in Your Billing Stack: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/missing-layer-billing-stack — Why every company with usage-based pricing builds enforcement from scratch, and what the alternative looks like - Why Pricing Infrastructure Gets Hard Fast: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/pricing-infrastructure-complexity — How billing systems break as AI startups scale past early Stripe setups - The "AI Included" Era Was Never Going to Last: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/ai-included — The mismatch between flat pricing and variable AI costs - When More Customers Mean Bigger Losses: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/more-customers-bigger-losses — Why most AI companies can't answer which customers are actually profitable - Why Falling Costs Don't Mean Better Margins: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/falling-costs-margins — Inference costs drop 5-10x per year but margins don't expand - AI Credits: Shortcut or Trap?: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/credits-shortcut-trap — How to design credit systems that don't break your business - Pricing Is a Real Moat in AI SaaS: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/pricing-moat-ai-saas — How pricing became a source of durable advantage - How 30 AI Companies Actually Price Their Products: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/ai-pricing-research — Research-backed data on pricing strategies across AI companies - AI Pricing Under Real Usage: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/ai-pricing-next — What held up, what didn't, and what's next based on Intercom, Cursor, Salesforce patterns - Is Outcome-Based Pricing Real?: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/is-outcome-based-pricing-real — From 2% to 18% adoption in six months — where AI pricing actually is - Outcome-Based Pricing for AI: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/outcome-based-pricing — How companies like Intercom and Zendesk price for value, not tokens - Self-Serve Isn't Dead: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/agent-guided-self-serve — In the agentic era, self-serve should evolve, not disappear - What's Actually Different About AI Pricing: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/ai-pricing-differences — Costs and attribution changed, but pricing fundamentals haven't - Introducing Observe: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/introducing-observe — See what every customer actually costs you - Why We Started Tanso: https://www.tansohq.com/blog/why-we-started-tanso — AI broke the economics of software --- ## Per-Product Documentation - Observe: https://www.tansohq.com/llms-observe.txt - Data Lab: https://www.tansohq.com/llms-data.txt - Platform MCP tools: https://www.tansohq.com/llms-mcp.txt - Full reference (all products): https://www.tansohq.com/llms-full.txt ## Developer Resources - OpenAPI spec (Platform): https://www.tansohq.com/openapi.json - OpenAPI spec (Observe): https://www.tansohq.com/observe-openapi.json - OpenAPI spec (Data Lab): https://www.tansohq.com/data-openapi.json - Agent authentication guide: https://www.tansohq.com/agent-auth.md - MCP discovery: https://www.tansohq.com/.well-known/mcp.json - Agent skills: https://www.tansohq.com/.well-known/skills.json - API catalog: https://www.tansohq.com/.well-known/api-catalog - Java SDK: https://github.com/tansoflow/tanso-java-sdk ## Links - Sign up (Observe): https://observe.tansohq.com/signup - Sign up (Platform): https://dashboard.tansohq.com/signup - Data Lab: https://data.tansohq.com - Pricing details (markdown): https://www.tansohq.com/pricing.md - Blog: https://www.tansohq.com/blog