specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Recharge
providerId: recharge-payments
created: '2026-07-10'
modified: '2026-07-10'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Subscriptions
- Recurring Billing
- E-commerce
- Payments
- FinOps
- Cost Management
- FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps view of Recharge spend. Recharge bills merchants as a SaaS subscription:
  a fixed monthly platform fee per plan tier (Starter, Plus, Custom) plus a
  per-transaction fee on each subscription order processed (a percentage of order
  value plus a fixed per-order amount). The REST API carries no separate metered
  charge - API usage is included with a paid plan - so API cost is effectively
  bundled into the platform fee, while the variable cost driver is the volume of
  processed subscription orders. Underlying payment-gateway processing fees are
  billed separately by the gateway and are out of scope here.
notes: >-
  Per-unit rates (monthly fee, transaction percentage, per-order fixed fee) are
  set by plan tier and should be verified on the Recharge pricing page during
  reconciliation. The dominant, most controllable cost is the per-order
  transaction fee, which scales directly with processed subscription order volume.
sources:
- https://getrecharge.com/pricing/
- https://support.getrecharge.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008682914-Recharge-billing-and-pricing
- https://developer.rechargepayments.com/2021-11
- https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
publisherName: Recharge
serviceCategory: E-commerce and Subscription Billing
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Subscription-Plus-Usage
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Purchase
  - Usage
  - Adjustment
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Recharge Subscriptions
  ServiceCategory: E-commerce and Subscription Billing
  ProviderName: Recharge
  PublisherName: Recharge
  InvoiceIssuerName: Recharge
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
  PricingCategory: Subscription-Plus-Usage
meters:
- name: monthly_platform_fee
  description: Fixed monthly Recharge plan fee (Starter, Plus, or Custom).
  unit: months
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - plan
- name: transaction_fee
  description: Per-subscription-order fee (percentage of order value plus fixed per-order amount).
  unit: orders
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - plan
- name: sms_usage
  description: Concierge SMS messages sent on higher tiers, billed per message.
  unit: messages
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: Track processed subscription order volume and its per-order transaction fees separately from the fixed monthly platform fee, and separately from underlying gateway processing fees.
- name: Allocation
  description: Map transaction fees to store, product line, or subscription cohort so recurring-revenue cost of processing is attributable.
- name: Optimization
  description: Reduce churn and failed-payment retries to keep processed-order fees productive; evaluate tier upgrades where percentage rate reductions offset the higher monthly fee at your order volume.
- name: Accountability
  description: Assign an owner for the Recharge plan tier decision and review monthly platform-fee plus transaction-fee spend against subscription revenue each billing cycle.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com