Summary: Seat-based SaaS is bleeding budgets in 2026; per‑second, usage‑metered pricing grounded in verifiable telemetry and real‑time settlement is now practical—and profitable—when you combine modern metering, Stripe Meters, and low‑cost onchain streaming on L2s post‑EIP‑4844. We outline how 7Block Labs implements second‑granularity pricing with enterprise‑grade RevRec and procurement controls—without “crypto-bro” fluff. (zylo.com)

Title: Why Your Next SaaS Product Should Charge by the Second, Not the Seat

Hook: the technical headache you’re fighting right now

• Your AI features don’t map to seats. GPU minutes, tokens, CPU‑ms, and events don’t fit into “$/user/month,” so Finance can’t forecast, Procurement can’t PO, and Engineers can’t meter with enough resolution to justify costs. Meanwhile, 73% of tools raised prices in 2025 and license waste hit ~$21M per enterprise, so your CFO is allergic to another static license. (saaspricepulse.com)
• The stack you run already bills by the second: Google Cloud Run bills per vCPU‑second and GiB‑second; Cloudflare Workers charges by requests and CPU‑milliseconds; AWS added per‑second billing to more OS images. Your product can, too—if your metering, billing, and settlement pipelines are designed for it. (cloud.google.com)

Agitate: the risk of staying seat‑based in 2026

• Budget volatility + wasted licenses: Zylo’s 2025 and 2026 indices show license under‑utilization and decentralization of spend; business units now control the majority of SaaS purchasing, compounding waste and visibility gaps. Every month you keep “per seat,” you’re subsidizing inactive users while under‑monetizing power users. (zylo.com)
• Pricing inflation and contract drag: Most vendors quietly lifted list prices in 2025; if you lock customers into seats while your inputs (GPU, L2 gas, storage) fluctuate, you’ll either eat margin or trigger surprise overages—both churn vectors. (saaspricepulse.com)
• RevRec exposure: Mixed “base + seats” + soft usage add‑ons create variable consideration and allocation headaches under ASC 606. If you can’t map metered consumption to performance obligations, auditors will force conservative recognition and you’ll understate ARR. (kpmg.com)
• Missed delivery dates: Google Cloud’s spend‑based CUD model changed 2026‑01‑21; without near‑real‑time showback you overrun CUDs and blow SOW budgets, delaying launches. (cloud.google.com)

Solve: 7Block Labs’ methodology for “per‑second, provable” SaaS

We replace seats with second‑granularity pricing, wired end‑to‑end—from meter to quote to cash to ledger—with cryptographic proofs where they add business value. Our approach blends enterprise billing rails (Stripe) with efficient onchain settlement (post‑EIP‑4844 L2s) and zero‑knowledge attestations for auditability.

1. Instrument precise meters (seconds, tokens, CPU‑ms)—no guesswork

• Event capture: instrument your services with OpenTelemetry‑style events; aggregate in Kafka/Flink; derive canonical “meter events” (e.g., seconds of audio processed, CPU‑ms, tokens). Then push to Stripe Meters as the system of financial record for usage. (docs.stripe.com)
• Pricing models: configure Stripe rate cards for per‑second or per‑100‑unit packages; support graduated/volume tiers, credit burndown, thresholds, and alerts. Stripe’s Pricing Plans (2025 private preview) allow composite packages that mix base, usage, and periodic credit grants—critical for enterprise SKUs. (docs.stripe.com)
• Guardrails: emulate cloud controls—set customer‑level caps, anomaly alerts, and soft‑limits to avoid denial‑of‑wallet incidents; surface real‑time dashboards to reduce “why is my bill $127?” tickets. (stripe.com)

1. Make billing and revenue recognition audit‑proof

• ASC 606 alignment: for stand‑ready services with pure variable pricing and a fixed rate, apply the “invoice practical expedient” to recognize revenue as usage occurs; handle hybrids (minimums, commits, credits) with explicit allocation rules and rollovers to prevent misclassification. (dart.deloitte.com)
• Worked patterns we implement:
  • Pay‑as‑you‑go only: recognize as consumed.
  • Minimums + overage: ratable base + overage as incurred.
  • Prepaid credits: deferred revenue drawdown on consumption. (afternoon.co)

1. Settle in real time with programmable wallets—no user gas friction

• Why now: Ethereum’s Dencun/4844 in 2024 and Pectra in 2025 drove L2 fees down and unlocked simpler UX via EIP‑7702 (temporary smart‑account features). This makes per‑second micro‑settlement viable on mainstream L2s. (blocknative.com)
• How we wire it:
  • Smart accounts: use ERC‑4337‑style account abstraction with paymasters to sponsor gas, so customers pay in stablecoins while we handle gas behind the scenes.
  • Streaming: implement money streaming via ERC‑1620 semantics or battle‑tested protocols like Superfluid to pay/collect “by the second.” Today, Superfluid reports >$1.4B streamed to 1.18M recipients—evidence this primitive is production‑grade. (eips.ethereum.org)
  • Cheap DA and settlement: batch settlement commitments on a low‑cost L2 that supports blob transactions; blob fees are priced in a separate market and have shown order‑of‑magnitude cost reductions vs calldata. (blocknative.com)

1. Add verifiable usage proofs where it matters (disputes, partners, marketplaces)

• ZK‑meter attestations: for high‑stakes scenarios (OEM bundles, marketplace rev‑share), we generate zk proofs that your metering function f(logs) was executed correctly off‑chain and commit the digest on‑chain for non‑repudiation. Recent zkVM advances (e.g., RISC Zero targeting sub‑12s ETH proofs; Succinct pilots proving high‑throughput rollups) make this practical without inflating your unit costs. (risc0.com)

1. Close the loop with Procurement and Finance, not just Product

• Procurement‑fit invoices: auto‑generate usage invoices and push to Coupa/SAP Ariba with PO/line‑level mapping, tolerances, and tax codes; align with CUD/commit logic (not just “one SKU”). Coupa and Ariba price and meter by documents/spend, so your usage invoices don’t look alien to AP. (coupa.com)
• Cloud commit awareness: ingest your cloud’s spend‑based CUD data (GCP changed export schema/timing; mandatory migration hit January 21, 2026) to forecast margin vs. usage—and to prevent under‑ or over‑recovery in pricing. (cloud.google.com)

Where the blockchain pieces drive business outcomes (not hype)

• Lower take‑rate for micro‑settlement: with EIP‑4844 blobs and L2 economics, we target sub‑cent settlement overhead per session/second slice, enabling you to price “closer to value” without swallowing fees. Independent analyses showed 90%+ L1 data cost reductions for L2s post‑4844. (blocknative.com)
• Fewer billing disputes: cryptographic receipts (usage digest + settlement hash) reduce “he‑said‑she‑said” tickets and DSO—especially in channel partnerships.
• Faster cash: streaming converts AR into continuous settlement; combined with prepaid drawdown, your cash conversion cycle improves while customers retain spend control. Protocol usage at scale (e.g., Superfluid figures) shows operational maturity. (superfluid.org)

Practical examples you can ship this quarter

1. Real‑time speech analytics API, billed by the second

• Meter: second‑granularity audio duration emitted as meter events.
• Billing: Stripe Meter with graduated tiers after 1M seconds/month; credit top‑ups for enterprise POs; mid‑cycle rate updates handled via flexible billing mode. (docs.stripe.com)
• Settlement: stream USDC to a vendor wallet on Base; customer sees a running “credit burndown.” We sponsor gas via a paymaster so no wallet friction.
• Cost control: Cloudflare Workers in the ingestion path priced per request + CPU‑ms; cap CPU time/invocation to avoid denial‑of‑wallet attacks. (developers.cloudflare.com)

1. Security co‑pilot priced by CPU‑milliseconds of scan time

• Meter: CPU‑ms per scan from your serverless runtime; Workers and Cloud Run both expose per‑second/‑ms cost models—use them as your internal transfer price. (developers.cloudflare.com)
• RevRec: apply invoice practical expedient for pure variable usage; if you include monthly minimums or annual commits, allocate clearly across performance obligations. (dart.deloitte.com)
• Procurement: push monthly usage invoice + log digest to Coupa; match to PO with tolerance bands. (coupa.com)

1. AI document processing, billed per page‑second with ZK attestation

• Meter: pages × seconds on GPU; hash per batch.
• Proof: generate a zk proof that page_count × per‑page‑time ≤ billed usage; anchor proof hash and the Stripe invoice ID onchain. ZK proving stacks (RISC Zero, Succinct) let you keep customer data off‑chain while proving the math. (risc0.com)

Best emerging practices (Jan 2026)

• Use seconds as your “atomic” unit; price packs in human terms (minutes, credits) but settle internally per second to avoid rounding disputes.
• Separate “metering of value” from “metering of cost”: keep cost meters (GPU‑s, CPU‑ms) distinct from value meters (tokens, seconds of call recorded) so Finance can optimize margins without destabilizing UX.
• Implement “soft caps + alerts” first, hard enforcement second. Most consumption incidents are communication failures, not abuse. Stripe usage alerts + dashboard visibility prevent support escalations. (stripe.com)
• Stream small, invoice big: stream micro‑settlements onchain intra‑month for risk and cashflow, but issue one consolidated invoice into Coupa/Ariba for AP efficiency. (coupa.com)
• Choose L2s with blob support and strong AA tooling; Pectra (May 7, 2025) standardized EIP‑7702, making smart‑account UX safer; combine with ERC‑4337 paymasters to hide gas. (blog.ethereum.org)

Architecture blueprint (high‑level)

• Ingest and normalize
  • Collect usage in near‑real time → Kafka → stream processors derive “billable units/sec.”
  • Post to Stripe Meters; configure thresholds and credit grants; expose customer dashboards. (docs.stripe.com)
• Price and bill
  • Stripe Pricing Plans (private preview) for composite enterprise rate cards (base + usage + credits).
  • Apply thresholds to auto‑invoice mid‑cycle when needed; otherwise bill in arrears EOM. (docs.stripe.com)
• Settle and attest
  • Open a programmatic wallet per customer (AA smart account) with sponsor‑gas paymaster; stream USDC per second to a revenue escrow, release net to your treasury daily.
  • Optional: zk‑attest usage batches; commit digest onchain every N minutes. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Post to ERP and Procurement
  • Push invoices to Coupa/Ariba with PO/line mapping; attach the usage digest and payment hash for audit. (coupa.com)

Proof: GTM metrics to expect (and how to measure them)

• Adoption: 77% of the largest software companies already run some usage‑based pricing; you won’t be educating the market—you’ll be meeting it. Track conversion rate for “usage‑trial → paid” and discount depth shrinkage on deals opting for consumption. (metronome.com)
• Net dollar retention (NDR): usage‑aligned pricing typically lifts expansion if value scales with use. Monitor NDR cohorts split by pricing model pre/post launch. (Metronome reports an 8× YoY increase in UBP billings processed in 2024; your benchmark is expansion within 2–3 quarters.) (metronome.com)
• Gross margin stability: map L2 blob fees and cloud CUD utilization to product margins weekly. Post‑4844, L2 data costs dropped by an order of magnitude, enabling micro‑settlement without drowning in fees. Your KPI is “settlement overhead per $ revenue” < 0.8%. (blocknative.com)
• DSO and dispute rate: streaming + cryptographic receipts should cut disputes and lower DSO. Target: −20–30% DSO within 2 quarters in segments adopting streaming + credit burndown.
• Forecast accuracy: Finance should be within ±5–8% of monthly revenue once meters stabilize; use Stripe meter summaries + procurement PO balances as inputs. (docs.stripe.com)

Who this is for—and the keywords you care about

• CFO / RevOps (AI‑first SaaS, $20M–$500M ARR)
  • Keywords: variable consideration, invoice practical expedient, ARR/NDR, credit burndown, commits and true‑ups, prepaid drawdown, revenue leakage, DSO. (dart.deloitte.com)
• FinOps leads / Cloud economics
  • Keywords: spend‑based CUDs (GCP 2026 migration), showback/chargeback, BigQuery export schema changes, unit economics by CPU‑ms/token/second. (cloud.google.com)
• Platform & Billing Engineering
  • Keywords: Stripe Meters, graduated rate cards, mid‑cycle price changes, AA paymasters, ERC‑1620 streaming, EIP‑7702, blob gas (type‑3 tx), CPU‑ms caps. (docs.stripe.com)
• Procurement / AP Automation
  • Keywords: PO matching tolerances, Coupa Supplier Actionable Notifications, SAP Ariba document‑meter pricing, touchless AP, tax codes. (coupa.com)

How 7Block Labs engages (and what you get in 30–60 days)

• Pricing‑grade metering design: we map your technical units to billable meters and build the event taxonomy, sampling policy, and loss‑tolerant aggregation.
• Billing enablement: we configure Stripe Meters, rate cards, and thresholds; set up credit programs and hybrid “base + usage” plans. (docs.stripe.com)
• Onchain settlement rails: we implement smart‑account wallets with sponsored gas, deploy streaming contracts on a blob‑enabled L2, and integrate settlement receipts back into your ERP. (blog.ethereum.org)
• RevRec and Procurement alignment: allocation rules, disclosure notes, and invoice templates that AP systems accept on day one. (kpmg.com)
• Security and auditability: code reviews and threat modeling for payment flows and settlement contracts via our security audit services.

Where to start with us (choose one)

• Prototype second‑based billing in a sandbox: we’ll stand up meters, a sample rate card, and a streaming settlement loop on Base/OP within two weeks using our web3 development services and smart contract development.
• Integrate into your enterprise stack: we’ll connect Stripe to Coupa/Ariba, map PO lines to usage, and deploy AA wallets with paymasters via our blockchain integration and cross‑chain solutions development.
• Plan for scale and compliance: we’ll model L2 costs post‑4844, choose rollups, and harden streams with ZK‑attestations using our custom blockchain development services and DeFi development solutions. (blocknative.com)

A brief, in‑depth technical note: streaming by the second (Solidity sketch)

// Minimal ERC-1620-style stream with second granularity (illustrative)
struct Stream {
  address sender;
  address recipient;
  address token;
  uint128 ratePerSecond;   // tokens per second, scaled
  uint64  start;
  uint64  stop;
  uint256 balance;         // remaining deposit
  uint256 lastWithdraw;    // last withdrawal timestamp
}

function available(uint256 id) public view returns (uint256) {
  Stream storage s = streams[id];
  uint64 t = uint64(block.timestamp);
  if (t <= s.start) return 0;
  uint64 elapsed = t < s.stop ? (t - s.start) : (s.stop - s.start);
  uint256 earned = uint256(elapsed) * s.ratePerSecond;
  uint256 withdrawn = uint256(uint64(s.lastWithdraw - s.start)) * s.ratePerSecond;
  return earned > withdrawn ? min(earned - withdrawn, s.balance) : 0;
}

• Put this on a blob‑cheap L2 (post‑4844) and wrap it with an ERC‑4337 paymaster so customers don’t touch gas. For enterprise UX, combine with a “credit burndown” ledger in Stripe; stream settles risk intra‑month, invoice summarizes EOM for AP. (blocknative.com)

If you’re still skeptical

• Second‑granularity isn’t exotic. Your suppliers already bill sub‑second (Cloud Run vCPU‑seconds, Workers CPU‑ms). Stripe Meters natively models usage, thresholds, and previews. Ethereum’s 2025 Pectra upgrade normalized smart‑account UX, and 4844 keeps L2 settlement cheap enough for micro‑transactions. The market has moved. (cloud.google.com)

Personalized CTA If you’re a VP Finance or Head of RevOps at a 200–1,500‑employee AI SaaS already on Stripe, with Coupa or SAP Ariba in AP, and you need one SKU live on second‑based pricing by April 30, 2026—including ASC‑606‑ready recognition, PO‑matched invoices, and gas‑sponsored onchain settlement—book our 30‑minute “Meters‑to‑Settlement” working session. We’ll map your top two value meters to Stripe, design an EIP‑7702/4337 autopay flow on a blob‑enabled L2, and return a 2‑week implementation plan with ROI math specific to your stack. Then we’ll build it with you via our blockchain integration and web3 development services—so you can show NDR lift and cleaner RevRec in Q2.