# Plans > An index and topic collection covering machine-readable API and SaaS plan definitions. Plans capture the structured representation of pricing tiers, included entitlements, metered entries, add-ons, and rate plans that a provider exposes — whether as API Commons Plans YAML, OpenAPI `x-plans` exten... This is the **Plans** topic area of [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) — a network of focused knowledge bases drawn from 16 years of independent API research by Kin Lane. Browse all areas at https://apievangelist.com/areas/. ## Services & Tools - [Stripe](https://providers.apis.io/providers/stripe/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/stripe) - [Chargebee](https://providers.apis.io/providers/chargebee/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/chargebee) - [Recurly](https://providers.apis.io/providers/recurly/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/recurly) - [Lago](https://providers.apis.io/providers/lago/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/lago) - [Metronome](https://providers.apis.io/providers/metronome/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/metronome) - [Orb](https://providers.apis.io/providers/orb/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/orb) - [Amberflo](https://providers.apis.io/providers/amberflo/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/amberflo) - [Togai](https://providers.apis.io/providers/togai/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/togai) - [M3ter](https://providers.apis.io/providers/m3ter/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/m3ter) - [Google Apigee](https://providers.apis.io/providers/google-apigee/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/google-apigee) - [Zuplo](https://providers.apis.io/providers/zuplo/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/zuplo) - [Schematic](https://providers.apis.io/providers/schematic/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/schematic) - [Stigg](https://providers.apis.io/providers/stigg/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/stigg) - [Twilio](https://providers.apis.io/providers/twilio/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/twilio) - [PayPal](https://providers.apis.io/providers/paypal/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/paypal) - [Braintree](https://providers.apis.io/providers/braintree/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/braintree) - [Shift4 Payments](https://providers.apis.io/providers/shift4-payments/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/shift4-payments) - [HubSpot](https://providers.apis.io/providers/hubspot/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/hubspot) - [Postman](https://providers.apis.io/providers/postman/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/postman) - [BigCommerce](https://providers.apis.io/providers/bigcommerce/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/bigcommerce) - [Vendr](https://providers.apis.io/providers/vendr/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/vendr) - [Infracost](https://providers.apis.io/providers/infracost/) (repo: https://github.com/api-evangelist/infracost) ## Common Features - **Machine-Readable Pricing Tiers**: Plans expose subscription tiers (Free, Pro, Enterprise, Custom) as structured artifacts that downstream tooling can parse, compare, and reconcile against billing records. - **API Commons Plans Specification**: Providers can publish a normalized API Commons Plans YAML file describing plan IDs, entries, metrics, limits, time frames, and prices — the canonical machine-readable representation used across this network. - **In-Band Plan Catalog APIs**: Billing platforms such as Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly, Lago, Metronome, Orb, and Apigee expose plan and price catalogs through their own APIs, enabling programmatic synchronization of pricing into product, billing, and entitlement systems. - **Pricing-Page Scrapers and Reconciliation**: When providers do not publish in-band plan catalogs, scaffolded pricing-page scrapers extract tier and entry data from public pricing pages, then reconcile them against provider documentation to produce a verifiable plans artifact. - **Plan Entitlements and Feature Flags**: Plans declare entitlements — included features, request quotas, seat caps, retention windows, support SLAs — that platforms like Schematic and Stigg consume to drive in-product gating, packaging experiments, and trial flows. - **Rate Plans and Metered Entries**: Plans capture metered usage entries (transactions, requests, events, GB-ingested, seats) with per-unit pricing, tier breaks, and overage rules — the underlying contract for usage-based billing engines. ## Use Cases - **Pricing Page to Catalog Sync**: Marketing-published pricing pages are scraped into API Commons Plans YAML, validated against the provider's catalog API, and used to keep public pricing and billed prices in lockstep. - **Plan Comparison and Procurement**: Procurement platforms like Vendr and cost tools like Infracost ingest normalized plan artifacts across vendors to compare tiers, identify overpayment, and surface negotiable line items. - **Entitlement Enforcement in Product**: Product teams use entitlement platforms like Schematic and Stigg to read plan definitions and gate features, meter usage, and present in-product upgrade prompts driven by the same artifact billing uses. - **Usage-Based Billing Configuration**: Engineering teams seed billing platforms (Lago, Metronome, Orb, Amberflo, Togai, M3ter) with plan artifacts that declare metrics, tier breaks, and commitments — replacing per-tenant pricing spreadsheets with a versioned source of truth. - **API Marketplace Plan Tagging**: API hubs and gateways (Postman, Apigee, Zuplo) tag listed APIs with the plan tiers under which they are accessible, letting consumers filter discovery by subscription level and authentication scope. - **Pricing Governance and Audit**: Finance and revenue operations use machine-readable plan artifacts to audit historical pricing changes, detect drift between the website and the billing system, and produce SOC-2-friendly pricing change logs. ## Related Areas - [Monetization](https://monetization.apievangelist.com): An index and topic collection covering API and SaaS monetization platforms: billing engines, subscription management,... - [Portal](https://portal.apievangelist.com): A curated index of services, tooling, and open source solutions for API developer portals, API catalogs, API marketpl... - [Transparency](https://transparency.apievangelist.com): An index and topic collection covering public-facing transparency surfaces across the API and platform ecosystem. Tra... ## More - [Latest Plans stories](/stories/) - [All API Evangelist topic areas](https://apievangelist.com/areas/) - [API Evangelist network index (llms.txt)](https://apievangelist.com/llms.txt)