Tailfin
OpenMeter, operated by Tailfin Cloud Inc., is a usage-based billing and metering platform that helps SaaS, API, and AI companies meter events, enforce entitlements, and sync invoices to Stripe, now part of Kong, Inc.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Tailfin does
Tailfin Cloud Inc., operating as OpenMeter, is a San Francisco-based usage-based billing and metering platform serving SaaS, API, and AI-native companies. Founded in 2023, the company built OpenMeter on a Go, Kafka, and ClickHouse stream-processing stack capable of metering millions of events per second, with a managed cloud product (OpenMeter Cloud), an Apache 2.0 open-source engine for self-hosting, and pre-built SDKs for TypeScript, Python, and Go. Core modules include a no-code Product Catalog, real-time Entitlements and usage-limit enforcement (including edge-based gating), Billing & Invoicing with native Stripe synchronization, a Customer Portal for usage dashboards, Notifications with Slack/webhook alerts, and a collector framework (built on Redpanda Connect) that ingests usage events from Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, LangChain, Nvidia Run:ai, Postgres, ClickHouse, S3, and Prometheus.
The company monetizes through a freemium self-serve model: a Free Forever tier (up to 1M events), volume-based paid subscriptions managed via Stripe, and annual enterprise contracts (SAML SSO, RBAC, SOC 2 Type II, 99.999% SLA). Its primary customer segments are AI companies metering LLM tokens and GPU usage, API and developer-tool companies implementing usage-based pricing, and cloud infrastructure providers billing for compute and Kubernetes workloads. Named customers include Trigger.dev, Requestly, Lever, Apollo GraphQL, Abbey.io, Google Cloud, Beam, Traceloop, and Amagi. Tailfin raised $500K from Y Combinator in April 2023 and a $3M seed round in March 2024, completed SOC 2 Type II in November 2024, and was acquired by Kong, Inc. in September 2025, where it now operates as Kong Metering & Billing. The company is led by founders Peter Marton (CEO) and Andras Toth (CTO), with a team of 1-10 employees.
Tailfin firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Tailfin
- Legal name
- Tailfin Cloud Inc.
- Website
- https://tailfin.cloud
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- OpenMeter, operated by Tailfin Cloud Inc., is a usage-based billing and metering platform that helps SaaS, API, and AI companies meter events, enforce entitlements, and sync invoices to Stripe, now part of Kong, Inc.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Tailfin industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Usage-Based Billing and Metering Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Capacity Planning, Cost Optimization & FinOps Monitoring (HDABAJAK)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Hybrid Cloud Management, Monitoring & FinOps (HDABAMAD)
Keywords
Where Tailfin is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Tailfin business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Cloud Subscription (OpenMeter Cloud): Managed SaaS offering with subscription tiers. Free tier provides up to 1M events. Paid plans provide additional event quotas, enterprise features (SAML SSO, RBAC, SLA), and support options. Self-service subscription management via Stripe.
- Usage-based Billing: OpenMeter provides the metering infrastructure for customers to implement their own usage-based pricing models. Customers pay based on their own usage of their products, not directly to OpenMeter.
- Open Source (Self-Hosted): Open-source version available under Apache 2.0 license for self-hosting. Revenue generated from enterprise support, hosting services, or professional services rather than software licensing.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Forever Plan - Up to 1M events |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Paid Plans - Volume-based event pricing |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise - Custom Pricing |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels5 records
Tailfin product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Tailfin operates OpenMeter, a real-time usage metering and billing platform for SaaS, AI, and API companies. It provides event ingestion, aggregation, flexible pricing models, entitlements enforcement, and invoicing with native Stripe synchronization. The platform is offered as a managed cloud SaaS (OpenMeter Cloud) and as an open-source self-hosted engine under Apache 2.0.
Product overview
Tailfin's OpenMeter is an open-source usage-based billing and metering platform designed for AI and API companies. The offering consists of OpenMeter Cloud (managed serverless SaaS) and OpenMeter Open Source (self-hosted engine), both built on Go, Kafka, and ClickHouse. The platform centers on real-time event-based metering for tracking AI tokens, API calls, compute resources, and Kubernetes workloads. Key modules include: Product Catalog (no-code pricing configuration), Entitlements & Limits (feature access control and usage enforcement), Billing & Invoicing (flexible billing with Stripe integration), Notifications (threshold alerts), OpenMeter Collectors (pre-built data connectors for Kubernetes, S3, OpenTelemetry, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, LangChain, Prometheus, Nvidia Run:ai), Customer Portal (React dashboard components), and Usage Syncs (export to CRMs, analytics platforms, data warehouses). OpenMeter Cloud adds enterprise features including SAML SSO, RBAC, audit logs, and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- OpenMeter Cloud Managed SaaS usage-based billing and metering platform providing scalable event ingestion, real-time metering, billing, product catalog, entitlements management, customer portal, and enterprise security features (SAML SSO, RBAC, SOC 2 Type 2). Targeted at SaaS, AI, and API companies needing usage-based pricing without infrastructure overhead.
- OpenMeter Open Source Open-source core engine for usage-based billing and metering, available under Apache 2.0 license. Built with Go, Kafka, and ClickHouse, deployable via Kubernetes Helm charts. Designed for engineering teams preferring self-hosting their monetization infrastructure.
Quantifiable outcome
- Time to implement usage-based billing reduced from weeks to minutes with no-code product catalog
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Tailfin
Customer profileNamed customers9 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Tailfin technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
AI capability2 records
Feature6 records
Tailfin partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.
- Kong Inc.flagshipOpenMeter announced it is joining Kong Inc. to bring AI and API monetization to the next level. OpenMeter Cloud continues to operate as usual for existing and new customers. The integration with Kong's broader API management platform enables combined offerings for enterprise customers.
- StripecoreNative Stripe integration enables usage-based billing and payment collection. OpenMeter synchronizes invoices to Stripe, calculates tax, and collects payments automatically. Stripe Checkout Sessions support simplified onboarding.
- LangChaincoreLangChain integration enables token usage tracking for language model applications. OpenMeter Callback Handler captures token usage from LangChain LLM operations for accurate billing.
- KubernetescoreOpenMeter Collector integrates with Kubernetes for metering Pod runtime CPU, memory, and storage allocation. Enables monetization of customer workloads with usage-based billing.
- OpenTelemetrycoreOpenTelemetry integration enables usage extraction from access logs using the open standard for log forwarding. Supports non-sampled logs as usage information sources.
- Nvidia Run:aicoreNvidia Run:ai integration enables GPU usage metering for accurate billing and invoicing. Supports metering GPU, CPU, and memory allocation.
- ClickHousecoreClickHouse integration for collecting usage data directly from ClickHouse databases, leveraging existing data sources for usage metering.
- PostgreSQLcorePostgreSQL integration for collecting usage data from Postgres databases, enabling existing data source utilization for metering.
- Amazon S3 / Cloudflare R2 / Backblaze B2coreS3-compatible object storage integration for ingesting data into OpenMeter from AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or Backblaze B2 for usage-based billing.
- Redpanda Connect (Benthos)coreOpenMeter Collector built on Redpanda Connect provides robust stream processing for collecting usage data from various sources with reliable delivery guarantees.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Tailfin competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Lago: Open-source usage-based billing engine with self-hosted and cloud deployment options — a direct open-source analogue to OpenMeter. Competes for developers building metering and billing infrastructure.
- Maxio: SaaS billing and financial operations platform (formerly SaaSOptics) serving B2B SaaS companies. Comparable in serving SaaS finance and revenue teams with usage and subscription billing.
- Orb: Usage-based billing and pricing platform targeting SaaS companies with real-time metering, flexible pricing models, and analytics. Closely comparable product surface and target customer base to OpenMeter.
- Metronome: Usage-based billing platform serving SaaS and AI companies with real-time metering, flexible pricing models, and invoicing. Direct overlap with OpenMeter's core metering + billing proposition, especially for AI token and compute billing.
- Stripe Billing: Stripe's usage-based billing product directly competes with OpenMeter in metering and invoicing for SaaS and API companies. Stripe's broader payments stack creates a bundled alternative to OpenMeter's specialized metering layer.
Emerging players
- Stigg: Pricing, packaging, and entitlement platform for SaaS with usage-based metering and feature gating. Adjacent overlap with OpenMeter's entitlements and pricing catalog capabilities.
Broad incumbents
- Zuora: Public subscription economy platform with metering and usage-based billing capabilities. Incumbent alternative for enterprises evaluating OpenMeter for subscription and consumption-based revenue.
- Chargebee: Established subscription billing platform expanding into usage-based pricing. Broader portfolio than OpenMeter but overlaps on metering, invoicing, and revenue recognition for SaaS.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Tailfin social profiles
Digital presenceTailfin compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Tailfin financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Tailfin leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Tailfin funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Tailfin M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Tailfin
What does Tailfin do?
Tailfin operates OpenMeter, a real-time usage metering and billing platform for SaaS, AI, and API companies. It provides event ingestion, aggregation, flexible pricing models, entitlements enforcement, and invoicing with native Stripe synchronization. The platform is offered as a managed cloud SaaS (OpenMeter Cloud) and as an open-source self-hosted engine under Apache 2.0.
Is Tailfin a public or private company?
Tailfin is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Tailfin founded?
Tailfin was founded in 2023. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Tailfin based?
Tailfin is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Tailfin make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Cloud Subscription (OpenMeter Cloud) is the primary driver. The others are usage-based Billing and open Source (Self-Hosted).
Who are Tailfin's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Lago, Maxio, Orb, Metronome and Stripe Billing. Stigg is listed as an emerging player. Broad incumbents are Zuora and Chargebee.
Does Tailfin have an API?
Yes. OpenMeter exposes a REST API for integrations. The API v3 is a rewrite with AIP (API Improvement Proposal) standardization providing a cleaner, more consistent design for metering, billing, and related resources. Pre-built client SDKs are available for Node.js, Python, and Go. The API supports ingestion of usage events in CloudEvents format. Developer documentation is at tailfin.cloud/docs/api.
What industry is Tailfin in?
Tailfin's product category is Usage-Based Billing and Metering Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAJAK, Capacity Planning, Cost Optimization & FinOps Monitoring, with a secondary code of HDABAMAD, Hybrid Cloud Management, Monitoring & FinOps. Its NAICS code is 518.