Stripe paid roughly $1B for Metronome - usage-based billing is now a first-party Stripe feature

Metronome was the leader for metered/usage billing that wasn't already inside Stripe. Acquiring it lets Stripe close the gap with the new wave of credit-based pricing models (Vercel, v0, Cursor, basically every AI tool). For founders running a usage-based product on a Stripe + Lago / Stripe + Orb setup, expect Stripe to surface native usage-billing primitives over the next two quarters. Don't migrate yet - wait for the integrated UI - but factor it into any 2026 billing rebuild.