Guide

The 12-Attribute Credit Architecture Blueprint

AI credits are more than a wallet balance. This blueprint shows the 12 attributes teams need to define before launching credit-based pricing, from burn rules and rate cards to expiry, pooling, overages, and revenue recognition.

Credit models often fail when teams start with the wallet instead of the architecture. The 12-Attribute Credit Architecture Blueprint from Zuora’s Michael Mansard helps pricing, product, finance, and revenue teams align on the rules that shape customer experience, margin protection, revenue quality, and operational complexity.

Use this blueprint to:

  • Define what consumes credits: inputs, activities, outputs, or outcomes.
  • Decide whether credits are universal or restricted by agent, model, product line, or workspace.
  • Design refill, rollover, expiry, top-up, and overage rules.
  • Make tradeoffs visible across customer trust, gross margin, revenue recognition, and operations.
  • Translate credit architecture into downstream requirements for usage capture, rating, billing, revenue schedules, and customer-facing transparency.