Meter-Only Mode & Disable Billing

Lava supports two ways to route requests through the gateway without charging a customer’s subscription. Use meter-only mode to attribute requests to a specific meter for cost tracking and analytics, or disable billing to preserve full customer context while skipping the subscription charge.

Prerequisites: You need a Lava merchant account with a configured meter and the Node.js SDK installed. For disable billing, you also need an existing customer.

When to Use Each Mode

Mode	Token params	Customer charged?	Customer tracked?	Use case
Meter-only	`meter_slug` only	No	No	Internal tools, cost attribution, analytics
Disable billing	`customer_id` + `meter_slug` + `disable_billing`	No	Yes	Free trials, testing, promotional requests

In both modes, the provider cost is incurred by you as the merchant (as with all gateway requests). The difference from normal customer billing is that no charges are applied to the customer’s subscription. Usage is still tracked and visible in your dashboard.

Meter-Only Mode

Pass only a meter_slug when generating a forward token — no customer_id. Lava attributes the request to the specified meter for cost tracking and analytics, without any customer context.

SDK gateway()
SDK generateForwardToken()
Manual token

import { Lava } from '@lavapayments/nodejs';

const lava = new Lava();

const data = await lava.gateway('https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions', {
  body: {
    model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
  },
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
});

import { Lava } from '@lavapayments/nodejs';

const lava = new Lava();

const forwardToken = lava.generateForwardToken({
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
});

const response = await fetch(lava.providers.openai + '/chat/completions', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${forwardToken}`,
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
  }),
});

const data = await response.json();

const forwardToken = btoa(JSON.stringify({
  secret_key: process.env.LAVA_SECRET_KEY,
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
}));

How It Works

Lava validates your secret key and resolves the meter.
The request is forwarded to the AI provider.
Usage (tokens, cost) is recorded and attributed to the meter.

No customer context is involved — meter-only requests don’t require a checkout, customer, or subscription. This makes it ideal for internal usage where you want per-meter cost tracking without customer setup.

Disable Billing

Pass customer_id, meter_slug, and disable_billing: true to route a request with full customer context without charging their subscription. The customer’s identity is preserved in usage records, but no credits are deducted from their plan.

SDK gateway()
SDK generateForwardToken()
Manual token

import { Lava } from '@lavapayments/nodejs';

const lava = new Lava();

const data = await lava.gateway('https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions', {
  body: {
    model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
  },
  customer_id: 'conn_abc123',
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
  disable_billing: true,
});

import { Lava } from '@lavapayments/nodejs';

const lava = new Lava();

const forwardToken = lava.generateForwardToken({
  customer_id: 'conn_abc123',
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
  disable_billing: true,
});

const response = await fetch(lava.providers.openai + '/chat/completions', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${forwardToken}`,
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    model: 'gpt-4o-mini',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
  }),
});

const data = await response.json();

const forwardToken = btoa(JSON.stringify({
  secret_key: process.env.LAVA_SECRET_KEY,
  customer_id: 'conn_abc123',
  meter_slug: 'my-meter',
  disable_billing: true,
}));

How It Works

Lava validates your secret key, resolves the customer and meter.
The customer’s subscription balance is not checked or deducted.
The request is forwarded to the AI provider.
Usage is recorded and attributed to the customer.

Subscription entitlements are still enforced when billing is disabled. The meter must be on the customer’s active plan — disable_billing only skips the charge, not authorization.

Common Use Cases

Free trials — let new customers use your service before they subscribe.
Testing integrations — verify a customer’s setup end-to-end without deducting their credits.
Promotional requests — absorb the cost of specific requests without affecting the customer’s plan.
Debugging — reproduce a customer’s issue with their full auth context intact.

Comparing All Request Modes

For reference, here is how meter-only and disable billing fit alongside Lava’s other request modes:

Mode	Token params	Customer charged?	Customer tracked?
Gateway (simplest)	none	No	No
Meter-only	`meter_slug`	No	No
Customer billing	`customer_id` + `meter_slug`	Yes	Yes
Billing disabled	`customer_id` + `meter_slug` + `disable_billing`	No	Yes

Next Steps

Node.js SDK

Full SDK reference including all forward token options

Meters

Configure pricing and metering for your API

Checkout

Set up customer checkout to start billing

Usage Analytics

Query and visualize usage data from metered requests

Get Started

AI Gateway

AI Spend

Monetize

Integration

SDK

Cookbook

Comparisons

Meter-Only Mode & Disable Billing

When to Use Each Mode

Meter-Only Mode

How It Works

Disable Billing

How It Works

Common Use Cases

Comparing All Request Modes

Next Steps

Node.js SDK

Meters

Checkout

Usage Analytics

Get Started

AI Gateway

AI Spend

Monetize

Integration

SDK

Cookbook

Comparisons

​When to Use Each Mode

​Meter-Only Mode

​How It Works

​Disable Billing

​How It Works

​Common Use Cases

​Comparing All Request Modes

​Next Steps

Node.js SDK

Meters

Checkout

Usage Analytics

When to Use Each Mode

Meter-Only Mode

How It Works

Disable Billing

How It Works

Common Use Cases

Comparing All Request Modes

Next Steps