Solution · Coding assistants
Free tiers for coding assistants cost real compute.
Every completion and chat is a model call. A few devices using many free accounts can use up the budget meant for many new users.
What you are seeing
Who is running up our completions bill?
Coding tools are used in bursts, and developers can switch accounts quickly. Without a per-person meter, heavy use is hard to tell from many casual users.
- A small number of devices make a large share of completions.
- Use comes in bursts that look like heavy single users or many casual ones.
- Developers can switch accounts in seconds.
- Every suggestion is a model call, and free tiers pay for all of them.
Along the whole flow
A coding session
Darkmeter sits at four points along the way. Each one is a call your backend already makes, and a decision you control.
1 · Sign in
The editor plugin signs the developer in.
Checks whether this device is new.
Signup GuardAllow2 · Completions
Every completion is a model call.
Gates before each request and takes a credits report after.
Usage GuardAllow3 · A burst
A long session runs through the budget.
Keeps one meter across every account on the device.
Usage GuardLimit4 · Pause
The device reaches the cap.
Asks it to try again later. Light users never see it.
Usage GuardCool down
Case by case
The situations you will actually meet.
Pick one. See the call your backend makes, what Darkmeter answers, and what the person is shown.
Your backend ⇄ Darkmeter
Illustrative situations and wording. Verdicts and reason names are a preview of the planned API.
Before and after
A release week, twice
An illustration, not a measurement: the same events, with the decision made at the right moment.
Without Darkmeter
- A few devices run completions all day.
- Usage climbs across many free accounts.
- The model bill outgrows the plan.
- You turn the free tier down for everyone.
With Darkmeter
- A few devices run completions all day.
- Their accounts add up on one meter.
- They pause at your cap.
- Everyone else keeps the free tier as it was.
Questions
Bring us your free tier.
Tell us how your free tier works and where it leaks. We will map it to the four points above.