Solution · Free-credit abuse
Free credits should reach real customers.
Free credits bring in new users. They also bring people who sign up again and again to use your compute for nothing. Darkmeter keeps the first group and slows the second.
What you are seeing
Why did signups triple when paying users did not?
A free tier assumes one person, one allowance. Without a lasting way to tell people apart, every new email is a new allowance, and the cost lands on you.
- Signups jump after a launch, but activations and paid plans stay flat.
- Your provider bill climbs faster than your user count.
- The same few usage patterns turn up under new email addresses.
- You tighten limits for everyone, and real new users feel it first.
Along the whole flow
The free tier, start to finish
Darkmeter sits at four points along the way. Each one is a call your backend already makes, and a decision you control.
1 · Signup
A new email arrives with a device token.
Checks whether this device already has accounts.
Signup GuardAllow2 · First credits
The free grant is handed out.
Gives a repeat signup a smaller grant, not the full one.
Signup GuardLimit3 · Heavy use
Requests start to add up.
Adds every account on the device into one meter.
Usage GuardLimit4 · At the cap
The device reaches your limit.
The next gate check says wait, and when to come back.
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 launch week, twice
An illustration, not a measurement: the same events, with the decision made at the right moment.
Without Darkmeter
- Signups spike on launch day.
- Free credits go out to every new address.
- The provider bill passes the plan.
- You cut free credits for everyone.
With Darkmeter
- Signups spike on launch day.
- Repeat signups get a smaller grant.
- Heavy devices pause at your cap.
- Real new users keep the full free tier.
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.