> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.plude.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Graduated

> The graduated pricing is a common price model for consumption based subscription pricing. Customers such as Microsoft and Amazon leverage the graduated price to provide discounts on growth.

The graduated price model is perfect if you want to define several price tiers. This price model allows you to apply a programmatic discount depending on the number of units consumed, a flat fee or a combination of both.

A graduated price model is calculated as a stair-case applying *all applicable tiers* to the final pricing. Graduated is also referred to as a *tier price model* and [volume](/product/volume) is an alternative to graduated.

**Let's examine the following tier model (in USD):**

|        | From | Up to | Unit amount | Fee amount |
| :----- | :--- | :---- | ----------: | :--------- |
| Tier 1 | 0    | 1000  |         400 | 15000      |
| Tier 2 | 1001 | 2000  |         300 | 10000      |
| Tier 3 | 2001 | \~    |         200 | 0          |

Examplifying a `quantity` of 2500 would apply the following calculation:

> tier 1 = (1000 x 400) + 15000 = 415000 +<br />
> tier 2 = (2000 x 300) + 10000 = 610000 +<br />
> tier 3 = (500 x 200) + 0 = 100000 <br />
> totals: 1125000 USD

Hint: When creating a `price`, a request body may be as follows:

```json theme={null}
...
"priceModel": "graduated",
"pricing": {
    "usd": {
        "tiers": [
            {
                "unitAmount": 400,
                "feeAmount": 15000,
                "upTo": 1000
            },
            {
                "unitAmount": 300,
                "feeAmount": 10000,
                "upTo": 2000
            },
            
            {
                "unitAmount": 200,
                "feeAmount": 0
            }
        ]
    }
}
...
```

<Info>The last tier has no upper limit. This means that any usage beyond the defined tiers will be charged at the last tier's rate.</Info>