Sell AI/agent products as Merchant of Record
Need to charge for tokens, agent runs, seats, and credits with global tax/VAT handled — without building Stripe Tax + meters + invoicing yourself.
At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/ai-merchant-of-record#briefScores as of 2026-09-14 (43 days old; Depot marks scores stale after 30 days). The pick is still Depot's current editorial pick; it has not been re-reviewed since. Prices below carry their own dates.
- Depot Pick
- Polar · 8.05/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
DX + pricePerf + maturity. Polar wins public MoR+usage ladder for AI indie/agent products; Stripe remains payments default.
- Runner-up
- Stripe · 8.76/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Capability fit, Latency / reliability, Developer & agent DX, Privacy / data retention, Maturity / track record.
- When not to use the pick
- You already have finance/ops owning Stripe Tax + OpenMeter/Metronome, or you must stay pure payment-processor (not MoR).
- Lock-in / migration
- The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up Stripe (4 vs 6). Pick exit signals: open source (provider tag `oss`).
- Sourced price (no comparable unit)
Pick: no sourced price in this job's unit (no_sourced_price).
No cheapest SKU (no_comparable_unit_for_job). No price was invented.
- Free option
- No free resource lists this job. A cheap paid SKU is not a free option.
- Failure modes to watch
- Confirmation skip: Gate those tool names on an approval id recorded before the call. A missing approval is a failure even if the downstream tool returns success.
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for ai-merchant-of-record: polar, scores as of 2026-09-14. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=ai-merchant-of-record
Polar
DX + pricePerf + maturity. Polar wins public MoR+usage ladder for AI indie/agent products; Stripe remains payments default.
Pricing (directional): As of 2026-09-14 (polar.sh/resources/pricing): Merchant of Record. Starter free at 5%+$0.50/txn; Pro $20/mo + 3.8%+$0.40; Growth $100 + 3.6%+$0.35; Scale $400 + 3.4%+$0.30. Orgs before 2026-05-27 keep Early Member 4%+$0.40 (+0.5% subscripti…
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
Depot pick for ai-merchant-of-record. Prefer Stripe when you already have tax/ops staff; OpenMeter/Kong when metering is internal-only.
Quote for Sell AI/agent products as Merchant of Record
Depot Pick stays Polar. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=ai-merchant-of-record
Nothing was compared. no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed pickIsPriceWinner is null.
Sourced price unavailable for the Depot Pick. No row in the pricing index.
7 of 7 candidates have no sourced price row. 7 are excluded from the Matching price comparison (none). no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed
Runners-up
Stripe
Non-negotiable for most commercial agent products. Use Billing meters for token pass-through pricing.
OpenMeter (Kong Konnect Metering)
Best when your agent product is an API gateway problem (entitlements + token meters). Orb for pricing…
Metronome
Strong usage-billing peer when Orb is too sales-opaque and you need SQL metrics + commits. OpenMeter/Kong for…
Autumn
Best DX when you already run Stripe and need synchronous feature gates for AI usage. Metronome/Orb for…
Lemon Squeezy
MoR peer to Polar/Paddle for digital products. Depot ai-merchant-of-record pick stays Polar for AI…
Paddle
Enterprise-leaning MoR peer. Prefer Polar for AI usage products; Paddle when you want mature SaaS MoR + buyer…
When NOT to use the top pick
You already have finance/ops owning Stripe Tax + OpenMeter/Metronome, or you must stay pure payment-processor (not MoR).
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stripe | 8.8 | 9.6 | 7.8 | 9.4 | 9.6 | 2026-09-14 |
| 2 | PolarDepot Pick | 8.1 | 8.4 | 8.2 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 3 | Paddle | 8.1 | 8.6 | 7.6 | 8.8 | 8.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 4 | Metronome | 8.0 | 9.0 | 7.0 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | Autumn | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.8 | 7.8 | 9.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | OpenMeter (Kong Konnect Metering) | 7.9 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 8.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 7 | Lemon Squeezy | 7.9 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
DX + pricePerf + maturity. Polar wins public MoR+usage ladder for AI indie/agent products; Stripe remains payments default.
capabilityFit: 25%pricePerformance: 18%latencyReliability: 15%developerDx: 15%privacyPosture: 10%lockInRisk: 7%maturity: 10%