For analytics and BI software: which docs and posts bring teams whose usage grows.

01How they sell

• UsageBilled by events, rows, queries or compute above an allowance; an account's invoices climb as its data grows, with no new sale.
• SubscriptionSeat or tier plans for dashboards and sharing, monthly or annual, often alongside the usage charge.
• FreemiumA free tier or an open-source edition that people self-host or try on sample data before connecting their own.

02Payments it reads

• StripeMetered billing on Stripe subscriptions; each usage invoice is read and keeps the first payment's source.
• PolarDeveloper-first analytics products bill seats and metered usage through Polar, whose subscription cycles, metered ones included, are read.
• PaddlePicked for selling to companies worldwide with tax handled by a merchant of record; transactions and renewals are read.

03Where buyers come from

• Docs searchEngineers search for how to do one thing and land on a docs page, which can be both the first and the last page a buyer sees.
• Hacker News and data communitiesTechnical posts and launches draw careful readers who evaluate later rather than buying on the spot.
• GitHubThe open-source edition's repository sends visitors from its README to the cloud pricing page.
• Conference talksA talk sends people who type the product's name afterwards; Readable Direct counts them as typed rather than unknown.
• AI assistantsEngineers ask assistants how to answer a data question and get pointed at tools; those visits have their own channel.

04What Tally answers

1. Do docs readers become paying teams?

   What they read gives engaged time and scroll depth per page for buyers and for everyone else; docs pages that buyers spend real time on are the ones carrying the evaluation.

   What they read

2. How long does an evaluation take, from first visit to first invoice?

   Path to purchase gives the median time and visits from first visit to first payment, with a histogram of the spread; a proof of concept can show as a long, steady middle rather than a spike on day one.

   Path to purchase

3. Which channel brings accounts whose usage keeps growing?

   Lifetime value by first source totals every usage invoice since the first, so a source whose accounts double their data stands above one whose accounts sit at the minimum.

   Lifetime value

4. Are AI assistants sending engineers to us?

   Visits from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and other assistants have their own channel in every breakdown, with the revenue behind them and the pages they landed on.

   Sources with revenue

5. Why are some usage invoices unlinked?

   Coverage lists each reason a payment isn't linked, such as a subscription your backend created without the visitor's id, and gives the snippet that fixes it; usage invoices then follow whatever the first payment linked to.

   Coverage

05Numbers worth watching

Median time to buy

The median time from first visit to first payment, which for a product that needs a data connection is the length of the evaluation.

Lifetime value by first source

Lifetime revenue by first source; with usage billing, it is the only figure that shows what an account became.

Visitors from AI assistants

Visits arriving from AI assistants, which can send engineers straight to a docs page.

Engaged time

Time actually spent on docs and guides, counted only while the tab is in view and the reader is active.

06An example

07Setting up

1. Next.jsIf the docs and marketing site are one Next.js app, add the tag in the root layout, so a visitor's path runs from a docs page to pricing.
2. PolarPass the visitor's id in the Polar checkout's metadata when a team starts a paid plan; metered cycles then keep the source.
3. StripeWith Stripe, set the visitor's id in the Checkout Session's metadata and subscription_data, and later usage invoices follow it.
4. Call tally('identify', { email }) when someone creates a workspace, so a payment made later with that email links even from another browser.

08Questions

• Self-hosters never pay us. Do they skew the numbers?

  They count as visitors, which lowers conversion and revenue per visitor on the docs they read. Compare sources by revenue and lifetime value too, which only count people who paid.

• Do usage invoices count as renewals?

  Each invoice on the subscription after the first takes the first payment's link, so usage growth is credited to the source that won the account.

• Can our data team query these numbers directly?

  Yes, through the REST API or the command line, and an AI assistant can query them through the MCP server.