Value Metric

The unit of measurement that a price attaches to. The single most important decision in software pricing. When people say "outcome-based pricing," they're describing a metric family — the metric is any of a sea of possibilities that represent an outcome (tickets resolved, leads recommended, fraud avoided, claims processed). When people say "usage-based pricing," that's also a family — the metric is any number of possibilities that represent consumption (API calls, compute hours, conversations, transactions). These category labels are general nouns adopted by others; the actual work is choosing the specific metric, and where you land is unique to your IP, risk tolerance, customer ecosystem, product, and cost structure. In a license agreement, the value metric typically appears in the licensing and rights-to-use section — it defines the rights and access terms the customer is buying. Every other section of the agreement flows from this choice.