The rise of credit Usage

A quiet yet profound shift is taking place in the software industry. With the introduction of AI credits and usage-based billing, Figma has validated a new economic model that most people have not yet fully understood. This shift reaches far beyond design tools or pricing updates. It signals the beginning of what could become the defining paradigm of the next century: a world where software is consumed through credit usage, not owned through traditional subscriptions.

A Shift Triggered by the Mainstream Adoption of AI

The roots of this movement come from the rapid democratization of AI. As AI became accessible to millions, the economic structure behind these technologies started to change. Instead of paying for access to a static set of features, users now pay for the actions they perform — the real computational work happening behind the scenes.

This is exactly what Figma has just formalized. Their introduction of detailed consumption metrics, credit balances, recurring credit packages, and pay-as-you-go options shows that usage is no longer a secondary metric. It has become the core unit of value inside the product. What looks like a billing improvement is actually a sign that software is shifting toward measured interactions, not unlimited abstractions.

Designing for a World Where Every Action Has a Cost

This evolution deeply affects how we design digital products. When each action carries a real computational cost, we can’t think about features the same way. The goal is no longer simply to build something intuitive or visually clean, but to build something that is efficient — economically and technically.

Designing a feature now means understanding its impact on resource consumption and ensuring that it delivers maximum value for the lowest possible cost. This doesn’t make design harder, but it fundamentally changes its constraints. The experience must remain delightful, but it must also be resource-aware. We are entering an era where the elegance of a workflow is measured not only by its clarity but also by how precisely it turns intent into computational output.

A New Competitive Space: Efficiency Over Quantity

Tools like Lovable show where this is heading. In these products, you don’t pay to “own” capabilities; you pay when those capabilities work for you. The value shifts from the toolkit to the actual action.

This creates a new kind of competition: not who offers the most features, but who offers the best efficiency per action. The tools that thrive will be the ones that deliver maximum impact with minimal computational cost. The ones that waste credits — or hide inefficiencies — will lose users quickly.

The Rise of Standardized Credit Systems

As AI systems become more powerful and more expensive to run, the need for transparent consumption models becomes unavoidable. Figma is not an exception but a precursor. Many other platforms are quietly introducing their own credit systems, shaping a new shared expectation among users: software should be measurable, predictable, and tied to real usage.

This creates a new landscape for product teams. Features must be designed with usage patterns in mind. Engineering must anticipate the cost profile of each interaction. Product strategy must evolve from planning features to shaping usage behavior.

A New Governance Model for Software

Figma’s move is not just an update to its billing page. It signals a new governance model for digital products — one where usage is the primary driver of value and evolution. In this model, features behave like micro-services with measurable outputs. Roadmaps evolve based on consumption data, not only customer feedback. Product quality is tied to efficiency as much as functionality.

It is a shift that touches every role:
Design becomes performance-aware.
Engineering becomes cost-sensitive.
Product becomes responsible for the economics of interaction.

Entering the Century of Credit Usage

We are stepping into a world where products are metered rather than activated, features are consumed rather than installed, and interfaces must be not only intuitive but computationally responsible. This transition is happening quietly, without fanfare, but it is more structural than the move to SaaS.

What we are witnessing is not just the rise of new AI features. It is the emergence of a new software economy built around credit usage — a world where every interaction carries an economic imprint and where the relationship between users and digital tools becomes more transparent, more dynamic, and fundamentally more transactional.

This is not a trend. It is a new era.