BuffMoneyUsage-based billing infrastructure for AI / SaaS companies selling into China. Three tiers, transparent fees, free to start. No setup, no monthly minimums, no hidden FX markups. Upgrade when KYB-approved — or talk to sales at scale.
Break-even vs Starter at ~¥7,300 monthly CNY collection. Above that, Growth costs less per ¥.
BuffMoney's full stack ships from day one. The tier difference is fee % + product count + settlement timing.
The fine print, answered plainly.
Both, in a sense. Your customers pay you the prices you set in our dashboard (whatever they are — subscription, per-use, one-shot). When that payment lands in CNY, BuffMoney takes its service fee (3% on Starter, 2% on Growth, + Growth's $9.99/mo subscription) out of that flow, and settles the net to your bank. So strictly speaking you pay us out of what your customers paid you — but the fee shows up on your settlement, not on theirs.
Standard cap is $200 USD equivalent per transaction (≈¥1,450 at current FX). This matches typical SaaS subscription price points and protects both sides from accidental large charges. Scale-tier merchants can negotiate a higher per-transaction cap.
It's a percentage of the gross CNY amount the consumer pays you. On a ¥100 transaction at Starter (3%), BuffMoney retains ¥3 and you receive the ¥97 net. On Growth (2%), the same ¥100 nets you ¥98 — or if you choose 'consumer absorbs', the consumer is charged ¥102 and you receive the full ¥100.
No setup, no monthly minimums. FX conversion uses a locked snapshot at invoice time — the rate is included in your settlement amount, not charged separately. Channel passthrough fees (WeChat / Alipay) are absorbed by BuffMoney within the transaction fee — you don't see them as a separate line.
The monthly covers the ongoing infrastructure — webhook delivery SLA, Slack support, branded checkout, faster T+7 settlement — that don't scale with transaction volume. The 2% covers per-transaction processing. Break-even vs Starter (3%, no monthly) happens around ¥7,300/month CNY collection. Under that, stay on Starter.
Listed in USD ($9.99) for clarity, billed monthly in the CNY equivalent at the locked FX snapshot. We use the same snapshot that applies to your transaction settlement that month — no separate FX markup.
Yes. Starter → Growth happens automatically after KYB approval. Growth → Scale is a sales conversation. Downgrades take effect at the next settlement period.
BuffMoney bills usage events, not subscriptions. If your product is subscription-shaped (fixed monthly per customer), treat each renewal as one usage event with quantity 1 and price = the subscription amount.
T+N means the net amount settles N business days after the consumer pays. Starter settles T+14. Growth settles T+7. Scale is custom — daily or on-demand available.
Start on Starter free. Upgrade to Growth after KYB. Talk to sales when you outgrow both.