Lago

A metering and usage-based billing platform that turns API calls, tokens or compute into prices, credits, invoices and payments.

10.8k stars, 784 forks Go On GitHub since February 2022

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Lago at a glance

Open sourceYes, AGPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health75 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDockerCompose file, 8 services
InterfaceEnglish onlyNo translation files found
Issue repliesWithin ~3 daysMedian first reply; 56% of recent issues answered

What is Lago?

Lago records product usage events and converts them into charges based on the pricing you define: per token, per API call, per compute hour or any other unit. It handles subscriptions, credits, entitlements, invoices, payments and revenue analytics. You can use it for your own product, or embed it to bill your customers' customers. It offers a REST API with SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server for AI assistants, plus a demo that prices a sample AI workload locally.

Good fit if

  • You sell an API or AI product with usage-based pricing and want billing logic you control.
  • You want to avoid revenue-share fees of a hosted billing vendor.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need to route payments across many processors rather than calculate bills: HyperSwitch.

Before you adopt it

Lago is AGPL-3.0, and the repository contains no paid parts; the company also offers Lago Cloud. Work is shared among about a dozen developers. The Docker Compose stack runs PostgreSQL and Redis among several services. Review financial changes before running them, as the README itself advises for agent-driven work.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

How to run Lago yourself

Docker
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Compose file
docker-compose.yml: 8 services (postgres, redis)
Setup effort
4 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
English only

Install instructions: getlago.com or the README on GitHub.

Lago health: is it still maintained?

75 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~14 daysLatest: v1.56.0, 2 November 2026
Issue repliesWithin ~3 daysMedian first reply; 56% of recent issues answered
Bus factorLow riskThe most active of 14 authors wrote 18% of recent commits
  • Activity
    72 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 4 November 2026.
    23 / 30
  • Contributors
    14 people wrote the 72 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 18% of them.
    16 / 20
  • Releases
    15+ releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v1.56.0, on 2 November 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 56% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 3 days.
    12 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 5 November 2026. How the score works

Lago license: is it open source?

Lago uses AGPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. February 2022First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayAGPL-3.0.

Lago for developers

Written in

  • Go 84%
  • Shell 10%
  • Dockerfile 6%
  • Procfile <1%

Getting involved

Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues10On GitHub
Authors, 90 days14Of 72 commits

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to Lago

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Questions about Lago

Is Lago open source?

Yes. Lago is published under AGPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Lago still maintained?

Its health score is 75 of 100 (actively developed). It had 72 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 4 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 2 November 2026.

How do I run Lago?

You can run it with Docker. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is Lago written in?

Lago is written mainly in Go (84% of the code), with Shell (10%) and Dockerfile (6%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What are the alternatives to Lago?

Close alternatives in the Developer tools category include HyperSwitch, Langfuse, Gotify.