As customers automate more workflows, connect more data, and use more applications powered by Autodesk Platform Services (APS), API consumption has accelerated. To support this growing usage and help users scale, we introduced included API capacity with eligible Autodesk subscriptions, giving customers more ways to explore APIs and automation at no additional cost.
Until now, API usage generated through third-party applications has typically been the responsibility of the application developer, even when that usage is driven by an Autodesk customer. On October 14, 2026, we're introducing passthrough billing, which allows eligible API usage from third-party applications to be attributed to the customer and consumed against their available APS capacity.
You still build, operate, price, and support your application. Passthrough billing simply gives you more flexibility in how APS API usage is funded behind the scenes.
What is passthrough billing?
Today, eligible APS API usage generated through third-party applications is typically billed to the app owner. With passthrough billing, eligible APS API usage generated through your application can use the customer’s available APS capacity, whether through included API usage with an eligible Autodesk subscription or another APS purchasing option, such as Flex or Pay as You Go.
- Today: Customer -> application -> APS -> app owner (ISV) billed for any API usage
- With passthrough billing: Customer -> application -> APS -> customer billed for any API usage or uses available included API usage
Passthrough billing is opt-in on both sides. You enable your application and implement the required authorization experience, and each customer completes the required setup before eligible API usage can be attributed to them.
Your application, product, pricing, and support model remain yours. Passthrough billing changes who is responsible for eligible APS API usage; it does not change your commercial relationship with that customer.
Why passthrough billing matters for third-party app owners
Customer usage is rarely one-size-fits-all. One customer may use an application lightly, while another may run large-scale automation, data processing, or AI-driven workflows that generate substantially more API activity. Under the existing model, that growth in consumption can translate directly into higher APS API costs for third-party app owners.
Passthrough billing gives you another way to scale. By allowing eligible usage to be billed to the customer, you can support higher consumption use cases without taking on an equivalent increase in API expenses. That gives you more flexibility as you serve customers with different usage profiles and decide how APS costs fit into your own product and pricing model.
It can create value for your customers, too. If they have included API usage through an eligible Autodesk subscription, they can apply that capacity to participating third-party applications they choose to use - extending the value of their Autodesk subscription into more of their workflows.
Adoption is optional. You can keep your existing ISV-funded model, move to passthrough billing, or support both models depending on what works for your application and customer base.
See passthrough billing in action
In this example, we follow a customer through the end-to-end experience, from enabling passthrough billing for their application to completing setup and using the application with API usage attributed directly to the end customer.
Preview disclaimer: The experience shown in this video represents the current design of passthrough billing. The user interface, terminology, and individual workflow steps may change as the capability continues to evolve.
Choose the path that fits your business
There is no single way to adopt passthrough billing. You can choose the approach that best matches your application, business model, and customer base:
- Keep your current model. Continue to fund eligible API usage generated by your customers.
- Launch a new passthrough-billing application. Create a new application configured for passthrough billing and help customers onboard.
- Transition* an eligible existing application. Preserve your existing client ID while moving customers progressively to passthrough billing.
- Run both models in parallel. Keep an existing application on the ISV-funded model while a separate application supports customers using passthrough billing.
*You can also transition an existing application at your own pace to avoid interruptions to your customers. During transition, customers who complete setup move to customer-funded API usage, while everyone else remains on the existing ISV-funded model—allowing you to migrate customers progressively under the same application and client ID. You decide when to end the transition and move to customer-funded only. At that point, only customers who have completed the setup can continue using the application through that client ID.
For more detail on choosing an approach, see the [Passthrough billing guide for ISVs].
Preparing for the initial release
Before you prepare an application for passthrough billing, keep these initial-release requirements in mind:
- Use 3-legged OAuth. Passthrough billing requires user context to establish the appropriate customer context. Pure 2LO and server-to-server applications are not supported in the initial release.
- Confirm customer eligibility and setup. Customers must meet the applicable eligibility requirements and complete the required setup before your application can attribute eligible API usage to them. Included API usage capacity is available only through eligible Autodesk subscriptions.
- Plan for a one-way transition. If you transition an existing application, you cannot move from a transition state back to ISV-funded, or from customer-funded only back to transition.
- Review launch-day management and reporting considerations. Some application management and reporting capabilities may differ for passthrough applications at launch, so review the passthrough billing guide before moving a production application.
We will continue to expand the capabilities and controls around passthrough billing as the experience evolves.
What's next
Because passthrough billing requires action from both you and your customer, the experience is rolling out in two phases.
The first phase offers time for you to prepare your applications. You can evaluate whether passthrough billing fits your business and customers, choose your billing model, and prepare eligible applications, including the authorization experience required to support customer-funded API usage.
The second phase will introduce passthrough billing to your users. Customers will be able to complete the setup required for participating applications to attribute eligible APS API usage to them, with additional guidance for customers and administrators as that experience becomes available.
If passthrough billing could fit your business, start with the passthrough billing guide for ISVs to compare the available billing models, understand the initial-release requirements, and prepare your application.
If you have any questions, we’re here to help.