Challenge

Gamma launched in San Francisco in 2020 to disrupt presentation software, which had seen limited innovation for more than two decades. After some early iterations, Gamma found product-market fit in 2023 with the addition of AI-powered design tools that made it easy to build slide decks with multimedia and animated graphics—no coding or design experience needed.

Gamma launched its new AI-based tool as a free offering, giving users a limited number of credits for LLM usage and allowing them to earn additional credits by inviting friends to join. Customer enthusiasm fueled viral growth, and many soon began asking how they could pay for the service. Gamma’s founders quickly realized they needed to introduce a subscription plan to capitalize on that demand and help offset its rising LLM costs.

“Once people ran out of credits, there was no easy way to top up, and we saw a lot of interest from users who wanted to pay. AI models were already expensive, so we knew we had to protect ourselves,” said Ali Rizvi, senior software engineer at Gamma.

With fewer than 10 employees at the time, Gamma needed a full-service payment and billing solution it could launch with minimal engineering work. It also wanted self-service subscription management tools, so users could change their plans and payment methods without help from Gamma’s small accounts team. At the same time, the technology needed to be flexible enough to scale with the company and adapt to changes in Gamma’s customer base and business model.

Since the company already had a global customer base, Gamma also needed a payment system that allowed it to meet customer demand by supporting multiple currencies and offering popular local payment methods around the world.

Solution

In 2023, Gamma partnered with Stripe to build its subscription offering on Stripe Billing, eventually creating five paid tiers across monthly and annual plans. Each plan included usage limits, so Gamma’s engineers used the Stripe API to connect Billing with the company’s in-house token-tracking system, enabling each subscriber to receive the appropriate number of LLM credits once a payment was made.

For account management, Gamma set up a Billing customer portal, which allowed subscribers to update their plans and payment details without going through Gamma’s team. Because Stripe automatically translates that portal into more than 30 languages and 9 currencies, Gamma was able to localize the experience for its global customer base.

Gamma implemented Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite, a set of prebuilt payment UIs, to quickly launch its subscription signup flow. Using Stripe Checkout, a prebuilt payment page, the company was able to collect customer payments and easily add multiple payment methods, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH payments, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe that enables customers to check out faster with their preferred payment method. Gamma also used Stripe’s testing features to evaluate local payment methods in key markets, like UPI in India.

After two years of consistent growth, with individual usage spreading across organizations, Gamma expanded its focus to enterprise customers. To support this evolution in its business model, the company added Stripe Invoicing on top of Stripe Payments and Billing, allowing it to create custom contracts and subscription plans for larger customers.

Results

Gamma launches subscriptions in weeks and scales to $100 million ARR in under 3 years

Stripe’s flexible technology provided the building blocks Gamma needed to launch paid subscriptions in a few weeks.

“From an engineering perspective, Stripe saved a huge amount of effort. If we had built everything internally, it would have pushed billing back by six to eight weeks, which we didn’t have,” said Rizvi.

Capturing early revenue also gave the team runway to keep investing in its core product and focus on user acquisition. Within 2 months, Gamma surpassed $1 million ARR and became profitable. By the end of 2025, Gamma had grown to more than $100 million ARR and 70 million users worldwide.

Billing customer portal frees Gamma’s team to focus on product, not subscription management

By directing customer subscription changes through the Billing customer portal, Gamma has been able to keep its headcount low while continuing to develop new features. Since the start of 2025, the company has launched AI image editing, no-code website design, Gamma for Teams, Gamma Imagine for standalone design assets, and Gamma Agent, which it describes as the world’s first AI design partner.

Link processes 43% of payment volume

Presenting a streamlined checkout experience through Link has resonated with Gamma’s global customer base. Today, Link processes 43% of Gamma’s payment volume.

UPI drives 22% revenue growth in India

Thanks to rigorous testing, Gamma optimized its mix of local payment methods to improve conversions and increase revenue in key markets. For example, accepting UPI drove 22% revenue growth in India. Gamma has also seen strong results from local payment methods in other countries.

“From a user experience perspective, enabling a payment method is almost a single toggle,” said Rizvi. “In Stripe’s test mode, we can enable a payment method, test the flow, see how payments move from processing to paid, then roll it out.”

Gamma scales into enterprise with Invoicing

Adding Invoicing positioned Gamma to pursue enterprise accounts, which the company sees as an important driver of future growth. Gamma can create custom invoices based on clients’ specific purchasing requirements, including custom allocations of LLM credits. Stripe Invoicing also syncs with Gamma’s internal tools, allowing the team to generate invoices quickly within its existing workflows.