Kyle Poyar: The State of AI Pricing (Monetizing AI)
Poyar talks through the reasoning behind the data, listenable on a commute.
Open schematichq.com →
Building & Product
Podcast
Podcast
Podcast
Guide
Guide
Article
Article
Thread
Thread
Article
Article
Guide
Article
Article
Article
Article
Guide
How should I price AI features: per seat, per use, or per outcome?
AI broke flat per-seat pricing because every request has a real compute cost; most AI-native companies now run hybrid pricing: a base subscription plus usage credits, with outcome-based pricing (like Intercom's $0.99 per resolved ticket) emerging where results are measurable. Anchor your price to the value of the work replaced, not to your token costs, and protect margins with usage caps or credits. Expect to revise pricing often; the leading AI companies changed theirs multiple times a year.
Go deeper
17 resources.
Why hybrid pricing already won the AI era | Kyle Poyar
The strongest case for the model most early-stage AI products should default to.
Open revenuecreator.com →AI agent Fin nearing $100m revenue: Des Traynor
The founder behind the famous $0.99-per-resolution model on how it actually scaled.
Listen on Spotify open.spotify.com →The AI pricing and monetization playbook
The most complete framework for choosing between seat, usage, and outcome models.
Open bvp.com →The AI pricing playbook for founders (PDF)
The updated founder edition with 2026 benchmarks, ready to share with your team.
Open bvp.com →The state of AI pricing at 40 leading startups
Real pricing pages of 40 AI startups decoded; pattern-match instead of guessing.
Open growthunhinged.com →What's changing with AI monetization
The trend data: 2 in 5 software companies now run hybrid subscription-plus-credits pricing.
Open growthunhinged.com →The most disruptive AI pricing models so far
Salesforce at $2 per conversation, Intercom at $0.99 per resolution: the new anchors in one list.
Open substack.com →1,800 pricing changes in 2025
Proof that nobody's pricing is final: 3.6 changes per company among the top 500.
Open substack.com →Why AI Companies Have Adopted Usage-Based Pricing
An India-built billing startup on the mechanics of metering AI usage cleanly.
Open flexprice.io →How to Price AI Services: Models, Examples, and Strategy
Walks each pricing model with named examples and when each fits.
Open getmonetizely.com →The 2026 Guide to SaaS, AI, and Agentic Pricing Models
Adds the newest category, per-outcome agent billing, with implementation detail.
Open getmonetizely.com →AI Is Killing SaaS Margins. Outcome-Based Pricing Is How You Get Them Back.
The margin argument for charging on results instead of marking up tokens.
Open hirefraction.com →Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board
Sierra charges per resolution; Taylor explains the philosophy and the pitfalls.
Open cheekypint.substack.com →Inference is the New Sales and Marketing Spend
A reframe that changes pricing decisions: treat compute as growth investment, not just COGS.
Open saastr.com →The AI COGS Problem: SaaS Gross Margin Compression
What happens to margins if you keep SaaS pricing on AI costs, with the numbers.
Open saasmag.com →Growth Unhinged: pricing archive
The single best ongoing feed to follow as AI pricing norms keep shifting.
Open growthunhinged.com →More in AI in Your Product
- Should my startup add AI features, and which ones actually matter to users? 20 →
- How do founders ship their first AI feature (APIs, wrappers, RAG in plain terms)? 19 →
- How much does it cost to run AI features, and how do I keep costs sane? 19 →
- Which AI model should I build on (GPT, Claude, Gemini, open-source), and how do I avoid locking myself in? 17 →
- How do I test whether my AI feature actually works before launch (evals, in plain terms)? 18 →
- How do I stop my AI feature from making things up in front of customers? 17 →
- Prompt engineering, RAG, or fine-tuning: which one does my product actually need? 18 →
- How do I design AI features people trust (chat vs buttons, streaming, showing the work)? 18 →
- What is my moat if I'm building on someone else's model? 19 →
- Should I put an AI agent in my product, or is a simple workflow enough? 18 →
- Is it safe to send customer data to AI APIs, and what about privacy laws like India's DPDP Act? 18 →
- My AI feature is live. How do I monitor it and make it better with real usage? 18 →
Also in Starting Up
The same ground, over in Build the product, our Starting Up track.
eChai Partner Brands
