Pricing Models

Paygent supports multiple pricing models to fit any business. Below are detailed examples for each model.

Setup Fee Pricing

Charge customers a one-time fee for onboarding, setup, training, or integration work.

Scenario: Alex runs an enterprise AI analytics platform. Each new enterprise customer requires custom data pipeline setup, employee training sessions, and integration with their existing tools. This takes his team 2-3 weeks of dedicated work. How does he charge for this upfront investment?

Solution: With Paygent’s setup fee pricing, Alex charges a one-time $5,000 setup fee that covers all onboarding work. This is separate from ongoing usage charges, ensuring he’s compensated fairly for the initial effort while still offering usage-based pricing for the platform itself.

Result: Alex now confidently takes on enterprise customers, knowing the setup work is properly compensated. Customers appreciate transparency - they see a clear one-time fee and understand ongoing costs are usage-based.

Platform Fee Pricing

Charge a recurring base fee for platform access, regardless of usage. Perfect for SaaS platforms.

Scenario: Maria built an AI code review tool. She wants to ensure predictable monthly revenue while also charging for actual AI usage. Some customers might use it heavily, others lightly - but everyone should pay a base fee for platform access, support, and updates.

Solution: Maria sets a $99/month platform fee that gives customers access to the tool, regular updates, customer support, and basic features. On top of that, she charges for AI-powered code reviews based on actual usage. This hybrid model ensures steady cash flow.

Result: Maria has predictable monthly recurring revenue from platform fees, plus variable income from usage. Customers love the fair pricing - they pay a base fee for access and only pay more when they use the AI heavily.

Per-Seat Pricing

Charge based on the number of users or team members using your AI platform.

Scenario: Tom’s AI writing assistant is used by marketing teams. Each team member needs their own account to generate content, track their projects, and manage their workflows. Larger teams use more features and generate more content. How does Tom scale pricing with team size?

Solution: Tom charges $29/month per seat. A 5-person marketing team pays$145/month, while a 20-person team pays $580/month. Each user gets their own workspace and unlimited generations, making it simple and predictable for teams to budget.

Result: Teams of all sizes can afford the tool because pricing scales linearly. Tom’s revenue grows proportionally with customer team sizes, and customers find the per-seat model familiar and easy to understand.

Activity-Based Pricing

Bill customers based on the AI activities they perform - tokens used, API calls made, or actions taken.

Scenario: Rachel runs ContentAI, a service that generates blog posts using GPT-4. Different customers have vastly different needs - some generate 5 articles a month, others generate 500. She can’t charge everyone the same price. She needs to bill based on actual AI usage.

Solution: Rachel uses Paygent to track every article generation request. Each time a customer generates content, Paygent automatically counts the tokens and calculates the cost:

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await paygent.sendUsageWithTokenString(
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  'article-generator',
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  customer.id,
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  'article-generated',
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  {
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    serviceProvider: 'OpenAI',
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    model: 'gpt-4o',
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    promptString: customerPrompt,
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    outputString: generatedArticle
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  }
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);

Result: Customers only pay for what they use. Light users pay $50/month, heavy users pay$500/month - both feel they’re getting fair value. Rachel’s revenue scales perfectly with actual AI costs.

Outcome-Based Pricing

Charge based on successful outcomes or results achieved, not just usage.

Scenario: David built an AI sales assistant that books qualified meetings for B2B companies. His AI might send 100 emails but only book 5 meetings - customers care about the 5 meetings, not the 100 emails sent. How can he charge for value delivered rather than activities performed?

Solution: David tracks two types of events: activities (emails sent) and outcomes (meetings booked). He only charges customers for successful meetings:

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// Track activity (free for customer)
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await paygent.sendUsage(
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  'sales-ai',
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  customer.id,
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  'email-sent',  // Activity
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  {...}
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);
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// Track outcome (billable!)
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await paygent.sendUsage(
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  'sales-ai',
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  customer.id,
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  'meeting-booked',  // Outcome - charge $50
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  {...}
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);

Result: Customers love it because they only pay for results. David charges $50 per booked meeting. His customers see clear ROI - each meeting booked costs them$50 but often leads to deals worth thousands.