# pricing

Helps software founders choose a value metric, draw the line between free and paid tiers, and calculate subscription prices based on delivered value.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 327
- Author: AIDevGTM
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/aidevgtm-pricing

## What it does

This skill guides monetization decisions across three sequential steps: choosing what to charge per, packaging features into distinct plans, and setting the dollar amounts. It discards cost-plus formulas tied to cloud hosting bills, grounding the structure in direct customer value instead.

For developer tools, the free tier functions as an acquisition channel for individual engineers. Payments apply to organizational needs like seats, audit logs, SSO, and scale. The framework limits self-serve setups to three tiers and cautions against uncapped usage pricing that triggers bill shock.

If second-week retention numbers remain weak, erecting a paywall is premature and merely narrows an already leaky funnel.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 12-pricing -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/12-pricing/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 12-pricing -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 12-pricing -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder 12-pricing
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 12-pricing -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --path skills/12-pricing
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder --skill 12-pricing -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/AIDevGTM/gtm-cofounder/tree/HEAD/skills/12-pricing/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- choose between seat-based and usage-based value metrics
- define the boundary between free individual usage and team tiers
- anchor subscription prices against saved labor hours and alternatives
- prevent customer churn caused by unpredictable usage spikes

## Example prompts
- Help me determine whether to charge per seat or per API event for this developer tool
- Where should I place the paywall between our free open-source tier and the team plan?
- Calculate our team tier price assuming we save an engineering team 10 hours each month

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 503f4e3dd072a542.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 503f4e3dd072a542
````text
---
name: pricing
description: "Help the user decide what to charge and how to package it: the value metric, the tiers, the free-to-paid line, and finding the actual number. Use when the user is guessing at a price, priced too cheap and can't change it, is stuck on free vs paid, or believes \"developers won't pay\" so never charges."
---

# Pricing (what to charge, and how)

> Price is not a number you pick at the end. It is a positioning decision: it tells the market who you are, what you replace, and how much you believe you are worth. Get it from evidence, not fear.

**Use this when:** you are guessing at a price, you priced on a gut feeling and now feel stuck with it, you don't know where the free line goes, developers use it and nobody pays, or you believe "developers won't pay for this" so you have never charged at all.

## The core idea

Three decisions, in order. Most founders skip to the third and wonder why nothing converts.

1. **The value metric** (what you charge *per*). The single most important pricing decision. Get this wrong and no tier structure saves you.
2. **The packaging** (what is free, what is paid, what is enterprise, and what triggers the upgrade).
3. **The number** (the actual price on each tier).

One rule sits under all of it: **price against the value the customer gets, never against your cost or your fear.** Your AWS bill is not a pricing strategy.

## First: are you even ready to price?

Do not gate before you have proof people come back. If week-2 retention is weak, a paywall just turns a leaky funnel into a smaller leaky funnel. Prove retention, then monetize (see `know-if-its-working`). The one exception: if buyers are already emailing "can we pay you for X," that is a green light regardless of stage. Stated willingness to pay is the strongest signal there is.

## Framework: the value metric

Charge for the thing that grows as the customer gets more value. A good metric:

- **Scales with their success**, so the bill grows as they grow (seats, active users, projects, events, API calls, GB, builds, endpoints monitored).
- **Stays predictable enough** that finance can forecast it. Pure usage that spikes 10x overnight creates bill shock and churn.
- **Is legible in one sentence.** If a dev cannot predict roughly what they will pay, they will not adopt.

```
Does the value come mostly from more PEOPLE using it (collaboration, seats)?
├─ YES → per-seat, but watch for seat-sharing and bot accounts deflating it
└─ NO  → value comes from more USAGE (events, calls, compute, data)
         → usage-based, with a floor and caps so the bill stays predictable
```

Hybrid is common and fine: a platform fee plus usage. Avoid per-seat when the value is machine or usage driven (you tax the thing you want more of), and avoid pure usage when the value is human collaboration (you make teams ration access).

## Framework: packaging (the free-to-paid line)
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 503f4e3dd072a542

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