Traditional platforms in these GenAI typically charge per user, which creates a costly and often unsustainable model for organizations looking to scale.
Collaborative platforms generally bill users anywhere from €5 to €15 per user per month, while generative AI platforms can charge anywhere from €20 to €70 per user per month. When you combine both of these platforms in an organization, the costs can quickly spiral out of control. Moreover, the challenge of integrating these platforms and making them work seamlessly together adds even more complexity—and more cost.
Our approach is designed to disrupt this outdated billing model by providing a fairer and more sustainable pricing structure.
1. A Fair and Transparent Cost Model
Rather than charging customers on a per-user basis, which can be prohibitive, we adopt a cost-plus pricing model. This model ensures that customers pay a base fee to access the platform, followed by a fair and scalable structure based on actual usage:
- Platform Access Fee: A single fee to access the platform.
- Cost-Plus for Users: Instead of charging a flat fee per user, we bill based on the actual cost associated with each user, ensuring companies only pay for what they truly use.
- Cost-Plus for Publications: Pricing is determined by the number of publications, tools, or data shared, again scaling with actual usage.
- AI Consumption-Based Pricing: Instead of lumping all generative AI charges into per-user pricing, we base the cost on actual AI consumption, meaning that businesses only pay for the AI resources they actually use.
This is a much fairer and mature way of billing, providing transparency and flexibility that traditional per-user billing models simply can’t match.
2. Avoiding the Pitfalls of Per-User Billing
Billing per user, as it is commonly done today, has several major disadvantages. It’s akin to how an electricity provider would bill a customer based not on their actual usage but on the number of electrical devices connected—whether they are used or not. Such a model is not only unfair, but it discourages adoption of the platform across multiple use cases, such as community-building or project collaborations.
For instance, in a company, certain users may use AI-driven tools heavily, while others might only need occasional access for specific tasks. Charging both users the same fee would not reflect their actual usage and may result in many users being priced out of valuable tools. Our usage-based model ensures that users can connect and collaborate in various ways, without fear of runaway costs.
3. Encouraging Broader Adoption and Scalability
By adopting this more flexible, usage-based billing model, companies are incentivized to encourage broader adoption across different departments and use cases. Whether it’s for internal collaboration, community engagement, or project management, companies can add users and scale their operations without the fear of exponentially increasing costs. This opens the door to wider user engagement and allows organizations to explore the full potential of generative AI across multiple scenarios.
This pricing model also makes it much easier to predict and manage costs. Rather than being surprised by hefty user-based invoices, companies can monitor their AI consumption and adjust their usage accordingly. This not only leads to better budgeting but also fosters a more responsible and optimized use of resources.
4. A More Mature, Customer-Centric Billing Approach
Ultimately, our cost-plus model offers a more mature and customer-centric way to bill organizations for using collaborative solutions and generative AI. It provides a fair balance between paying for the value that the platform delivers and ensuring that companies are not overpaying for resources they don’t fully utilize.
Our approach is particularly well-suited for organizations looking to scale quickly, experiment with new use cases, or engage larger communities. It offers them the flexibility to grow without being burdened by unpredictable or unfair billing structures.
By charging fairly for platform access, user scaling, publications, and AI consumption, we’re pioneering a new approach to pricing that reflects modern usage patterns and provides clear advantages over the legacy per-user model. This ensures that businesses can continue to innovate and collaborate without being held back by cost concerns, while also offering the transparency and flexibility that today’s organizations need.
In summary, this billing strategy represents a critical economic shift in the way collaborative and AI-powered platforms are priced. By focusing on fairness, transparency, and scalability, we’re empowering businesses to fully leverage the power of generative AI and collective intelligence without being constrained by outdated and unfair pricing models.