Credit-based pricing vs monthly subscription. Why we chose credits?
We switched to a credit-based model after realizing our users needed flexibility, not rigid plans. It just made more sense for how Geosaur works.
Pricing is always an interesting question when building products or services. You don't really think about it when you start, but at some point it creeps into your mind that people probably need to be able to pay something to you. And when you start thinking about it, sometimes it’s really easy to figure out, and sometimes it takes a bit longer.
For us, it took a bit longer this time.
When we started building Geosaur, we first went with the easiest idea, just make some structured packages and call it a day. But as we kept talking with our early users about how the product actually fits into their workflow, we noticed something. Everyone used it a little differently. Everyone had their own rhythm, what to track, when to track it, and why it mattered to them.
That’s when we realised we were trying to force a flexible product into a rigid pricing model. It didn’t really make sense.
AI tools are so expensive
We also kept hearing the same thing from users: AI search tools are expensive. And honestly, they’re not wrong. It’s not a cheap business. Every time we make a request, it hits APIs that cost money. That’s just how it is.
So we started asking ourselves how to make it fair. We didn’t want to lock people into paying the same amount every month regardless of how much they actually use it. Sometimes you need a lot of data, sometimes you don’t. It should be up to you.
That’s how we ended up with the credit-based model. You only pay for what you actually use. If you run 20 000 queries one month and 2 000 the next, that’s fine. It’s flexible. You decide how deep you want to go.
Tradeoff
Sure, it means we don’t get that nice predictable MRR chart that everyone likes to show off. But that’s fine. We’d rather have something that feels right for the kind of product we’re building and the kind of people using it.
At the end of the day, we just wanted to make something that’s flexible, transparent, and fair both for us and for you. And the credit-based system felt like the best way to do that.
