Guides

AI pricing and margin guides

Written from real founder data · Updated 2026-07-17

Most AI pricing advice is written by billing vendors for companies with a pricing team. These guides are for the founder deciding alone: what to charge, what margin to expect, and how to find the customers costing you money. Every claim links its source. Specific numbers beat adjectives.

Start here · Pricing models

AI SaaS pricing models: what actually works under $2M ARR

The five models, the data check to run before picking one, and the cost-spread test that decides it in an afternoon.

Margins

What is a good gross margin for an AI SaaS in 2026?

ICONIQ, a16z, and Bessemer benchmarks, the Copilot, Cursor, and Replit blow-ups, and how to compute yours honestly.

Unit economics

How to calculate your LLM cost, and margin, per customer

Attribute token spend, join it to Stripe, read the P50/P90/P99 spread. With a worked example and the whale problem.

Comparison

Seat-based vs usage-based vs credit pricing for AI products

The same 100-customer book priced three ways, and where each structure protects or leaks margin.

Examples

How 8 real AI products price in 2026

Cursor, Copilot, ChatGPT, Fin, Replit, v0, Agentforce, and Claude: model, unit, price, and the gotcha in each. Sourced and dated.

Migration

The AI SaaS repricing playbook: fix margins, keep customers

Simulate, shadow-bill, grandfather with a date, announce with the customer's own numbers. Email template included.

AI Pricing Reset

Reading is diagnosis. The Reset is the prescription.

AI Pricing Lab rebuilds your pricing from your real Stripe and usage data: a per-customer margin map, three pricing models simulated on your last 6 to 12 months, and the migration pack to ship the change. Delivered in 10 business days. One-time fee, no subscription.

See the AI Pricing Reset

$1,500 founding rate · first 10 AI SaaS · $2,995 list