📋 Pricing Cheat Sheet · v4 · pin tab
Pricing for AI Apps · tactical reference.
5 rules · 4 models · 7 exercises · 4 prompts · pricing page checklist · Sellathlon prep.
🏆 5 golden rules · pin forever
Memorize these.
1 · Price is a signal. Low isn't safe. Low is invisible.
2 · Charge for outcome, not feature. "Polished email" > "AI transcription."
3 · Floor = COGS × 5. Ceiling = 10% of value. Land between.
4 · 3 tiers. Always. Middle is where you live. Third is the anchor.
5 · Say it. Don't whisper it. Tone > number. Practice → confidence → close.
🧪 The 1-line outcome formula
Fill the blanks.
FOR [persona] WHO [situation]
WE DELIVER [the new state OR the pain avoided]
SO YOU CAN [the bigger life consequence]
WITHOUT [the thing they hate about alternatives].
Paste this verbatim on slide 1 of your pricing page. Does 80% of conversion lift.
📐 4 pricing models · pick by 2 axes
Which one fits?
| Model | Best when | Examples | Watch out |
|---|
| Subscription | Usage steady · value steady | Notion · Calm · Linear | Power users abuse |
| Usage | Usage varies · value scales | OpenAI · Anthropic · ElevenLabs | Anxiety meter |
| Seat-based | Team value scales | Slack · Figma · Vercel teams | Buyers cap seats |
| Outcome-based | Outcome big + measurable | Sales/recruiting agents | Procurement is hard |
Hybrid in 2026: Subscription + usage overage is the most common AI hybrid. Anchor cheap. Charge for power.
🧮 The pricing math (memorize)
3 numbers. Always.
FLOOR
COGS × 5.
Below this, support + churn + acquisition eat margin.
BULLSEYE
~10% of value.
Where it feels fair to both sides. Survives objections.
CEILING
~25% of value.
Anything higher → procurement gets involved.
🎰 The 3-tier psychology
3 tiers always.
TIER 1 · Gateway
$9-19/mo · capped usage.
Let in the curious. Hits the wall fast → upgrade prompt.
TIER 2 · Bullseye
$29-79/mo · "Most Popular"
Where 60-70% land. Your real ARPU.
TIER 3 · Anchor
$199+/mo OR "Contact us"
Make middle look cheap. 1-2 sales/mo = bonus.
⚡ 8 prompts · grouped by phase · in workshop run order
Every prompt has a gold copy button on its slide.
⭐ Phase 1 · DECIDE what to price + how + how much
P01 · Outcome Statement Crafter (Act 2 · slide 21 · Exercise 1 · 5 min) — get your 1-line outcome (headline ABOVE the price). Panel: April Dunford + Donald Miller + Sahil Bloom.
P02 · Pricing Model Picker (Act 3 · slide 30 · Exercise 2 · 5 min) — subscription / usage / seat / outcome / hybrid. Panel: Patrick Campbell + Madhavan Ramanujam + Marc Lou.
P03 · LOCK MY 3 TIERS · THE pricing decision (Act 6 · slide 51 · 8 min) — uses ALL prior outputs to give you the 3 actual numbers to commit to today. Panel: Madhavan Ramanujam + Patrick Campbell + April Dunford + Dan Ariely.
💰 Phase 2 · RUN the math · prove the numbers work
P04 · Revenue Sim Excel (Act 4b · slide 35 · Exercise 3 · 10 min) — 3 prices × 3 scenarios (worst/realistic/best) × 14 months. Tells you which price survives all 3. Panel: Patrick Campbell + Lenny Rachitsky + Edward Tufte.
P05 · Cost Stack Excel (Act 4b · slide 37 · Exercise 4 · 10 min) — vibe-coder · + AI agents · + hires. When to upgrade what. Panel: Codie Sanchez + Marc Lou + Justin Welsh.
🛠 Phase 3 · STEAL + BUILD + SHIP
P06 · Deconstruct Any Pricing Page (Act 6b · slide 61 · Exercise 5 · 8 min) — paste any URL · Claude tears it apart · 3 things to steal + 2-3 NOT to copy. Panel: April Dunford + Patrick Campbell + Madhavan Ramanujam.
P07 · Build Your Pricing Page (Act 8 · slide 70 · 10 min) — semantic HTML for /pricing · 3 tiers · FAQ · trust strip · "Most Popular" badge. Panel: April Dunford + Sahil Bloom + Justin Welsh.
P08 · Stripe Wiring · uses Stripe MCP (Act 8 · slide 72 · 5 min) — Claude creates 3 products + 3 prices + 3 Payment Links + HTML buy-button snippets.
⚠️ Actual run order: P01 → P02 → P04 → P05 → P03 → P06 → P07 → P08. The math (P04+P05) runs BEFORE P03 because the cost floor feeds the tier decision. P03 is the killer because it has ALL inputs.
How to find them in the deck: open the 📑 Slides TOC button (top-left) · prompts highlighted with ⚡ in their TOC labels.
💸 AI unit economics · 2026 token costs
The real numbers.
Claude Opus 4.6
~$15 / 1M in · ~$75 / 1M out
Reasoning premium · pick wisely
Claude Sonnet 4.6
~$3 / 1M in · ~$15 / 1M out
The workhorse for most apps
Claude Haiku 4.5
~$0.80 / 1M in · ~$4 / 1M out
Cheap classify/filter/route
Wake-up call: 1,000 free users × 20 Sonnet generations/day = $9/user/mo × 1,000 = $9,000/mo of FREE costs. Price something.
🛠 3 cost stacks · pick where you are
Run lean. Scale later.
Stack A · Vibe-coder
~$200-500/mo
You + Claude + Cursor + Vercel + Supabase + Stripe
Stack B · + AI agents
~$500-2k/mo
+ support agent · content · sales ops · background jobs
Stack C · + hire humans
$5-20k+/mo
+ PT VA · CS · Engineer · Designer (revenue triggered)
Most NS founders run Stack A → B months 1-6. Stack C only after $10k MRR.
🛠 Pricing page · 5 must-haves
Every page has these.
- 1Headline outcome — the 1-line formula verbatim. NEVER "Pricing."
- 23 tiers, visible cards — middle highlighted "Most Popular"
- 3Feature list per tier — outcomes, not specs
- 41-click CTA per tier → direct to Stripe Payment Link
- 5FAQ + guarantee — money-back · cancel anytime · what's not included
🗣 Confidence script · say it like this
Practice before Tuesday.
FOR [outcome], IT'S [$X/mo].
Drill: Say it 20 times today, same energy, no softening. By the 21st, it's just a number.
When they ask "is that monthly?": "Yes. Monthly. Cancel anytime."
When they pause: Don't fill the silence. Let them think.
When they ask for a discount: "What would change?" — never discount without a concession.
🛠 3 objections · 3 responses
Tuesday cheat card.
"Too expensive"
"Compared to what?"
The answer reveals their anchor. Re-anchor against your value.
"I need to think"
"What's the question?"
It's never time — it's a specific unknown. Find it. Answer it.
"Can you discount?"
"What would change?"
Annual prepay? More seats? Concession for concession.
🏆 3 pricing masterclasses · steal from these
The masters · memorize.
| Company | The ladder | The killer move | The lesson for YOU |
|---|
| ChatGPT | Free / $20 / $200 / Team / Enterprise | The $20 anchor that defined an industry | For prosumer AI: $20/mo is the default · add 10x Pro tier · keep free as GTM |
| Cursor | Free / $20 / $40 seat | "Fast vs slow" requests language · usage transparency | For AI dev tools: name your limits · invent vocabulary · free hits wall day 3-5 |
| Notion | Free / $10 / $18 / $25 + $10 AI add-on | Free tier so good it BECAME the GTM · AI as separate add-on | For team/collab: generous free · per-seat upgrade · AI as add-on (not bundled) |
📚 20 examples library · open these tabs · steal layouts
Take-home inspiration.
| Category | Company | Pricing | What to study |
|---|
| Consumer AI | ChatGPT | Free / $20 / $200 | The 10x Pro tier · anchoring at industrial scale |
| Consumer AI | Claude | Free / $20 / Max | Usage caps on Pro · "5x more usage" framing |
| Consumer AI | Perplexity Pro | $20/mo | The "ChatGPT clone at same price" simplicity play |
| Consumer AI | Cal AI | Subscription w/ caps | Mobile-first AI pricing for B2C |
| Dev tools | Cursor | Free / $20 / $40 seat | Limit-first messaging · "fast vs slow" |
| Dev tools | Lovable | Free / $25 / $50 / $100 / $200 | Credit-based AI pricing · 5 tiers · power user ladder |
| Dev tools | Replit | Free / $25 / $40 | Subscription + AI credits hybrid |
| Dev tools | v0 | Free / $20 / Team | Vercel's AI design tool · clean 3-tier |
| B2B SaaS | Linear | $8 / $14 seat / Enterprise | Cleanest 3-tier in SaaS · founder-led page |
| B2B SaaS | Notion | Free / $10 / $18 / $25 + AI | $10B valuation via this exact ladder |
| B2B SaaS | Slack | Free / $7.25 / $12.50 / Enterprise | Per-active-user innovation |
| B2B SaaS | Figma | Free viewer / $15 / $45 / Ent | Viewer-free-editor-paid · land+expand engine |
| API usage | OpenAI API | $0.50-15 per 1M tokens | Raw usage simplicity · per-model pricing |
| API usage | Anthropic API | $0.80-75 per 1M tokens | Tier-by-model · transparent input/output split |
| API usage | ElevenLabs | Free / $5 / $22 / $99 | Pure usage tiering · per-character voice gen |
| API usage | Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ | Single transparent rate built a $100B+ company |
| Creator | Substack | 10% take-rate | Free for creators · transactional rev share |
| Creator | Beehiiv | Free / $39 / $99 | Creator SaaS with usage limits |
| Creator | Gumroad | 10% per sale | Marketplace · "free until you make money" |
| B2C habit | Calm | $69.99/yr · lifetime | Annual anchor · "save 50% vs monthly" |
How to use: Find the 3 closest to YOUR product · screenshot their pricing pages · run Prompt 05 (Deconstruct) on each · build yours from the best of all 3.
📋 Post-workshop checklist · do TODAY
Before Tuesday.
- Pricing page live at /pricing on your domain
- Stripe in live mode · all 3 Payment Links wired to buttons
- Tested incognito · clicked a tier · Stripe loads cleanly
- Dropped page URL in cohort chat with "my /pricing is live"
- DM'd 10 warm prospects with: "I just put a price on [product] · $X/mo · would you try it?"
- Followed up on 3 hackathon soft yeses with the new price
- Posted publicly · tagged @meganmartinsone · used #30DaystoShip
- Said your tier 2 price 20 times out loud (yes, alone in your room, yes, you'll feel weird, do it)
Goal: Walk into Sellathlon Tuesday with at least 1 paying customer's name to celebrate on stage.
📣 Sellathlon · Tuesday · NS film crew
Bring the full kit.
📅 When
Tuesday · all day
NS Library
🎯 Bring
Live pricing page
Warm DM list (20+) · Stripe in live mode
🎬 Film crew
NS official crew
Interviews + B-roll · be camera-ready