Asking for money is the fastest way to find out whether you've built something people want. Free users are polite. Paying users are honest. A tool with three paying customers has learned more than one with three thousand free ones.

Charge for the value, not the cost

Your costs and your value usually sit in different places. Charging per API call because API calls cost you money produces a pricing page nobody understands. Charge for the outcome — per project, per seat, per month of access — and manage your costs separately.

Pricing that works for a small tool

One price. Not three tiers. Tiers segment a customer base you don't have yet, and each one is a decision you're asking a stranger to make before they've tried anything.

Monthly or one-off, whichever matches how the tool is used. Something used once a year doesn't want a subscription; something used weekly doesn't want to be repurchased.

Higher than feels comfortable. Nearly everyone underprices their first product, substantially. Low prices don't only earn less — they attract the most demanding customers and signal that the thing is a toy.

Let people try it first

A free tier, a trial, or a demo that works with no account. Something that gets a person to the payoff moment before the payment question arrives. The order matters enormously: value, then price. Never the reverse.

pricing-sanity-check.txt
My tool: <what it does, for whom>
It saves them: <time / money / a specific hassle — be concrete>
It costs me: <per user, per month>

Suggest a price and defend it:
- What would they use instead, and what does that cost them in money
  or time?
- Am I underpricing? Say so bluntly if you think so.
- One price or a trial? Where exactly does the paywall go?
- What would make someone ask for a refund, and can I fix that first?

Then go and ask

Not "would you pay for this" — everybody says yes to a hypothetical. Put up a price and a payment link and see what actually happens. Five conversations with people who nearly bought and didn't will teach you more than a month of building.

The first sale is the hardest and by far the most informative. Everything after it is iteration.