What’s really being debated here isn’t users vs. credits as pricing mechanics. It’s how much uncertainty the seller absorbs versus how much gets pushed onto the buyer.
User-based pricing feels predictable because the variable is familiar, not because risk disappears. Credits feel risky because they surface uncertainty that was always there. Usage just makes it visible.
The interesting move is treating credits as infrastructure, not as the offer. Once credits become the internal accounting system, you can express seats, roles, actions, outcomes, and even forgiveness policies inside a single framework. At that point, “per user” isn’t replaced. It’s contextualized.
The practical question going forward is not which metric wins, but how pricing systems evolve as buyers move from needing familiarity to needing flexibility, without forcing that transition faster than buyers can justify.
Thank you Mark. I would add predictability to flexibility. Predictability is something we need to design in. Once we have good standard infrastructure for this, credit wallets perhaps, and the patterns are well understood, then the pricing mechanism should fade into the background so that people can focus on value, which is what really matters.
This lands for me.
What’s really being debated here isn’t users vs. credits as pricing mechanics. It’s how much uncertainty the seller absorbs versus how much gets pushed onto the buyer.
User-based pricing feels predictable because the variable is familiar, not because risk disappears. Credits feel risky because they surface uncertainty that was always there. Usage just makes it visible.
The interesting move is treating credits as infrastructure, not as the offer. Once credits become the internal accounting system, you can express seats, roles, actions, outcomes, and even forgiveness policies inside a single framework. At that point, “per user” isn’t replaced. It’s contextualized.
The practical question going forward is not which metric wins, but how pricing systems evolve as buyers move from needing familiarity to needing flexibility, without forcing that transition faster than buyers can justify.
Thank you Mark. I would add predictability to flexibility. Predictability is something we need to design in. Once we have good standard infrastructure for this, credit wallets perhaps, and the patterns are well understood, then the pricing mechanism should fade into the background so that people can focus on value, which is what really matters.
Excellent post Steven!
I believe credits won not by design, but that means that we owe customers three things as pricing people:
* Transparency: show the credit/real money exchange rate, even when it hurts
* Predictability: don't change rates mid-contract or too frequently
* Reconciliation: credits should map credits to both costs AND outcomes
I hate it, but credits are here to stay.