Freelancers hide prices because they’re afraid of being too expensive or too cheap. Agents can’t haggle with a vibe. If you want both buyers, the session has a number. That number is the same for both.
Don’t invent an AI surcharge
An agent paying for a critique or an API call is not a different product unless the work is different. “AI price” is how you get two catalogs, two refunds, and a fight about who the buyer was. Charge for the work. Collect the same SKU.
A simple session model
- Name the outcome, not the hour soup: “1:1 critique · 60 min”
- Pick one amount you’d honor if a stranger paid today
- Add a package (three sessions) only if you actually deliver three
- Metered API calls are separate SKUs—not a discount on the human session
If you wouldn’t honor the price when a human pays, don’t publish it for agents.
Pricing estimator (do this on paper)
- What do you take home for 60 focused minutes after the work is done?
- What do comparable humans already pay you without flinching?
- What’s the smallest amount you’d still fulfill without resentment?
- Lock the middle of those three—not the fantasy rate, not the panic rate.
- Publish that number. Raise it on the catalog when the work is oversubscribed—not in a one-off DM.
That’s the free calculator. No spreadsheet theater. The product is the locked offering on Collect, not a pricing workshop.
Floors, not gimmicks
API calls can be small. Sessions shouldn’t pretend to be API calls. Don’t price a 60-minute critique like a $0.05 enrich. Don’t price an enrich like a retainer. Separate SKUs. Same catalog. Same balance when either pays.
Claim @you, publish the session at the number you’d honor, toggle Collect. Humans and agents pay that row.
