Table of contents
Office Hours
Report - No. 01
Managing AI Costs: Pricing AI Products Without Losing Your Margin
47 pricing practitioners sent us their questions on pricing AI products. Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt answered them live. This is the complete write-up: structure first, numbers second.
Date
May 21, 2026
Format
Online, live Q&A
Registered
47 practitioners
Questions
30+ in advance
Overview
- AI broke the fixed-cost economics that SaaS pricing was built on — every query carries a real cost, and flat-fee unlimited plans quietly hand your margin to your heaviest users
- Margin-safe AI pricing runs on three principles: see your usage, set explicit limits, and price the value instead of the compute
- Enterprise buyers don't hate variable costs, they hate surprises — credit commits look like subscriptions to procurement and behave like usage inside the product
- Fair use policies need two limits: a soft limit 95–98% of customers never touch, and a hard limit that protects the platform
AI broke the fixed-cost economics that SaaS pricing was built on: every query now carries a real cost, and flat-fee unlimited plans quietly hand your margin to your heaviest users.
This report answers the questions 47 pricing practitioners brought to our May 2026 Office Hours: how to price AI products when costs are unknown, how to square variable costs with customers who demand predictable bills, what good fair use policies look like, and when outcome-based pricing works.
The answer runs through three principles: see your usage, set explicit limits, and price the value instead of the compute.
Get the report
16 questions, answered the way we answer clients
The full report walks through:
- Launching when costs are unknown (and probably unoptimized)
- Predictability versus variable cost: credits, commits and procurement
- Fair use, spikes and over-usage without punishing your best customers
- Value, outcomes and margins — plus a 90-day action plan and the one map to keep
If you only remember three things
- Price the value, not the compute
Cost sets the floor below which you refuse to sell; willingness to pay sets the price. Don't pass your infrastructure bill through to the customer — price the outcome, so falling AI costs become your margin instead of your customer's discount. - Unlimited is a margin disaster
Flat fee plus unlimited usage builds an adverse selection machine: heavy users crush your margin, light users subsidize them. Set a soft limit where 95–98% of customers never touch it, a hard limit that protects the platform, and never punish the top-up. - Credits square the circle
Enterprise buyers don't hate variable costs, they hate surprises. A credit commit looks like a subscription to procurement and behaves like usage inside the product — and a small petri dish of unlimited-usage customers teaches you what to charge everyone else.
Three lines from the session
“Cost sets your floor. Value sets your price. The structure in between is where you make your money.”
Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
“Procurement does not hate variability, it hates surprises.”
Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
“Unlimited usage is great marketing copy and a margin disaster in practice.”
Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
The team behind the session
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Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt
CEO, Founder
A globally recognized authority on pricing strategy and the author of The Pricing Roadmap . With over 20 years of experience, Ulrik has been a trusted advisor to globally recognized SaaS companies navigating complex pricing transformations. He holds a graduate degree in Analytical Philosophy and an MA in Finance from Harvard.
Christopher Truce
COO & Co-Founder
Christopher Truce is a seasoned expert in financial services and SaaS technology products, with a proven track record in product development, commercial strategy, and pricing innovation. With over 18cc years of experience across global markets, Christopher excels in aligning pricing models with complex customer product ecosystems and driving adoption in highly regulated Industries. Chris holds an MA in business management and an EMBA from Stanford University.
Roee Hartuv
Senior Pricing Advisor & Head of GTM Expertize
A B2B SaaS executive and seasoned advisor, Roee Hartuv brings over 20 years of experience driving revenue growth at high-growth companies. He has led sales, customer success, and marketing teams across multiple scaleups and led the consulting practice at Winning by Design. Roee is based in Berlin and holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science.
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Morten Klank
Senior Pricing Advisor
A seasoned SaaS executive with over 20 years of leadership experience. Morten brings extensive experience leading organizations through complex change, strategic repositioning, and pricing optimization. He has headed several high-impact turnarounds in PE-backed companies, aligning commercial models with long-term business strategy. Morten holds executive education from INSEAD in innovation and change leadership.
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