Public story · 2026-03-08 · source-backed
Seat pricing collapse accelerates.
Story
Seat-based pricing dropped from 21% to 15% of SaaS companies in 12 months while hybrid pricing surged from 27% to 41%. Salesforce runs 3 pricing models simultaneously (traditional seats, per-action $0.10, and new AELA at $125+/month). HubSpot pivoted to Credits and reports 20% YoY growth while peers tumbled. Stripe launched AI billing infrastructure in private preview — metering tokens, model calls, and agent tasks with automated profit margins. When billing infrastructure exists to charge per-token in real time, every company has tools to abandon seats. PYMNTS
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