Act on the result
Validate the entered seat count, included usage and unit price against customer records before changing a live pricing model.
Educational only: Business decision support, not accounting, tax or legal advice.
Privacy: No account is required. Tool inputs and results stay in this browser. Anonymous categorical usage analytics send only governed page, tool, cluster and action identifiers; tool inputs and results are never sent. Error monitoring is disabled. Optional saved state stays only on this device.
Update policy: Reviewed when formulas or official dependencies change.
Scope: Market-neutral small-business planning using your own assumptions.
What this planner helps you decide
Best for
Subscription businesses comparing seat-based and billable-usage pricing on one service-cost basis.
Outputs
Seat and usage revenue, shared service cost, both contributions and the contribution difference.
Start here
Enter the same accounts and usage for both models, then set seat price, included usage and usage-unit price.
Use a different tool when: Do not use this to test adoption-driven expansion MRR against contraction and programme cost; use Expansion Revenue Planner for that decision. Use this tool to compare seat-based and usage-based contribution on one service-cost basis.
Cash & growth
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing: seat and usage revenue
Seat and usage revenue, shared service cost, both contributions and the contribution difference.
Amounts use the same currency as your inputs. No currency conversion is performed.
Subscription economics assumptions
Use one consistent cohort, period, currency and tax basis.
Your numbers stay in this browser
Whole customer accounts in the pricing scenario.
Expected billable seats in each account.
Recurring price charged for one billable seat. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis.
Expected service usage for one account.
Price charged above included usage. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis.
Additional decision inputsOpen the assumptions you are less likely to change on every comparison.
Usage included before usage charges begin.
Service cost for each usage unit, including included usage. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis.
Support cost assigned to one account. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis.
Decision result
All outputs come from the registered exact subscription engine.
- Seat-based revenue
- 1,000.00
- Usage-based revenue
- 1,600.00
- Shared service cost
- 600.00
- Seat-based contribution
- 400.00
- Usage-based contribution
- 1,000.00
- Usage contribution difference
- 600.00
| Model | Revenue | Shared service cost | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seat based | 1,000.00 | 600.00 | 400.00 |
| Usage based | 1,600.00 | 600.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Usage minus seat | — | — | 600.00 |
Scenario comparison
Each row names the assumption axis changed from the baseline.
ScenarioResultDifference
Entered scenario600.00Baseline
Lower Price per billable usage unit440.00Not available
Higher Price per billable usage unit760.00Not available
Save these results, change an input, then compare the updated figures with this baseline.
The baseline is temporary in this tab and is not added to shared scenario links or generated reports.
Calculation details
View calculation detailsView the formulas and inputs used for these results.
Seat-based revenue
Seat-based revenue
accounts × seats per account × price per seat1,000.00Result1,000.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Seat-based revenueAccounts
- 10
- Seat-based revenueSeats Per Account
- 5
- Seat-based revenueSeat Price
- 20
- Seat-based revenueUsage Per Account
- 100
- Seat-based revenueUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Seat-based revenueIncluded Usage
- 20
- Seat-based revenueVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Seat-based revenueSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Usage-based revenue
Usage-based revenue
accounts × max(0, usage per account − included usage) × usage price1,600.00Result1,600.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Usage-based revenueAccounts
- 10
- Usage-based revenueSeats Per Account
- 5
- Usage-based revenueSeat Price
- 20
- Usage-based revenueUsage Per Account
- 100
- Usage-based revenueUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Usage-based revenueIncluded Usage
- 20
- Usage-based revenueVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Usage-based revenueSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Shared service cost
Shared service cost
accounts × (usage per account × variable unit cost + support cost)600.00Result600.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Shared service costAccounts
- 10
- Shared service costSeats Per Account
- 5
- Shared service costSeat Price
- 20
- Shared service costUsage Per Account
- 100
- Shared service costUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Shared service costIncluded Usage
- 20
- Shared service costVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Shared service costSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Seat-based contribution
Seat-based contribution
seat-based revenue − shared service cost400.00Result400.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Seat-based contributionAccounts
- 10
- Seat-based contributionSeats Per Account
- 5
- Seat-based contributionSeat Price
- 20
- Seat-based contributionUsage Per Account
- 100
- Seat-based contributionUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Seat-based contributionIncluded Usage
- 20
- Seat-based contributionVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Seat-based contributionSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Usage-based contribution
Usage-based contribution
usage-based revenue − shared service cost1,000.00Result1,000.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Usage-based contributionAccounts
- 10
- Usage-based contributionSeats Per Account
- 5
- Usage-based contributionSeat Price
- 20
- Usage-based contributionUsage Per Account
- 100
- Usage-based contributionUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Usage-based contributionIncluded Usage
- 20
- Usage-based contributionVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Usage-based contributionSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Usage contribution difference
Usage contribution difference
usage-based contribution − seat-based contribution600.00Result600.00
Uses user-entered subscription economics on one consistent cohort, period and currency basis. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Usage contribution differenceAccounts
- 10
- Usage contribution differenceSeats Per Account
- 5
- Usage contribution differenceSeat Price
- 20
- Usage contribution differenceUsage Per Account
- 100
- Usage contribution differenceUsage Unit Price
- 2
- Usage contribution differenceIncluded Usage
- 20
- Usage contribution differenceVariable Cost Per Usage Unit
- 0.5
- Usage contribution differenceSupport Cost Per Account
- 10
Inputs used
- Accounts
- 10
- Seats per account
- 5
- Price per seat
- 20
- Usage per account
- 100
- Price per billable usage unit
- 2
- Included usage per account
- 20
- Variable cost per usage unit
- 0.5
- Support cost per account
- 10
Open this calculator with preset values
This calculator supports documented, shareable scenario URLs. Compatible assistants and applications can construct links using the parameters below.
Scenario links contain only allowlisted numeric and closed-choice inputs shown in the URL; Margin101 excludes free text and identifying fields. Anyone you share the URL with can read those numbers, so do not include private or identifying data.
| Parameter | Meaning | Unit | Allowed values | Presence | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| accounts | Whole customer accounts in the pricing scenario. | accounts/scenario | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 10 |
| includedUsage | Usage included before usage charges begin. | included usage units/account/selected recurring period | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 20 |
| seatPrice | Recurring price charged for one billable seat. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis. | currency units/billable seat/selected recurring period | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 20 |
| seatsPerAccount | Expected billable seats in each account. | billable seats/account | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 5 |
| supportCostPerAccount | Support cost assigned to one account. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis. | currency units/account/selected recurring period | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 10 |
| usagePerAccount | Expected service usage for one account. | usage units/account/selected recurring period | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 100 |
| usageUnitPrice | Price charged above included usage. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis. | currency units/billable usage unit | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 2 |
| variableCostPerUsageUnit | Service cost for each usage unit, including included usage. Use one consistent currency, tax and period basis. | currency units/usage unit | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 0.5 |
Seat-based vs Usage-based Pricing: seat and usage revenue
Use the contribution difference to compare pricing mechanics on a shared service-cost scenario; it does not forecast customer preference or usage.
Formula summary
- Primary formula
- contribution difference = usage revenue − shared service cost − (seat revenue − shared service cost)
Data used here
- The estimate uses your inputs and the general business formula documented in the methodology.
Decision checks
Stress-test the decision
Retest higher usage and lower billable-usage price while keeping the same accounts and service-cost basis.
When this estimate can be misleading
- Seats, usage and account demand are user-entered scenarios, not forecasts.
- Both models use the same entered usage-linked service cost so the comparison isolates pricing-model economics.
- Use one consistent cohort, period, currency and indirect-tax basis.
- This is educational decision support, not financial, tax, legal or accounting advice.
- Use the contribution difference to compare pricing mechanics on a shared service-cost scenario; it does not forecast customer preference or usage.
Educational estimate, not advice. See all assumptions & limitations →
Related reading
Guides to interpret the decision and its assumptions.
- SaaS Unit Economics: Contribution, CAC, Churn and Cash
Connect contribution, acquisition cost, retention and cash timing while keeping cohort and horizon boundaries explicit.
Read guide
Frequently asked questions
How do I compare seat-based and usage-based contribution on one service-cost basis?
Validate the entered seat count, included usage and unit price against customer records before changing a live pricing model.
Which planning assumptions should I stress-test?
Compare a plausible alternative scenario and verify the decision-critical assumption that changes the plan most.