How Monday.com Uses AI Credits to Shift Toward Outcome-Based Pricing
Plus: Updates from Zoom, Botpress, and Apify.
Welcome back to Good Better Best!
Today, we’re analyzing Monday.com’s AI Credit Model, which they introduced earlier this week. Then, sticking with the theme, Ulrik is breaking down what operators need to know about credit models, including pros, cons, and questions to ask before implementation.
First, some of the most interesting updates we saw on PricingSaaS this week.
📰 Pricing News & Updates
Zoom deprioritized the free plan.
Autodesk raised prices.
Botpress added dedicated support for white-labeled agents.
Airbyte introduced a new pricing model.
Apify added new plans.
Today’s Post is brought to you by Metronome
Metronome is the world’s leading usage-based billing platform, trusted by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Confluent to launch new products and pricing faster.
Join Metronome CEO Scott Woody and SaaS pricing expert Kyle Poyar for an engaging conversation on the future of SaaS pricing in their upcoming webinar on 2/26 at 10am PT. In the live webinar, they will unpack how companies are evolving beyond traditional seat-based models, the rapid rise of usage-based pricing, and what’s on the horizon for AI-driven pricing strategies.
Breakdown: Monday.com’s new AI Credit Model
Monday.com revealed an ambitious AI roadmap that will integrate machine learning across its workflow management platform, and eventually include agents that will do the work for you. The immediate launch introduces four key components:
AI Automations: Handles tasks like summarization and sentiment analysis
AI Blocks: Turns static board columns into dynamic data processors
AI Templates: Pre-configured intelligent workflows
AI Assistant Apps: Specialized tools for document creation, formula building, and email generation
The new AI architecture centers on automation and efficiency and is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, OpenAI's GPT, and AWS Bedrock.
The Pricing Model
Monday.com's AI pricing is based on a Credits Model. Here’s how it works:
Each account receives 500 monthly AI credits
Customers can purchase more credits as needed
One credit is consumed per successful AI action
For example, you can set up an automation that summarizes meeting notes (1 credit), generates a follow up email (1 credit), and auto-fills related task fields (1 credit), which would consume a total of 3 credits.
Importantly, Credits are only consumed when AI successfully completes a task. No credits are used when the task fails, or when no values are changed.
The beauty of this system is that it encourages experimentation while ensuring users only pay for successful outcomes. Another nice touch is that AI actions continue running after credit depletion, which creates a soft landing for teams approaching their limits while incentivizing upgrades.
Why This Matters
Monday.com’s launch comes as project management platforms face increasing pressure to deliver intelligent automation. Asana and ClickUp have already integrated AI features:
Asana added AI functionality to all paid tiers and rolled out Asana AI Studio to Enterprise customers (also using a credit model)
ClickUp offers AI as a $7 add-on across all plans
This launch positions Monday.com favorably in the project management space. Three reasons I like the move and the strategy:
Integration Depth: Monday.com has woven AI throughout the product and existing plans, creating an intelligent workflow system that any customer can use.
Flexible Pricing: The credit model (and free credits) allows teams to experiment with AI features before committing to larger investments, reducing barriers to adoption.
Enterprise Focus: The emphasis on security, data residency, and permissions management addresses key enterprise concerns about AI adoption.
However, success will likely depend on two factors:
The performance of these AI features in real-world scenarios.
Competitiveness of their credit pricing once the full rate card is revealed.
Broadly, these AI features should help project management apps move from charging for access to charging for outcomes, and Monday.com’s model is a great start.
🎯 Expert Opinion
A credit-based pricing model is a hybrid between licenses and consumption-based metrics. Put simply, credits represent the right to consume or use something later, with payment made upfront based on estimated usage.
Benefits of credit models include:
Predictability: Credit systems can create predictability for both the company and the customer.
Handles Seasonal Variance: Credit systems are beneficial if there are high seasonal variances where usage comes in fits and bursts.
Flexibility: Credits allow customers to use a service or product at their own pace.
The biggest drawback to credit models is that it adds a level of complexity, but as we discussed last week — that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
A few other questions to consider before implementing a credit model:
How predictable are the consumption based metrics that credits are tied to?
Who will be consuming the credits — management, employees, or the customers’ customers?
Is the model easy enough to understand for the customer?
In summary, credit-based models can be a useful approach when there is variability in consumption or a need for predictable revenue, but companies need to consider the added complexity of implementing this type of model.
If you’re looking for more on Credit Systems, I went deep on SaaS pricing models in a recent webinar. Check out the video below.
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Just wondering: credits have been a goto system for trial/freemium offerings in SaaS for years. What is the difference in this case?
Also my educated guess is they are simply creating a back-to-back system that their AI LLM provider has implemented for them. Which is easy to account for their business.
Great post. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the role of feature packaging in a model where credits are the primary pricing metric. If a key objective is to encourage experimentation then I personally don't like the idea of feature packaging with credits because it puts certain features behind a paywall. Alternatively, I can use the credits to monetize the usage of those features. Usually when I see credits though, like the Monday.com example, they are incorporated into a tiered packaging structure. For Monday.com it probably makes sense to do it that way given they are only using the credits at this point to monetize the AI features.