Freemium
Offering a useful free plan alongside paid ones, so people can try the product properly before deciding to pay.
Updated October 2026 · with examples from our own builds
What does freemium mean in practice?
A freemium plan gives away enough to show the product's value and keeps something people will pay for behind a subscription. The line is usually drawn on volume, features or both: more scans, more copilots, more chats or a premium feature.
Free plan limits are a cost decision as much as a marketing one. Each free action may cost money to serve, so the generous parts should be the cheap ones and the expensive parts should sit behind payment.
Limits need enforcing on the server, with a clear message when someone reaches one, and they should come from one source, so the pricing page, the app and the limit itself never disagree.
Freemium at a glance
- Free should be
- Cheap to serve and useful on its own
- Paid should hold
- The costly or high-value features
- Enforce
- On the server, from one plan table
Where has freemium come up in our builds?
The free Hobbyist plan includes 30 AI scans a day and no chat with Herb, because measured scans were cheap and chat on the larger model was the real cost. Paid plans are built but not yet switched on.
The free plan covers three copilots of the user's choice and 50 messages a day; Pro unlocks all 131 copilots.
A free plan of 600 chats a month sits below three flat-priced paid tiers, priced per workspace rather than per seat or channel.
Common questions about freemium
How generous should a free plan be?
Generous on actions that cost you little and show the product's value, strict on those that cost real money. Measure the cost per action first, then set the limits.
Where should plan limits live in the code?
In one plan table that the server enforces and that the app and pricing page read from, so a limit and its description can never disagree.
Related terms
Planning a product and not sure where freemium fits? Ask us, or browse all 116 terms in the glossary.