How do you decide what features should be free and what should be paid?
Let me start from the creator’s perspective:
I personally don’t have a product (apart from hiring people for creative work or offering personal consultations).
But as a creator, I constantly share content, insights, and information, value that helps me build trust (for free). Based on that perceived expertise, people eventually decide to work with me (a paid service).
So some things I share for free to eventually move toward a paid collaboration.
Personally, it’s sometimes hard to judge when I might be giving away too much for free.
And I assume it’s similarly tricky for builders.
You want users to try the product, but then comes the question of paid features, or a trial limited by time or usage.
How do you decide which parts of your product or service remain free, and which become paid?
When I share content publicly, I usually provide generalised advice. But when it comes to a specific case or a tailored strategy that requires a personal approach, that’s where it becomes paid.
Replies
Honestly the way I think about it is that free should get someone to the point where it actually changes how they work. Like they do something differently because of your product. Paid is for when they're already hooked and want more.
The mistake I see a lot is gating too early. You never give users a chance to feel anything, so of course they don't convert. But the other trap is being too generous and training people to expect everything for free.
The hard truth is early on it's mostly a guess. You only really know which feature mattered once you have the data to see what actually changed behaviour. Until then you're just making your best call and adjusting.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@raktimrajkalita I would also think about that like: How much cost and pain the tool can save you. If the tool can save you from getting banned on LinkedIn, from where you have constant clients and revenue, then you should consider pricing based on that too.
I have come up with a simple theory. The feature ships for free initially, if it get's adopted then we think of monetising it.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@vu3ozm So you are offering things for free first, and then hide them behind paywall or?
We went through this exact debate at PrometAI, and honestly still revisit it. Our answer was to draw the line at the "aha moment." In our example, the free plan gives you one business plan and 25 AI requests. Enough to see what the product actually does, not enough to run a business on it. That was intentional. If someone can't see the value early, more free features won't change their mind.
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@narek_abgaryan 25 is enough to understand and feel the tool. I think there is a huge value you offer :)
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@gary_espinoza Interesting – what tool do you have?
This is a hard balance.
What’s worked from what I’ve seen is making the free tier valuable enough to build momentum, but not enough to create dependency at scale.
Free = exploration and early wins
Paid = reliability, scale, and deeper control
If someone can achieve their full outcome without ever feeling friction, it’s usually a sign you’re giving away too much.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@danielyoonadoba It is difficult to draw a clear line because when you are a creator, you always feel that you should be compensated for anything you invested your time and energy in.
what i've seen work: watch what free users do obsessively. the features they keep coming back to, the ones that generate "can i do X?" questions, the stuff that spikes right before churn.
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@jens_deryckere1 It feels I need to make some market research what they would be willing to pay for :D
AdFox (formerly GoodsFox)
In my opinion, free features are basically the “downward compatibility” of the product. Many free tools today are already extremely powerful, so the goal isn’t to restrict usefulness behind a paywall.
Paid features are usually the more niche capabilities, that built for users who want deeper insights, more advanced workflows, or higher scale.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@1zoe_zhao101 How did you decide which features will be free/paid for your tool? and how did you make up the pricing?
Rankfender
With Rankfender, we decided that we will go with 14-days trial first : not a good idea !! the free trial costs us money. Every time someone signs up, we're calling ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity., Data apis, Docker workers.. Those API calls add up. Some people run hundreds of searches. We pay for all of it. Peopla generated articles that never got used...
We tried shorter trials. People didn't have enough time to see if it worked. We tried longer. Costs got too high and people still didn't convert. 7 days is where we landed.
The truth is most people don't convert. They use the trial, burn through credits, and leave. We just accept that as the cost of finding the ones who actually need it.
What do you do? Cap usage? Shorten the trial? Or just eat the cost like we do?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@imed_radhouani it is pricey, I would go for limited times of use, because you know, in 7 days, they can also make high costs :D
In our case, we give users a quick “aha” moment by showing their resume score and why they’re not getting interviews.
That creates awareness. And the paid features deliver real transformation: helping fix the CV, tailor it to specific roles, and improve results.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@valeriya_egorova I think you positioned that feature quite well putting it behind the paywall :D
Does the feature cost you as the product money to generate on a per request?
Example, generating images/videos GenAI costs a decent amount compared to in-app functions.
Either support with ads or have it as a paid feature.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@dreamofcode thankfully, the part of my product will not be AI, so for now, no AI costs :D