AI is now central to your SaaS product strategy, even if you’re not an AI-first company.
From analytics and automation to customization and customer service, SBI's 2025 State of SaaS Pricing Report found that 77% of enterprise SaaS already have AI-powered features live in their product.
But how should you price AI-powered features to maximize adoption and revenue? Here’s a hint: don’t monetize them as add-ons and make sure to get internal alignment.
1. Selling AI Features as Add-Ons Destroys Adoption
SBI latest research found that 20% of SaaS companies monetize their AI-powered features as add-ons, charging for AI capabilities separately or including them outside of their most popular bundles.
These companies are not winning. Only a fifth of net new customers purchase AI add-ons and only 38% of those purchasers actually use the AI features. A net new adoption of just 8% for your AI features is hardly a cost-effective return on the effort of building them.
Add-on adoption is low for two reasons.
- AI is now par for the course. At this point, your customers expect some level of AI capabilities to be embedded in your product as a minimum. They don’t want to pay extra for something that should come as standard.
- Customers want to try before they buy with AI. The quality of SaaS AI features varies immensely and customers want to experience the value before opening their wallets. According to Jason Lemkin, Founder of SaaStr, “AI is driving a renaissance in freemium and product-led growth (PLG) models” because the likes of ChatGPT have made customers expect AI to be ‘free first, pay later.’
SBI Recommendation: Unless your AI features serve niche segments or use cases, then charging additionally will decimate uptake of your features. Instead, embed your AI capabilities in existing plans and flex the functionality to differentiate from your competitors (and/or raise base package prices).
2. Internal Alignment is The Key to Effective AI Monetization
Don’t force your AI pricing from top-down.
As SaaS companies’ grow, so does the sophistication of their pricing approach. 56% of companies under $250M ARR rely on ad-hoc or basic pricing approaches while 80% of SaaS companies over $250M ARR have at least a dedicated pricing team with defined roles and responsibilities. Cross-functional alignment on pricing is a key sign of a sophisticated pricing approach and the same is true for AI-powered features.
Our report found that roughly 60% of SaaS companies with significant AI monetization have strong internal alignment. These companies are also 8x more likely to generate significant revenue from AI capabilities than those with limited alignment.
SBI Recommendation: In the early stages, prioritize building internal alignment over perfection. Worry less about market trends and more about driving action, focusing on tightly aligned strategy, pricing process, and practicality.
3. AI is Just Another Tool—Don't Forget the Pricing Fundamentals
Think of AI features like any other tools in your product and price accordingly.
While the cost of production helps guide your price floor and evaluating your competitor’s pricing helps frame industry expectations, you should always price based on customer value and company strategy, not how much a feature costs to make or what your competitors are charging (56% of SaaS companies still price in response to their competitors).
Setting prices linked to customer value enables you to:
- Maximize revenue: Pricing is set to customers’ willingness to pay, so you don’t leave money on the table.
- Differentiate your product: Clearly stating the tangible value of your AI features front-and-center helps you stand out.
- Connect to customers: Learning what customers actually value will help forge strong connections and boost retention.
Meanwhile, our report found that alignment to company strategy was the most important pricing input for SaaS companies that performed far above their 2024 growth targets.
SBI Recommendation: Reach out to your customers and find out what they value about your AI features. Calculate what AI saves them in terms of cost (i.e. how much AI customer service agents reduce FTE time/cost) and then price, package and market this value.
For example: Don’t say ‘our AI features are only $100 per month’. Say, ‘would you pay $100 to save 10 hours per week?’
Get Deeper AI Pricing Insights
Your AI features are full of potential. Don’t let your pricing strategy hold back growth.
For deeper insights into how your SaaS peers are monetizing their AI features, we will be releasing Part 2 of SBI’s State of SaaS Pricing Report. We surveyed 300+ SaaS pricing operators and executives to find out:
- AI pricing behaviors
- AI pricing trends for 2025
- What good and bad looks like in AI pricing.
Download The 2025 State of SaaS Pricing, Part 1.
