Per-try-on pricing: usage-based cost
Per-try-on pricing charges the merchant a fixed fee for each completed try-on session — typically $0.10 to $0.50 per session depending on the provider and model quality tier. The appeal is that cost scales directly with usage: a store with 100 try-ons/month pays far less than one with 10,000. For very low-traffic stores or for a merchant evaluating the technology for the first time, per-try-on pricing lowers the barrier to entry.
The structural problem with per-try-on pricing is that it creates a disincentive to promote the widget. A merchant running a campaign to drive more product-page visits knows that higher traffic means higher try-on costs, so they may suppress the widget or limit it to a subset of products. This directly conflicts with the goal of maximizing the widget's conversion impact. At moderate scale (2,000+ try-ons/month), per-try-on pricing typically becomes more expensive than a flat monthly subscription.
Monthly subscription with quotas: predictable cost
A monthly subscription with a defined try-on quota — the model Photta uses — charges a flat fee per month and includes a set number of try-on sessions. Photta's tiers are Starter ($49/month, 500 try-ons), Growth ($149/month, 2,000 try-ons), and Enterprise ($399/month, 10,000 try-ons). The merchant's monthly bill is predictable, and there is no per-session disincentive to promote the widget aggressively.
The subscription model also aligns vendor incentives with merchant success. The vendor wants the merchant to use the quota fully and see strong ROI, because retention depends on that outcome. Unused quota is a warning sign that the vendor should address through onboarding support or product improvements. This incentive alignment is absent in per-try-on models where the vendor profits more from high usage regardless of merchant ROI.
Revenue-share pricing: performance alignment
Revenue-share pricing ties the vendor's fee to a percentage of incremental revenue attributed to try-on sessions — typically 1–5% of revenue from orders where a try-on was completed in the same session. The appeal is that the merchant only pays when the tool demonstrably works. In theory, this is the most performance-aligned model.
In practice, revenue-share pricing requires attribution agreement between vendor and merchant — a technically and contractually complex problem. The vendor typically wants last-touch attribution; the merchant may have a multi-touch model. Disputes over attribution methodology are common. Revenue-share is also difficult to budget for, as monthly costs vary with seasonal traffic patterns. It is most common in enterprise deals where legal and finance teams can negotiate the attribution terms precisely.
Hybrid pricing: base fee plus overage
Hybrid pricing combines a lower monthly base fee with a per-try-on overage charge above a quota threshold. For example: $79/month for up to 1,000 try-ons, then $0.12 per try-on above the quota. This structure gives merchants cost predictability at their expected usage level while protecting the vendor from unlimited infrastructure cost from a single high-volume customer.
Hybrid pricing is reasonable for merchants whose try-on volume is fairly predictable month to month. It becomes problematic during marketing campaigns or seasonal peaks, where unexpected volume spikes generate overage charges that weren't in the budget. For merchants who run regular promotions or have strong seasonal patterns, a pure subscription model with a higher quota is usually more cost-effective than a hybrid that regularly triggers overage.
What mid-market merchants typically choose
Mid-market merchants — stores with $1M–$20M in annual GMV — typically gravitate toward the monthly subscription model for three reasons: budget predictability, the absence of per-session disincentives, and the lower operational overhead of a fixed recurring cost versus managing variable billing. For these merchants, the Growth tier ($149/month) typically covers realistic monthly try-on volumes with room to grow, and the ROI math favors the subscription by a factor of 10x or more.
Enterprise merchants above $20M GMV often negotiate custom arrangements that combine a flat base fee (covering a large quota) with volume discounts on overages, plus SLA guarantees and dedicated onboarding support. The pricing model matters less at this scale than the vendor relationship and technical reliability. Photta's Enterprise tier at $399/month covers 10,000 try-ons/month and includes priority support for merchants in this range.