There is one question that reorganizes any meeting about buying AI, and it fits on a line: "do you charge per result?". It is not a price negotiation. It is a test of conviction. Anyone who believes the system works will accept being paid when it works.
If nobody can count the result, nobody can charge for it. And then you cannot evaluate the contract either.
The model already exists, and it has a name
Sierra, the customer-service agent company co-founded by Bret Taylor, charges per resolved conversation: if the conversation ends without a solution and goes to a human, it does not generate a charge. His public argument is simple — the customer compares the price of the agent with the cost of the human interaction that no longer happened. It is the same reasoning Sequoia Capital uses when it separates selling a tool from selling the work.
What you need to bring ready
The countable unit. Something you can count at the end of the month without an argument: an order released, an invoice reconciled, a ticket closed. If it takes a meeting to agree on the number, it is not a unit.
Today's cost per unit. What one of those costs to do today, counting salary, payroll charges and rework. Without that number, any price feels expensive or cheap by instinct.
The definition of "resolved". The exact point at which the work counts as done, and who holds the pen to say it did not. Write it before signing, not at the first disagreement.
Where price per result gets in the way
When the volume is small, the model turns into paperwork: you spend more measuring than you save. When the result depends heavily on your side — data only your team can deliver, an approval that takes weeks — charging per result hands the supplier a risk that is not theirs, and the price comes back higher. In those cases a fixed fee with a target and a quarterly review is more honest for both sides.
Even then, ask the question. The answer says a lot about who you are talking to.
Sources: Sequoia Capital, "Services: The New Software" (March 2026); Sierra's outcome-based pricing, described publicly by Bret Taylor.
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