---
name: "saas-pricing-stinger"
description: "Recommend one provisional SaaS price/model from buyer value, costs and dated evidence. Use for seats, tiers, usage, credits, price experiments or missing willingness-to-pay evidence."
license: AGPL-3.0-or-later
compatibility: Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT Codex, Claude Cowork.
metadata:
  hive-drone: saas-pricing-wasp-drone
  pair-drone: saas-pricing-wasp-drone
  domain: software economics
---

# SaaS pricing

Produce one provisional price/model recommendation, reviewable economic evidence, counterevidence, limits and an unexecuted price experiment. Cost feasibility and customer willingness to pay are separate conclusions.

## When to use

- How much should users pay for my SaaS?
- Should I price per seat, plan, usage or credits?
- What does heavy AI usage do to my offer?
- How do I test a price without pretending I know the market rate?
- Did a supplied price comparison improve retained revenue and contribution?

## Procedure

1. Read [intake and recommendation](guides/01-intake-and-recommend.md), [research](references/research/distillation.md) and [model selection](references/model-selection.md). Collect buyer, job, substitutes, value, currency/market, workload, support, price units, target and evidence in one compact batch.
2. Resolve selected Competitive Research for current substitutes, Operating Cost for workload-based costs, and Unit Economics for supplied economics scenarios. Read their paired Stingers before dispatch. Missing owners or inputs stay explicit; do not recreate their helpers or assume zero costs.
3. Complete [pricing worksheet](references/templates/pricing-worksheet.md). Choose one provisional price model/unit and identify included limits, payment/refund assumptions, counterevidence and the highest-impact uncertainty.
4. Follow [experiment and review](guides/02-test-and-review.md), produce [experiment proposal](references/templates/experiment.md), and predeclare owner-selected thresholds. Do not claim customer research or a price test ran before actual authorized observations exist.
5. Verify with [fictional cases](examples/pricing-cases.md) and the existing-owner [sample economics output](examples/economics-output.json). Deliver one recommendation and its reason, source dates, limitations and owner decisions. Cost-plus arithmetic is not proof of customer acceptance.

## Measure supplied price results

For O045 read [measurement procedure](guides/03-measure-price-results.md), [dated measurement evidence](https://github.com/legioncodeinc/the-wasp-nest-source/blob/main/packs/software-economics-tools/skills/saas-pricing-stinger/references/research/price-measurement/distillation.md), [measurement worksheet](references/templates/price-measurement-worksheet.md) and [fictional cases](examples/price-measurement-cases.md). Preserve assignment/exposure, cohort maturity, gross/net cash and contribution separately. Resolve selected PostHog for instrumentation and Payments for accepted billing implementation. Missing observations produce an evidence gap, not an uplift claim. No price or experiment write is authorized.

## Selected-owner contract

Load `pest-controller-suit` first. Source work uses `plugin-catalog.json` and owner `source_root`; installed work uses trusted Core's `hooks/resolve-component.py` against the explicit selected-plugin registry. Resolve `unit-economics-stinger`, `operating-cost-stinger`, `competitive-research-stinger` and their Drones before dispatch. Resolve Payments only for accepted billing implementation; resolve legal specialists for prepaid-credit, tax, refund and contract assurance. Cached siblings do not establish selection. Report exact missing capability and stop its dependent conclusion.

## Boundaries and reports

Research/preparation runtime only. No provider billing/price writes, accounts, credentials, purchases, live settings, public-price changes, customer contact or application implementation. A provisional amount is not approval to publish or charge. Write local worksheets in the owner's agreed destination or `library/requirements/reports/saas-pricing/` when Library exists. Separate hypothetical examples, observed market facts, customer interest, actual purchases and retained value. Static tests do not prove native host availability.

## References

- [README](README.md): human guide map.
- [Source archive and hashes](https://github.com/legioncodeinc/the-wasp-nest-source/blob/main/packs/software-economics-tools/skills/saas-pricing-stinger/references/research/sources.json): maintained official evidence fetched 2026-10-07.
- [Paired Drone](../../agents/saas-pricing-wasp-drone.md): owning specialist and selected-owner dispatch.

<!-- Ship Gate removed: research-only runtime produces local advisory artifacts, not application implementation or provider writes. Construction remains subject to parent Security then Quality and repository health before any authorized commit/push. -->

## Fair service limits

For O281 follow [propose fair service limits](guides/04-propose-fair-service-limits.md) and selected Unit Economics' integrated worksheet. Record value, legitimate high use, incorrect blocking, proposed limit/overflow/recovery/review and owner-selected fairness criteria beside the supplied economics. Require an evidenced owner decision before marking a proposal accepted. Unknown inputs remain Unknown; cost feasibility proves neither fairness nor abuse prevention. No billing/price/flag/rate or provider action follows.

## Critical Directive

- You must read all files and context contained within your skill.
- In the event your core knowledge does not provide sufficient guidance you must make every attempt to search the internet, related knowledge base documentation files, and other available resources to supplement your knowledge prior to proceeding with your task.
- Additional related skills can be found here:
  - [paired specialist guide map](README.md) - Resolve Unit Economics, Operating Cost, Competitive Research, Payments and legal Stingers through selected-owner routing rather than assuming cross-pack cache paths.