The news
AI credits pricing is spreading through enterprise software, part of a wider shift to metered usage on top of seats. In September, Salesforce (CRM) folded usage credits into new editions and reports of Adobe's (ADBE) earnings call tied its Firefly growth to credit consumption. Earlier, on August 22, Subscription Insider reported that Harvest customers faced usage fees, tied to activity rather than AI, stacked on seat prices.
Salesforce's move came on September 3. Its new Core, Advanced and Max editions cost $195, $395 and $550 per user per month and bundle Agentforce AI agents, Slack, Tableau Next analytics and premier support. Each includes a pool of Flex Credits, the company's prepaid usage currency: 500,000 for Core, 1 million for Advanced and 2.75 million for Max, though Salesforce did not say whether the allotments apply per organization or per user. Salesforce says Max delivers 60% more value than its earlier Agentforce 1 edition at no extra cost.
The credits buy metered actions. Salesforce's rate card, dated August 31, charges 20 credits for a standard Agentforce action and 400 for a Help Agent resolution, and Vantagepoint, a Salesforce consultancy, reported a list price of $500 per 100,000 credits. On September 17 Salesforce announced a coming meter for calls by registered AI agents, whether outside connectors or custom-built, with the rate still to be set. Kishan Chetan, Salesforce's executive vice president and general manager of Agentforce and Service Cloud, explained in an interview reported by SiliconANGLE that Salesforce bills its Agentforce service agents per resolved customer issue, with no charge when a case goes to a human.
Adobe showed the other side on September 10. Its AI-first annual recurring revenue topped $650 million, and Firefly annual recurring revenue grew 40% from the prior quarter, driven by credit consumption and video generation, according to reports of the earnings call. Adobe also said it had delayed some Creative Cloud price increases to favor user growth, keeping seat prices steady while metered AI usage grows.
Harvest shows the risk. After Bending Spoons (BSP) bought the time-tracking tool in July 2025, it moved from flat per-seat pricing to seats plus usage fees tied to projects, clients, tasks and invoices. Subscription Insider reported that one UK consultancy's monthly bill rose from about $130 to $2,110, and a U.S. customer's annual bill went from $2,800 to $23,000.
The numbers
- Salesforce Core / Advanced / Max price
- $195 / $395 / $550 per user per month
- Flex Credits included (per org or per user not disclosed)
- 500,000 / 1 million / 2.75 million
- Credits per standard Agentforce action
- 20
- Credits per Help Agent resolution
- 400
- Adobe AI-first ARR
- More than $650 million
- Harvest customer monthly bill (reported)
- About $130 to $2,110
Why CEOs should care
For CFOs, the budgeting model has to change. A seat license is a fixed cost that scales with headcount. Credits are a variable cost that scales with how much employees and agents use AI, which is hard to predict in the first year. Treat credit pools like cloud spend: set a forecast by team, require the vendor's usage console, such as Salesforce's Digital Wallet, to feed monthly reports, and set alerts well before the pool runs dry. Negotiate what happens at exhaustion, whether that is overage at list price, automatic top-ups or a hard stop.
Procurement teams should insist on a usage simulation before signing. Ask the vendor to price the new model against your last twelve months of real activity, a step that would flag the kind of renewal jumps Harvest customers reported before they reach an invoice. Push for caps on multipliers for the contract term, since Salesforce's rate card states that multipliers may be updated from time to time. Ask for credits that pool across business units and roll over at least one period, since Salesforce's standard rate card permits no rollover.
Business owners should read the unit definitions. Outcome-based pricing, such as paying per resolved service case, ties cost to value, but only if both sides agree on what counts as resolved. Ask for audit rights over how outcomes are counted and for the ability to exclude cases a human finished.
The bigger picture
Vendors are under pressure to show AI revenue. Adobe's AI-first ARR is growing fast, yet Yahoo Finance reported that its net new ARR fell 38% from a year earlier in the latest quarter. Hybrid pricing lets vendors hold seat prices steady, which limits churn, while capturing growth as AI usage rises. The catch for buyers is that the most successful AI rollouts, the ones employees actually use, generate the largest bills. Usage discipline becomes a finance function, not just an IT one.
What’s next
Near-term markers include the rate Salesforce sets for registered agent calls, Salesforce's Industry Edition pricing due later this fall, and any change to Adobe's credit allowances after Anil Chakravarthy becomes CEO on December 1. Companies drafting 2027 budgets should add a separate line for AI usage rather than burying it inside license renewals.
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