Agents broke SaaS per-seat pricing: 4,000 lookups overnight, then a 'fair use' email
_Mr_Morningstar · reddit · 2026-09-12
The author argues per-seat pricing assumes a human's daily capacity, but agents have no ceiling: his agent ran 4,000 contact lookups overnight on one seat, earning a "fair use" warning email by Thursday. The reverse is equally silly—a side project needing 200 lookups/month still faces a $99 minimum seat.
Credits just rename the problem: Apollo cut paid-plan credits by 60% in January, forcing one user's budget to more than double; Cursor gated Agent/Edit behind Pro/Business even with a BYO API key, drawing 300 upvotes on a bait-and-switch post.
His rule: per-seat is fine for human teams with steady usage, but agent usage is either spiky or tiny. Before paying, ask only one question—what does one successful result cost. If the vendor can't answer, walk away.
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