---
id: "1.9"
title: "Business model"
dept: company-and-strategy
status: draft
owner: Param
branded: false
last_verified: 2026-10-26
sources:
  - "brew working tree docs/pricing.md:1-51, untracked, not on origin/main"
  - "brew origin/main a559de6: legal-pages.js:40, DUMMY.md:17, public/demo-picker.html:201, docs/handover/product/08-demo-guide.md:8, tools/prod-env.sh:9"
  - "brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-9 parked, how-it-pays, costs"
  - "handbook content/sales-and-partnerships/pricing-and-packaging.md, content/ai-and-models/cost-per-brand.md"
  - "memory: brew-pricing-parked, brew-gemini-provider, brew-model-compare-2026-10-20"
---

# Business model

## Answer

Who pays Brew, for what, how revenue grows and what one brand costs to serve: the brand pays one plan for the thinking, a money wallet for what Brew makes, and in v4 a share of the ad spend Brew runs; this is a proposal, nothing is billed, and margin per brand is not measured yet.

## Today

### Who pays and for what, as proposed on 26 Oct

| Line | Who pays | For what | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan, the brain | The brand, one plan per brand, unlimited teammates | The read, Brand Book, weekly ideas, drafts, Ask, jams, watchers; later posting, results and ad rules | [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:6] |
| Wallet, the hands | The brand, from money it loads | Pieces it keeps, priced on results, 3 free redos, never expires | [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:7-12] |
| Autopilot, v4 | The brand, from the wallet | 3% of the ad spend Brew runs, minimum $149 or ₹9,999 a month | [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:14] |
| Briefs to our team | The brand, per brief | Work our team makes; priced by our team, never in a plan | [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:35] [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:44] |

### How it grows

| | v1 | v2 | v3 | v4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan a month | $79, ₹4,999 | $119, ₹7,999 | $149, ₹9,999 | $149, ₹9,999 plus autopilot [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:20-22] |
| Into the wallet a month | $12 | $18 | $25 | $25 [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:21] |
| Brain cost, estimate | about $15 | about $20 | about $30 | about $45 [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:23] |

Agencies get $59 or ₹3,999 a brand at five or more brands; referrals put $12 or ₹1,000 in both wallets [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:42-43].

### What is real today

| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| No billing exists; the Pro plan sheet is a Dummy that switches Pro on in the browser | [src: brew/DUMMY.md:17] |
| Brew is free during the preview | [src: brew/legal-pages.js:40] |
| Pricing is parked until Param and Sai agree | [src: memory brew-pricing-parked] |
| A full demo build costs about $80; a live read about $6 | [src: brew/public/demo-picker.html:201] [src: brew/docs/handover/product/08-demo-guide.md:8] |
| A Play costs a median $0.18 on Gemini Pro, $0.83 on Opus | [src: memory brew-model-compare-2026-10-20] |
| Production runs Plays on Gemini 3.1 Pro and the rest on Flash | [src: brew/tools/prod-env.sh:9] |
| Vertex is paid by Google credits: $20,763 of $25,000 left on 16 Oct | [src: memory brew-gemini-provider] |

### Margin per brand

- Wallet items carry large gross margins on paper: an ad ready video at $4 costs about $0.55 to $1.30 [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:30]
- The plan's margin depends on a monthly cost nobody has measured; the cost per brand page proposes up to about $180 a month allowed by the caps, against a $15 estimate in the spec [src: content/ai-and-models/cost-per-brand.md Numbers] [src: brew working tree docs/pricing.md:23]

## Tomorrow

| Item | Version | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Plan plus wallet, free read and a 14 day trial with $5 in the wallet | v1 | New, once unparked |
| The Dummy plan sheet | v1 | Goes |
| Plan price rises with the version | v2 to v4 | New, proposed |
| Autopilot share of ad spend | v4 | New, proposed |
| The plan to own outcomes, with outcome based pricing | v4 and later | New, internal only [src: brand-directions/BRIEF.md section 2] |

## How we do it

1. Nothing is quoted outside the team while pricing is parked.
2. Measure a real month of cost per brand before the plan price is set.
3. Pricing detail lives in [finance pricing](/finance/pricing) and [pricing and packaging](/sales-and-partnerships/pricing-and-packaging); this page keeps the model.

## Numbers

| Metric | Definition | Where measured | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan gross margin per brand | Plan price less measured brain cost, a month | Spend files plus AI tags | Proposed, not measured |
| Wallet gross margin | Kept pieces' price less their cost | Wallet ledger, not built | Proposed |
| Revenue per brand a month | Plan plus wallet spend plus autopilot | Billing, not built | Proposed |

## Open

1. **Is Plan plus Wallet plus Autopilot the model?** Proposal: yes, as written on 26 Oct, with Sai's agreement recorded in the decisions log.
2. **Which number sets the plan price: the $15 estimate or a measured month?** Proposal: a measured month on three partners, and the plan stays at $79 only if cost sits under a third of it.