Two Pricing Models for AI Agents
The enterprise AI agent market has settled on two pricing models:
Usage-based (per-action): Salesforce Agentforce Flex Credits at $0.10 per action. You pay for what agents do.
Subscription: JieGou at $49/month (Pro), $149/month (Team), or custom (Enterprise). You pay for the platform.
Both models have tradeoffs. Understanding them matters because the wrong pricing model can cost 10x more at scale.
The Comparison
| Dimension | Per-Action (Salesforce) | Subscription (JieGou) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost predictability | Variable — scales with agent activity | Fixed — budgetable monthly cost |
| Governance included | Einstein Trust Layer (binary) | 10-layer governance stack + GovernanceScore |
| Vendor scope | Salesforce agents only | All vendors + BYOK/BYOM |
| Self-hosted option | No | Included (Docker Compose + Ollama) |
| LLM costs | Included in action price | BYOK — you pay your LLM provider directly at their rates |
| Scaling behavior | Cost grows linearly with actions | Cost stays flat regardless of volume |
The Math at Scale
Let’s compare costs at different action volumes:
10,000 actions/month:
- Salesforce: $1,000/month + Salesforce platform license
- JieGou Team: $149/month + BYOK LLM costs (~$50-200 depending on model)
- JieGou is 3-5x cheaper
100,000 actions/month:
- Salesforce: $10,000/month + platform license
- JieGou Team: $149/month + BYOK LLM costs (~$500-2,000)
- JieGou is 3-15x cheaper
1,000,000 actions/month:
- Salesforce: $100,000/month + platform license
- JieGou Enterprise: Custom pricing + BYOK LLM costs
- The gap widens exponentially
The key insight: per-action pricing looks cheap at low volumes ($0.10 seems like nothing) but becomes expensive at scale. Subscription pricing looks expensive at low volumes ($149/month for a few agents) but becomes incredibly cheap at scale.
The BYOK Advantage
JieGou’s BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) model means you pay Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google directly at their published rates. A transparent, plan-based platform margin (2.70x for Pro/Team, negotiable for Enterprise) covers orchestration infrastructure. You see exactly what the provider charges and what the platform margin is — no hidden costs.
Salesforce’s $0.10/action includes LLM costs — which means you’re paying Salesforce’s negotiated rate plus their margin. You don’t know the actual LLM cost per action. With BYOK, you see exactly what each model call costs and what the platform margin is.
For enterprises running self-hosted models via Ollama, the LLM cost is zero — just compute infrastructure.
What’s Included in the Price
Salesforce’s $0.10/action includes:
- Agent execution
- Einstein Trust Layer (binary pass/fail)
- Salesforce platform integration
JieGou’s subscription includes:
- Unlimited agent executions
- 10-layer governance stack
- GovernanceScore (8-factor, 0-100)
- 20 department packs with 132 templates
- 245 governed MCP servers
- EU AI Act, NIST, HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, FedRAMP compliance mapping
- Self-hosted deployment option
- Cross-vendor governance (not limited to one vendor’s agents)
- Evidence export for auditors
- Compliance calculator
- Triple protocol support (AGENTS.md + MCP + A2A)
The governance depth difference is not reflected in the per-action price comparison. $0.10/action doesn’t include 10-layer governance, GovernanceScore, compliance frameworks, or cross-vendor coverage.
When Per-Action Makes Sense
Per-action pricing is ideal when:
- You have low, unpredictable volumes
- You’re fully committed to one vendor (Salesforce)
- You need simple task execution without deep governance
- Your agents are CRM-scoped (sales, service, marketing)
When Subscription Makes Sense
Subscription pricing is ideal when:
- You have high or growing action volumes
- You need cost predictability for budgeting
- You want governance depth beyond binary pass/fail
- You use agents across multiple vendors and departments
- You need BYOK to control LLM costs directly
- You require self-hosted or air-gapped deployment
The Bottom Line
$0.10/action sounds simple. But simple pricing doesn’t mean simple costs. At enterprise scale, per-action pricing compounds into significant monthly expenditure — without the governance depth that enterprises increasingly require.
Compare JieGou plans at Pricing. See what’s included in the governance stack at Governance Stack.