Smarter pricing: Monetizing AI-powered software with AWS Marketplace

I had conversation recently with the CEO of a fast-growing software company and he put it bluntly: “Our AI has completely transformed what we deliver. One automation workflow now handles tasks that used to require an entire team. But our per-seat pricing model? It’s leaving money on the table.”

It was a moment of clarity—the kind that surfaces often in conversations with technology leaders pushing the boundaries of innovation, but still constrained by outdated pricing models. While teams perfect their AI capabilities, many miss the bigger opportunity: modernizing how they capture this value through pricing. While companies invest heavily in product innovation, pricing strategy often remains an afterthought.

Pricing is one of the most powerful—and underused—levers for driving growth and profitability for software companies. When executed well, pricing can amplify product-market fit, accelerate customer acquisition, and expand margins.

As software companies evolve their pricing strategies, AWS Marketplace provides tools and capabilities to support this transformation. In this article, we will address three fundamental questions for AI software providers in AWS Marketplace:

• How to leverage AWS Marketplace pricing models to align with customer value
• How to design scalable packaging structures using AWS Marketplace
• How to enhance pricing clarity for products listed on AWS Marketplace to help customers move faster

We consistently hear how pricing decisions often fall among product, marketing, and sales teams—creating a gap where no single function drives strategic evolution. This organizational complexity—coupled with fears of customer backlash or churn—often results in pricing inertia.

The addition of AI capabilities has amplified both the challenge and the opportunity. When one user can leverage AI to help automate thousands of processes or transform entire workflows, traditional seat-based pricing becomes obsolete. These power users might generate significantly more value and consume more resources than others, creating an unprecedented opportunity to align pricing with actual value delivery.

The evolution from traditional seat-based pricing to AI-driven value naturally points toward outcome-based pricing—where customers pay based on the value they receive. While compelling, moving fully to outcome-based models isn't always straightforward. Some providers find that subscription models help customers with budgeting and planning, while usage-based components can accommodate varying levels of consumption. On the other hand, some software providers are finding that a hybrid approach, blending subscription and consumption-based elements, offers the flexibility needed to capture value more effectively. The key consideration is understanding how your customers realize value from your solution and choosing metrics that reflect this.

Different pricing models—seat-based, usage-based, outcome-based, and hybrid—map to metrics, customer fit, and trade-offs in the AI era.

For example, Adspert overhauled its pricing and packaging. In “Adspert Optimizes SaaS Packaging and Pricing with Support from AWS SaaS Factory”, we share how their shift from generic seat-based pricing to a feature-aligned model tied to real customer value. This not only improved revenue alignment, but also reduced churn by offering clearer value at each tier.

In another example, ContentSquare tapped into AWS Marketplace and AWS ISV Accelerate benefits to strengthen its enterprise pricing strategy. In “Unlocking Synergies: Maximizing Co-Sell Opportunities with AWS”, we explain
how the company gained drove more consistent revenue across complex enterprise environment by engaging AWS sellers through co-sell incentives.

These examples demonstrate how the right AWS programs, combined with a pricing mindset focused on value, can turn monetization into a strategic growth lever. AWS Marketplace gives software companies the tools to experiment with new pricing models built for AI. As the market evolves, the ability to test and iterate on value metrics is essential to capturing the full opportunity.

As AI transforms core workflows, packaging becomes not just a product decision—but a growth one. Aligning pricing effectively requires more than choosing the right metric or model. It calls for thoughtful packaging that can shape your entire growth trajectory.

Packaging is a powerful tool—when done right. Its flexibility allows companies to serve diverse segments, from Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) to enterprises, through targeted offerings. But the same flexibility can backfire: smaller customers may overpay and churn, while larger ones extract too much value from lower tiers.

The key is aligning packages with how different customers derive and measure value. If your AI capability drives broad impact, it may belong in every tier. If it serves specific use cases, a targeted add-on or premium tier might be more effective. The right approach depends on your customer journey and growth goals.

AWS Marketplace supports these packaging strategies through its flexible monetization capabilities. The pay-as-you go based pricing model enables customers to start small and scale as they realize value, reducing initial adoption barriers. As customers grow, co-sell support and private offers provide opportunities to create customized enterprise deals.

The benefits go beyond packaging. AWS Marketplace and AWS ISV Accelerate help providers design offers that qualify for field incentives, are eligible for AWS benefits, and drive co-sell motions—aligning packaging with channel strategy to accelerate growth.

Even the most sophisticated pricing and packaging fails if customers can't understand it. As pricing structures evolve to capture the true value of modern software solutions, clear communication becomes critical. Technical jargon, complex pricing dimensions, and unclear value metrics often create barriers to purchase decisions, as well as self-service adoption.

“I don’t know what a consumption unit is,” one frustrated buyer told us during a customer roundtable I hosted. “You’re using terms I don’t understand.” That comment struck a chord—not just with me, but with everyone in the room. It echoed a broader challenge we see across the industry: buyers often struggle to make sense of pricing, leading to longer sales cycles, added friction, and missed opportunities to clearly communicate value.

To address this challenge, we're piloting a new feature called “AI Insights” in AWS Marketplace, a feature that transforms how software companies communicate their pricing. When buyers encounter pricing information while browsing a product, they'll find clear explanations right there on the page—no need to pause their research or reach out to sellers. By addressing common questions and translating technical terms into business value, AI Insights help buyers quickly understand what they're paying for and why it matters.

Industry leaders and innovative companies are showing strong interest in AWS Marketplace AI Insights. Sellers such as Trend Micro, MongoDB, Pinecone, CloudZero, Elastic, F5, Archera, Grafana Labs, Qdrant, Coralogix, and Multiverse Computing are some of the early adopters of this feature. This growing interest demonstrates the industry's recognition of the need for more intuitive and transparent pricing for customers from the beginning.

By aiming to make complex pricing structures more easily understandable, AI Insights on AWS Marketplace has the potential to accelerate customer acquisition, improve deal velocity, and build stronger trust with customers from the beginning of their journey.

AWS Marketplace isn't just a sales channel—it's a complete monetization system. With flexible metering, dynamic packaging options, co-sell amplification, and the pilot AI Pricing Insights feature, AWS Partners are equipped to align pricing with AI value delivery.

Ready to transform your pricing strategy? Start with these resources:

• Master generative AI pricing: Explore our comprehensive course on generative AI pricing and packaging.
• Build your foundation: Take our introduction to pricing and packaging course to understand key principles and best practices.
• Get support: Connect with your AWS Partner Development Manager for personalized guidance.