Data from Stripe shows that high-growth companies are twice as likely to experiment with pricing and are rapidly adopting hybrid and usage-based models to meet customer demand.
As companies build on the new financial backbone of AI, they are rapidly iterating on their business models. To understand the most effective strategies, new research from Stripe surveyed 2,000 business leaders, including in Singapore.
It uncovers a strong correlation between pricing agility and revenue growth, finding that high-growth companies change their monetization strategies more often, a practice that 84% of leaders now see as a key competitive advantage.
The modern pricing playbook
The research highlights several pricing models being adopted by high-growth companies:
- Hybrid pricing combines two or more pricing models, such as a fixed monthly subscription with additional charges for usage.
- Usage-based pricing, also known as a pay-per-use or consumption model, means a customer only pays for what they use.
- Seat-based pricing is a model where the cost is determined by the number of individual users, or “seats,” that have access to a product or service.
- Outcome-based pricing is a model where customers are billed based on the outcomes or results achieved from using a product or service.
- Finally, dynamic pricing is a strategy where prices for products or services are flexible and change in response to real-time market demands.
What sets high-growth companies apart
Here are some of the key findings from the research:
- High-growth companies adopt hybrid pricing. Leaders are moving beyond pure subscriptions to hybrid models (e.g., subscription + usage) to balance predictable revenue with flexibility.
High-growth companies are significantly more likely to use hybrid pricing (57%) than the global sample (36%). - High-growth companies treat pricing as a continuous experiment. The most successful businesses view pricing not as a one-time decision but as an ongoing process of experimentation. High-growth companies are twice as likely (67% vs. 33%) to have changed their pricing three or more times in the last two years.
- High-growth companies align pricing with customer outcomes. While 77% of leaders agree customers want outcome-based pricing, only 32% deliver it. High-growth companies are closing this gap by continuously adjusting their definition of “usage” to better reflect the value customers receive.
- High-growth companies successfully price AI agents. They are more likely to offer AI agents and are more confident in how they price them. They achieve this by using more sophisticated models like outcome-based and work-based pricing to capture the agent’s value.
- High-growth companies use AI-powered dynamic pricing tools. Leaders are using AI-powered tools to automate and accelerate their pricing experiments at a much higher rate than their peers, enabling strategies like dynamic pricing and personalized offers. For example, the adoption of personalized offers among hypergrowth companies is 35% versus 24% for the global sample.
Singapore’s results closely mirror the global average, yet some key differences emerge. Notably, 25% of business leaders in Singapore report a lack of internal expertise to modify their pricing models, a sentiment shared by only 14% globally.
Furthermore, 40% of Singaporean companies view internal system limitations as a hurdle to pricing AI, compared to 30% worldwide. These findings underscore the importance of being able to leverage an easy-to-use yet sophisticated product, which provides enhanced control over their pricing structure.
As businesses navigate an increasingly complex global economy, this research highlights how a sophisticated and adaptable approach to monetization is becoming a prerequisite for success.
