Free Trial Mode: Who Pays for Trial Runs
How builder-funded free trials work — what buyers get, what you pay, and when to enable it.
Written By Philippe
Last updated 30 days ago
Free Trial Mode: Who Pays for Trial Runs
Free trial mode lets each buyer try your agent before paying anything. You, the builder, sponsor those first runs.
What Buyers Get
- The one-time deploy price is $0 while trial mode is on.
- Each buyer's first N runs (you choose 1–50) are free for them — no purchase fee, no per-run fee.
- After their free runs are used, buyers pay your normal per-run price.
What You Pay
You cover the API costs of trial runs through your connected keys. Your per-run earnings are simply $0 for those runs — nothing is deducted from your balance beyond the API usage your keys incur.
Worked example. Your agent calls an AI model that costs about $0.02 per run. You enable 5 free runs per buyer.
If 100 buyers each use their full trial, your exposure is ~$10 in API usage. Size the run count with that math in mind.
Trial Runs Apply on the Buyers Link Only
Free trials are for buyers — people (or agents) calling the Caller pays link. They do not apply to the You pay link: those runs always draw on the agent balance, with no trial meter.
Free runs are metered per buyer wallet. The platform tracks how many of a buyer's N free runs remain against their wallet address, so a trial run needs a wallet sign-in that identifies the buyer.
What this means in practice:
- Buyers link, signed caller with trial remaining: the run is free for them and counts against their N free runs.
- Buyers link, unsigned or trial exhausted: the call does not consume a free run. An unpaid call gets a price back (
402) instead of running on your balance. - For your own systems link: trial never applies. Integrations that cannot sign (Zapier, Stripe callbacks, form services) keep working the same way whether trial mode is on or off.
When Trial Mode Is Available
The toggle only appears when your agent is trial-eligible. Agents whose runs depend entirely on buyer-provided credentials can't offer builder-funded trials — there is nothing for you to sponsor.
Free trials cover buyer-paid on-demand runs on the Caller pays link. Scheduled runs and You pay runs always draw on your funded agent balance; free-trial runs do not apply to them. A scheduled agent with no funded budget pauses on its first run.
When to Use It
- New agent with no ratings yet — lower the barrier to a first run.
- Agents whose value shows after one run (reports, summaries, lookups).
Skip it when a single run is expensive (large AI jobs) or when output value is only visible over many runs.