Pricing Options Comparison

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Why this page exists

The High IQ mobile app currently runs a three-tier access model — Guest (no login), Free (logged in), Pro ($12.99/mo), with **Studio** ($19.99/mo) planned for v4.0. That model treats logged-in tracking (stash, favorites, manual order entry) as free, and puts every AI feature behind Pro. A different structural option is on the table: make every logged-in account a paid account, and split paid users into three rungs based on what they actually use — non-AI tracking, current AI features, and unlimited / future AI features. This page lays the two models next to each other so we can see exactly what we gain, what we lose, and which one is more likely to maximize lifetime revenue and profit. This is a comparison page. It does not pick a winner inside the doc — it surfaces the trade-offs clearly enough that the decision becomes obvious once we look at the numbers.

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The two models at a glance

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Feature-by-feature: who gets what

This is the same feature set as the Tier Comparison page, but mapped against both models so we can see exactly which features move tiers under Model B.

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Browse and discovery (no change between models)

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Tracking and personal data (the tier that moves)

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Intelligence (current AI features)

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Unlimited / Creative / Future

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What each model is really betting on

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Model A is betting that…

• Free is a real feature. A free logged-in tier creates investment (stash, favorites) before the paywall. The user has data they do not want to lose, which lifts conversion.
• AI is the universal paywall. Every AI feature is gated, and AI is what people will pay for. Tracking is free because tracking is not the moat.
• A high free-to-paid funnel matters more than ARPU at the bottom. Capturing as many free accounts as possible expands the eventual paid pool.
• Studio (v4.0) lifts ARPU later. When AI media ships, the most engaged users move from $12.99 to$19.99 without disrupting today’s structure.

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Model B is betting that…

• An account is itself the product. If you want your data persisted on our servers, in the cloud, with sync across devices, that is worth $5.99/mo on its own. Free email, free Notion, free everything has trained users to expect this — but the cannabis vertical has fewer free incumbents and a higher willingness to pay.
• The paid-only floor lifts ARPU dramatically. Today, the average revenue per logged-in user is dragged down by the free tier. Model B forces every account to pay something, which uplifts ARPU on every logged-in user.
• AI is a climb, not a wall. $5.99 ->$11.99 -> $19.99 is a *ladder* of upsell, not a binary "you pay or you don't." Most users that pay$5.99 will eventually try AI Pro.
• Historical import is a retention hook, not a one-time SKU. Folding it into AI Unlimited turns a one-shot $49.99 into recurring$19.99/mo (which exceeds $49.99 in 3 months and continues forever).

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Side-by-side: pros, cons, risks

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Revenue modeling: Model A vs Model B at the same scale

To compare apples to apples, assume the same top-of-funnel: 10,000 monthly app installs. The difference is what happens after install.

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Model A (Current)

Standard freemium funnel. 95% of installs become Free, 5% of Free converts to Pro over time.

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Model B (Paid-Account)

Account creation friction reduces sign-ups by ~60-70% (this is the key risk). But every account that does sign up pays. Assume 30% of would-be Free users convert to Basic, and within Basic, 35% climb to AI Pro and 10% reach AI Unlimited.

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Sensitivity table — Model B revenue by Basic capture rate

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Pricing psychology — what each tier signals

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Why $5.99 (not$4.99 and not $6.99) for Basic

• $4.99 is impulse territory but signals “cheap” — risks devaluing the rest of the ladder.
• **$5.99** is still under the$6 mental threshold but earns 20% more revenue per Basic user vs $4.99.
• $6.99 crosses the perceived “premium tier” line and may pull users either down to Guest or up to AI Pro — both bad outcomes for Basic specifically.
• $5.99 is also a cleaner$5/mo + $1 framing for marketing (“less than a coffee per month to keep your stash safe”).

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Why $11.99 (not$12.99) for AI Pro

• $12.99 is the existing Pro price, so$11.99 represents a deliberate $1 price cut on AI to soften the optics of charging for things that used to be free (rankings, badges, collection).
• $5.99 +$11.99 = $17.98 makes the math always favor AI Pro over stacking add-ons, which simplifies the upsell.
• The $6 jump from Basic to AI Pro is psychologically symmetric with the$8 jump from AI Pro to AI Unlimited — each step roughly doubles in value.

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Why $19.99 for AI Unlimited

• Matches the previously analyzed Studio price point (see Pricing Strategy).
• Industry-standard “premium creative” price (Spotify Premium, Headspace, NotebookLM via Google AI Premium are all $11-20/mo).
• Folds Historical Import ($14.99-$49.99 one-time) into recurring revenue — pays back the lost one-time SKU in 3 months.
• The $19.99/mo and$149.99/yr (37% annual discount) tier doubles as the lifetime-value anchor for power users.

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Annual pricing (parallel to monthly)

Pushing annual on AI Unlimited harder is intentional — the deepest discount is reserved for the highest-LTV plan, which compresses churn risk and front-loads cash for the long-tail features (AI media generation costs are real).

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What we lose if we switch to Model B

This is the part that should not be glossed over. Moving away from a free logged-in tier costs us real things:

1. The “data hostage” lever disappears. Today, Free users build a stash and favorites. Their data is the reason they convert to Pro. In Model B, they never build that data unless they pay first. We lose the strongest in-product upgrade hook — having something to lose.
2. Account growth slows down dramatically. Top-of-funnel for the SEO -> install -> sign-up pipeline narrows. Even if revenue per account is higher, total accounts drops. That has knock-on effects on social proof, network effects (rankings, leaderboards, community badges), and our marketable user count.
3. App Store positioning shifts. “Free with in-app purchases” reads differently than “Subscription required.” Many users filter out the latter without ever opening the listing.
4. The Free tier was the upgrade story. “Track your stash for free, upgrade for AI” is a well-understood pitch. “Pay $5.99 to track your stash, pay more for AI” is a harder pitch, especially against Leafly / Weedmaps / AllBud which all have free tracking.
5. Historical Import as a one-time purchase generates revenue from users who never subscribe to AI. In Model B, those users would not exist — they would either be Basic (no historical import) or AI Unlimited (subscription).

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What we gain if we switch to Model B

1. ARPU per logged-in account at least doubles in every realistic scenario where Basic capture > 10%.
2. Stronger product signal — paid users churn less than free users by every benchmark, and we filter out the dabblers at signup.
3. AI cost containment. Every AI Pro and AI Unlimited user is paying for the AI cost of generation. There are no free-tier users hammering AI features that cost us money to serve.
4. Cleaner roadmap framing. Future AI features ship into AI Unlimited automatically. There is no “is this a Pro feature or a Studio feature?” debate every quarter.
5. Higher-quality user feedback loop. Paid users complain louder, in more useful ways, about specific things. Free users churn silently.
6. Easier to introduce annual / lifetime / family plans because every account is already a paid account.

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Recommended path forward

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Decision matrix

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Summary table — every plan in one view

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Open questions to resolve before deciding

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Related

• Pricing Strategy — Original three-option analysis (Studio, Add-Ons, Hybrid)
• Tier Comparison — Full feature-by-tier matrix for Model A
• What’s in Pro — Customer-facing version of the current model
• Roadmap — When Studio / AI Unlimited features actually ship