The free tier is not a token gesture—it isCustomer Acquisition CostAgents will first test your data using the free quota—if it’s usable, they’ll pay. Too little free quota deters testing; too much means you’ll never collect revenue. This tool treats it as an investment—comparing three tiers, calculating ROI and CAC per paying user, and finally delivering a production-ready configuration.
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1 · If the free tier is too large, it equals long-term zero revenue.Free quota is customer acquisition cost—not charity. There’s only one criterion:Revenue from paid users acquired via free quota must exceed the opportunity cost of the free quota given away.
2 · Rate limiting by IP is completely ineffective for Agents.Agents are distributed; IPs change constantly. Free quotas must bind to Agent / API Key / wallet addressOtherwise, one person could abuse it indefinitely.
3 · Free quota must have a circuit breaker.Setting only “N calls per day” is insufficient—you also need a daily total cap and anomaly detection—we’ve seen a single anomalous caller make hundreds of thousands of calls in one day.
4 · How we do it ourselves: Discover for free, deep-dive for pay.Feegate’s self-operated MCP directory browsing is free; deep inspection costs $0.002, and full-directory access costs $0.005—let Agents first explore your data for free to assess usability, then pay only for the actual usage they need.