Every pricing model is a claim about where value comes from. Per-seat pricing claims the value is access. Per-message or per-token pricing claims the value is activity. Both are easy to meter and both quietly reward the wrong thing — a seat that logs in but resolves nothing still pays; a chatty integration that never closes a case still runs up the bill.
Threada meters something harder to game and closer to the point: the automated resolution.
What it measures
An automated resolution is a WorkItem or runtime outcome completed without human takeover or manual operator replies. The work came in, the system carried it to a defensible conclusion, and no person had to step in to finish it. That is the unit we report in billing and usage dashboards, and it is the unit the enterprise meter counts.
The definition is deliberately strict. If an operator had to take over and reply by hand, that is not an automated resolution — it is assisted work, and it should not be counted as if the platform closed it. The meter only ticks when the platform actually did the job.
Why outcomes are the honest thing to charge for
A pricing unit should line up with the customer’s definition of success. For governed operations, success is not “people used the tool” or “the model generated a lot of text.” Success is that routine work got done correctly and only true exceptions reached a human. The product’s whole reason for existing is to automate the routine and route the genuinely hard cases to people.
Charging per automated resolution puts our incentive on the same side as that goal:
- We are rewarded when work closes, not when it merely churns. A model that produces ten drafts no one can act on earns nothing; one resolution that holds up under review earns its keep.
- The customer can do honest math. Cost per resolved item is a number an operations leader can compare against the fully loaded cost of resolving that item by hand. There is no translation layer between “what we charge for” and “what we set out to save you.”
- It resists vanity metrics. You cannot inflate the meter by sending more messages or adding seats. The only way the number goes up is if more work genuinely gets resolved.
Honest metering means honest counting
A meter is only as honest as its counting. Two commitments keep ours straight.
First, we count outcomes, not optimism. A resolution is recorded when the WorkItem reaches a completed terminal state through the governed path — with its receipt intact. A proposal that failed at the connector, or an item an operator had to rescue, is not quietly rounded up into the resolved column. The lifecycle states are explicit, and the meter reads them honestly.
Second, we are candid about the transition. Internally, usage has historically been metered from message caps while the platform matured. We are explicit that those caps map onto the automated-resolution meter, and we report resolutions in usage dashboards rather than hiding the unit behind a proxy. Naming the real unit — and showing it to you — is part of the same records-and-receipts posture that governs the rest of the product.
What the free tier says about the model
The free tier is capped at 1,000 automated resolutions and 100 knowledge assets per month, with daily document caps derived from the monthly limit. The shape of that cap is itself a statement: the free tier is generous in resolutions because resolutions are the thing worth letting you prove out. We would rather you discover whether the platform closes your work than whether it can hold a large number of seats.
Beyond volume, plans are meant to be read as capability bundles — governance depth, approval and policy controls, automation scope, connector classes, and compliance posture — not just bigger numbers. The meter tells you how much work got done. The plan tells you how much control and reach you have while doing it.
Metering outcomes is harder than metering messages. It requires the platform to define, track, and stand behind what “resolved” means. We think that difficulty is the point. A meter you can argue with at the line-item level is a meter that respects the buyer — and an automated resolution is a number an operations team can actually defend.