Maximum provider cost for one free user consuming all 50 monthly credits.
Investor economics · Assumptions checked July 27, 2026
Know what every dollar earns—and what every report costs.
This page exposes the operating assumptions behind InstaSeer: subscription revenue, credit utilization, data-provider costs, payment fees, AI usage, acquisition efficiency, break-even, burn, and runway.
Economic snapshot
The downside ceiling is visible before scale.
Maximum-entitlement margin assumes every monthly or annual credit is consumed at the current Apify Starter result rate. It is a stress case, not a forecast, and excludes fixed operating costs, refunds, tax automation, AI, support, and acquisition.
Monthly plan contribution after maximum provider usage and standard Stripe Payments + Billing fees.
Actual gross margin improves when customers use less than their full monthly entitlement.
Apify result rates step down from Starter to Scale and Business tiers.
Maximum monthly entitlement
Plan-level downside unit economics
| Plan | Revenue | Credits | Provider | Stripe | Contribution | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | $9.00 | 1,500 | $3.45 | $0.62 | $4.93 | 54.7% |
| Plus | $29.00 | 5,000 | $11.50 | $1.34 | $16.16 | 55.7% |
| Pro | $99.00 | 18,000 | $41.40 | $3.86 | $53.74 | 54.3% |
Stripe assumption: 2.9% + $0.30 for domestic online cards plus 0.7% Billing volume. Provider assumption: $2.30 per 1,000 results on Apify Starter. Results and credits are modeled 1:1.
Maximum annual entitlement
Annual-plan downside
| Plan | Annual revenue | Provider | Stripe | Contribution | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | $90 | $41.40 | $3.54 | $45.06 | 50.1% |
| Plus | $290 | $138.00 | $10.74 | $141.26 | 48.7% |
| Pro | $990 | $496.80 | $35.94 | $457.26 | 46.2% |
Annual pricing gives two months free while credits renew for all 12 months, so maximum-utilization margin is lower than monthly billing.
Maximum pack consumption
One-time pack downside
| Pack | Revenue | Provider | Stripe | Contribution | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5K | $29 | $11.50 | $1.14 | $16.36 | 56.4% |
| 20K | $99 | $46.00 | $3.17 | $49.83 | 50.3% |
| 100K | $499 | $230.00 | $14.77 | $254.23 | 50.9% |
Pack economics use Stripe Payments only. Unredeemed packs may create a deferred-revenue or contract-liability question for the company’s accountant.
Editable operating model
Stress-test the business, not the pitch.
Change any input. All monthly revenue, cost, margin, acquisition, and runway outputs update instantly. The starting scenario is illustrative, not a company forecast.
Load a scenario
Calculation glossary
How every investor metric is calculated.
The page uses contribution economics for acquisition metrics and keeps operating expenses below gross profit, so margin quality is not blurred by presentation.
- Subscription MRR
- Monthly customers × monthly price + annual customers × annual price ÷ 12
- ARR
- Subscription MRR × 12. Credit-pack sales are excluded because they are not recurring.
- Gross profit
- Total revenue − provider − payment fees − AI − refund, dispute, and tax-automation reserves
- Gross margin
- Gross profit ÷ total revenue
- CAC
- Monthly marketing spend ÷ new paid customers acquired that month
- Contribution LTV
- Monthly subscription contribution per paid customer ÷ monthly paid churn
- CAC payback
- CAC ÷ monthly subscription contribution per paid customer
- Operating result
- Gross profit − infrastructure − payroll − support − professional fees − software − marketing
- Break-even paid users
- Non-paid monthly burden ÷ weighted subscription contribution per paid customer
- Runway
- Cash balance ÷ monthly operating burn. A profitable scenario has no modeled burn runway.
Cost stack
Every cost belongs in one of four buckets.
Investor analysis should avoid calling every expense “COGS.” The distinction changes gross margin, operating leverage, and valuation quality.
Costs that grow with reports
- Apify result events
- Stripe Payments and Billing
- AI token usage
- Refund and dispute reserves
- Tax automation when enabled
Costs required to stay live
- Apify plan minimum
- Vercel hosting
- Neon database
- Email delivery
- Domain, DNS, monitoring
Costs required to operate safely
- Founder and employee compensation
- Support and contractors
- Legal, bookkeeping, and tax filings
- Insurance and software
- Security and compliance work
Costs intended to create growth
- Paid acquisition tests
- Partnerships and creator programs
- Content and SEO production
- Sales experiments
- Provider redundancy and new platforms
Current vendor assumptions
Rates are linked to primary sources.
Vendor pricing changes. The calculator keeps the critical assumptions editable; the links below were reviewed July 27, 2026.
Apify Instagram Scraper$2.30 / 1K Starter resultsFree $2.70 · Scale $1.90 · Business $1.50
Apify platformStarter $29 / monthIncludes $29 prepaid usage
Stripe Payments2.9% + $0.30Domestic online card assumption
Stripe Billing0.7% of Billing volumePay-as-you-go assumption
Stripe Tax Basic0.5% when enabledPer transaction where registered to collect
Stripe disputes$15 per disputeRefunded card fees are generally not returned
OpenAI GPT-5.4 mini$0.75 in · $4.50 out / 1MCurrent app default model
Vercel Pro$20 / monthOne deploying seat + usage credit
Neon LaunchTypical $15 / monthUsage-based; model it to actual load
ResendFree to 3,000 emails / monthPro $20 at 50,000 emails
Illustrative .com renewal$18.68 / yearNamecheap renewal + ICANN fee; replace with actual registrar
Cloudflare Turnstile$0Free plan with unlimited challenges
Investor diligence
The model is only as credible as the evidence behind it.
Before investing, request monthly cohorts and invoices—not only a forward projection. These are the questions the company should be able to answer.
Is activation repeatable?
Free signup → live report → second report → paid conversion, segmented by acquisition channel and cohort.
Does usage become a habit?
Logo churn, gross revenue retention, annual renewal, credit utilization, and report frequency by plan.
Do invoices match the model?
Provider events, payment fees, AI tokens, refunds, support time, and gross margin reconciled monthly.
Can growth pay back?
Blended and paid CAC, contribution LTV, payback period, channel saturation, and organic share.
What if a provider changes?
Provider concentration, data completeness, failure rate, cache efficiency, fallback coverage, and terms-of-service risk.
What is promised vs shipped?
Saved workspace rollout, platform coverage, export reliability, security posture, and support commitments.
Are liabilities captured?
Unused credit packs, annual prepayments, taxes, refunds, chargebacks, contractor commitments, and deferred revenue.
What milestone does cash buy?
Amount raised, monthly burn, runway buffer, hiring sequence, target ARR, margin target, and the next financing trigger.
Important disclosure
A decision model, not audited financial statements.
This public page is an illustrative operating model and is not an offer to sell securities, investment advice, a valuation, or a company forecast. It excludes income tax, jurisdiction-specific compliance, insurance, capital expenditure, foreign-card fees, and any negotiated vendor terms unless entered manually. Confirm assumptions against contracts, invoices, cohort data, and professional accounting advice before making an investment decision.