Product & metrics
Freemium
By Rubén García · 3 min
A business model where a product's basic version is free forever and you pay for extra features or heavier use.
The name blends “free” and “premium”. The free version attracts lots of people, and some of them end up paying for the full one.
Example: Canva has a free plan and charges for Pro; ChatGPT has a free plan and charges for Go and Plus.
It's one of the most common ways to apply product-led growth: letting customers try the product before paying.
With AI, almost everyone sticks to free: according to a16z, in August 2026 only 4.5% of the US consumers analysed paid for ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.
For it to work, the free version must be genuinely useful but make clear what you gain by paying. Give everything away and nobody pays; give too little and nobody tries it.
