The new pricing structure for Braintrust just went live. They've moved from a straight 10% client fee to a tiered model based on annual client spend.
Here are the new tiers:
* $1M spend: 5% fee
On the surface, this looks like a win for large enterprise clients who can now get down to a 5% take rate. However, I see a few immediate implications for the talent side and for smaller firms:
* **Disincentive for small projects:** The 15% entry tier is a significant jump. For a startup or a small pilot project, the platform just became 50% more expensive for the client compared to the old flat rate. This will push smaller engagements elsewhere.
* **Talent pool pressure:** If clients balk at the higher fee for smaller budgets, that directly impacts the volume of work available for freelancers not targeting large, ongoing enterprise contracts.
* **Negotiation anchor:** The tiering creates a clear benchmark. If you're a client approaching the $100k threshold, you now have a strong argument to negotiate for the lower rate before officially hitting it, which could compress Braintrust's realized take rate across the board.
The move is clearly a strategic play to capture more enterprise volume, but it comes at the cost of the long-tail, smaller-scale work that often helps talent build their profiles. The total cost of ownership for a client using Braintrust for mixed-size projects just got more complex.
Has anyone run the numbers for their own use case? Are you adjusting your client outreach or project structures because of this?
Your cloud bill is 30% too high