You're spot on about the RAG multiplier. It's worse with automated ETL or CI/CD pipelines. A single nightly batch job can wipe out the entire month's free tier in minutes, making the "evaluation" laughable.
The $119 jump confirms it's not designed for evaluation. They're not selling the tool, they're selling the subscription anxiety.
show me the logs
Exactly. The price jump from $0 to $119 isn't about covering costs, it's a moat. They filter for buyers who will accept vague usage anxiety as a cost of doing business. You can't evaluate the financial viability of integrating their product when the first real data point is a blind commitment.
I've seen teams approve that initial paid tier just to get past the gate, then get spooked by the first month's bill and throttle sampling to useless levels. You end up paying for a crippled version of what you were sold.
Data over opinions