Pricing model · KYE Value-Based Pricing Model™

KYE™ pricing — value-based, not transactional.

KYE Protocol™ runs continuously. The pack lives in production every day, the audit chain accumulates every day, the attestations refresh every day. One-time pricing mis-prices that. Every KYE™ SKU resolves to a value-based pricing envelope with ten fee components grouped into platform fees (ratable ARR) and professional fees (milestone-billed), plus two cross-cutting lifecycle artefacts — locked in constitution + .

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Why annual recurring

The protocol runs continuously. Value compounds.

Three things stay true every single day a KYE™ runtime is deployed:

verifiedThe audit chain accumulatesEvery privileged AI-agent action emits a evidence chain. WORM-retained. Replayable from public keys alone. Year 2 evidence is more valuable than year 1 evidence — it shows the trend regulators care about.
refreshThe attestations refreshCompliance attestations carry ≤90-day decay clocks. Frameworks shift. Regulator interpretations shift. Coverage maps shift. The runtime keeps the framework binding current; that is the work the renewal fee buys.
securityThe threat surface shiftsSecurity patches, schema migrations, JWKS rotations, dictionary updates. None of these are one-time deliverables. They are the continuous protocol-as-a-service obligation, and they earn the runtime fee every quarter they ship.

The CEO direction, verbatim (2026-05-29): “all pricing must be value based pricing and kye adds huge value annual runtime fee renewal fee annual pack maintenance fee certification fee etc”. This page describes the model that direction locked into the constitution.

Ten fee components, grouped into platform fees and professional fees

Every SKU resolves to these ten — 5 platform fees, 5 professional fees.

Platform fees · ratable ARR — recognised over the service period

login1. Entry feeOne-time. Implementation, build, setup. The existing pilot / annual list price. Credits 100% against year-1 recurring when signed within 60 days — the conversion mechanic survives unchanged.
cloud_sync2. Annual runtime feeWhat the customer pays per year for runtime hosting, protocol upgrades, security patches, attestation refreshes. Tier basis: flat · per-deployment · per-decision · per-tenant · per-counterparty · per-pack.
approval3. Annual renewal feeSeparate from runtime. Per-tenant protocol-licence renewal — framework binding currency, registry currency, schema version migration, certification badge continuity, JWKS rotation acknowledgement.
inventory_24. Pack maintenance feePer productised Sector Pack the customer deploys — framework version tracking, regulator update propagation, rule-pack drift detection, dictionary refresh. Foundry packs especially.
workspace_premium5. Certification program feeAnnual entitlement to the KYE™ certification engine + replay-proof issuance + badge currency for the chosen L1/L2/L3/L4 level. Distinct from per-claim assessor work (see #10).

Professional fees · milestone-billed — recognised on delivery

construction6. Onboarding feeImplementation, tenant setup, IDP wiring, gateway integration. Milestone-billed across the onboarding window. Not ratable ARR.
science7. Smoke test feePre-production conformance validation, framework binding sanity, SCCT (smoke-conformance-coverage-test) verdict. Gates production cutover.
forum8. Consulting feeAdvisory engagements outside the SKU envelope — supplementary regulator engagement, framework rewrite, claim copy review. Discretionary; time-and-materials or retainer.
gavel9. Document evaluation feePer-Pack legal review, IP-ownership attestation review, conflicting-IP audit, framework-mapping audit, claim-set legal screen. Milestone-billed; mandatory for Pack-bearing SKUs.
fact_check10. Certification engagement feePer-claim assessor work. Splits from #5: the program is the annual entitlement; the engagement is the per-event cost-plus across the year's claims.

Lifecycle artefacts · not fees, but commercial primitives every envelope binds to

verified_userIP ownership attestationSworn statement schema + verification flow. Required at contract signing for every Pack-bearing SKU. Bound on the envelope via lifecycle_artefacts.ip_attestation_ref.
account_balancePayout policyFoundry™ / partner revenue-share envelope + payout legal terms. Required on every envelope that declares revenue_share. Bound via lifecycle_artefacts.payout_policy_ref.
handshake+ optional revenue sharePartner-sourced deals favour the partner (default 35/65) to compensate ground-game lead generation. KYE-sourced deals favour KYE™ to compensate platform investment. Reviewed quarterly.

The 5+5 split mirrors industry-standard platform pricing: ratable ARR recognised over the service period (rev-rec under ASC 606 / IFRS 15 as a series of distinct performance obligations); milestone-billed professional services recognised on delivery. Two distinct rev-rec posts — cleaner audit trail, dual-budget procurement-friendly for enterprise buyers.

Per-tier examples

How the shape lands across the catalogue.

Exact numbers are disclosed under qualification per constitution . Below is the shape across four representative SKU classes.

flight_takeoffPilot · Runtime ConsoleEntry: implementation. Runtime: per-tenant. Renewal: per-tenant. Certification: L3 cycle. Pack maintenance: not applicable (no Pack deployed yet).
calendar_monthAnnual · Starter / Pro / EnterpriseEntry: tenant stand-up. Runtime: per-tenant scale. Renewal: per-tenant. Pack maintenance: per Pack chosen from catalogue. Certification: optional L3 badge.
factoryFoundry · Scout / Build / VentureScout: entry-only (assessment). Build: entry + runtime + renewal + pack maintenance + L3 certification + 60/40 KYE-sourced · 35/65 partner-sourced revenue share. Venture: scaled multi-Pack portfolio + L4 certification + named engineer.
workspace_premiumCertification · L3 / L4L3 (auditor-issued): entry + per-cycle re-cert + low-flat annual audit refresh. L4 (third-party accredited): higher entry + per-cycle re-cert + higher audit refresh (accredited firm engagement).

The canonical envelope set lives at public/examples/commercial/value-based-pricing-set.json; the schema at internal; the bijection enforcer at scripts/gates/value-based-pricing-coverage.mjs. Every privileged customer-touching surface gates on it.

Value drivers

What the annual runtime + renewal fee buys.

Each envelope declares 1–8 canonical value drivers. The full taxonomy across the published catalogue:

upgradeProtocol upgradesEvery schema, every rule pack, every dictionary moves forward on the renewal cohort. No customer is forced into a stale protocol version.
databaseSchema migrationsSchema-version bumps land with migrators; the runtime applies them in-place; the customer’s evidence stream stays replayable.
verified_userAttestation refreshesCompliance attestations carry ≤90-day decay. The runtime refreshes them; the dashboard refreshes; the regulator-facing artefact stays current.
shieldSecurity patchesJWKS rotation, key compromise response, dependency CVE remediation, edge-bundle re-signing. Continuous.
policyAuthority Finality™ runtimeEvery privileged AI-agent action enforced 24x7. No protocol claim survives without a runtime that enforces it; that runtime is the renewal fee.
drawEvidence Pack™ signingPer-decision signed evidence. WORM-retained. Replayable from public keys alone.
dashboardDashboard regenerationCoverage dashboards, compliance dashboards, board exports. Regenerated on signal, not on cron.
lockAudit chain WORM retentionFramework-justified retention windows. Object-store immutability. Datastore append-only triggers. The audit chain that earns trust is the audit chain that survives 7+ years.

Try it free before you price it

You do not have to take pricing on faith. Every paid envelope starts from the same free surfaces — prove the model on one action in your browser, then scope a tenant. Free trial today, account this week, signed pilot in 4–8 weeks.

Try · free

Start free

Use the free tools — the sandbox and the Authority Finality™ diagnostic — to prove the model on one action. No card, no signup.

Adopt · account

Create an account

Run the rail against your own agents and get a signed Evidence Pack™ per decision. Start a governed proof of concept to size the envelope.

Adopt · paid

Scope a pilot

The five components above are the model. Apply for an Audit Pilot™ for a quoted envelope, or book a demo to walk one real action first.

Ready to scope a value-based envelope for your tenant?

The five components are the model. The numbers are quoted under qualification — closed-registration per constitution .

rocket_launch Apply for pilot → workspace_premium Certification program →