Algolia pricing: How much it costs & your discount options

Search-as-a-Service platform, Algolia, is on a mission to revolutionize the way that web users find information. The tool not only handles some 1.75 trillion user queries a year, served by over 70 data centers worldwide, but it's also used by one in six web users, making it a solution worth considering if you're looking for a way to improve your site's search capabilities.

Here's the thing though – with SaaS prices continuing to soar and an ever-growing number of AI tools vying for both your attention and budget, you'll no doubt be wanting to keep your spend to a minimum.

Which means being more stringent than ever with the tools you purchase.

So, the question is, how much does the platform cost? And can you get a discount?

Here's everything you need to know about Algolia pricing.

‍How much does Algolia cost?

Algolia offers several different pricing plans, including a free version of its platform, a pay-as-you-go iteration, and fully customized annual subscriptions for businesses at scale.

While the vendor offers a breakdown of its pay-as-you-go costs, it’s not as transparent with its premium and enterprise-level pricing, as is the case with most software providers — it's a symptom of the wider challenge of pricing transparency faced by SaaS buyers across all verticals.

The problem is, this can make it incredibly difficult for you to know whether you're being quoted a fair deal, let alone the best possible deal. Which is just one of the reasons why as many as 90% of companies end up overpaying for their SaaS tools by an average of 26%, reflecting a massive loss in potential savings.

So, what's the solution? How can you gain insight into the actual cost of an Algolia Premium or Elevate subscription and ultimately ensure you're paying a fair price?

The first step is in knowing which plan type you're wanting to purchase.

Algolia pricing tiers

Algolia Build

Algolia’s free edition permits 10,000 search requests per month, one million records, and supports a range of basic search and discovery features. These include analytics, Natural Language Processing, and A/B testing. Build is recommended for users looking to trial Algolia’s features, but does have some limits on full functionality.

Algolia Grow

Teams looking to develop their search solution may upgrade to Algolia Grow, a pay-as-you-go plan which is billed monthly and permits higher feature usage over Build. Grow is recommended for projects in production with data being used by end users. It has a free tier permitting 10,000 search requests and records of 100,000, with any consumption beyond this threshold billed at $0.50 per 1,000 monthly search requests.

Algolia Premium

Algolia Premium is an annually billed paid plan which includes additional AI features, global hosting options, and access to extra services and add-ons for users’ search solutions. Prospective customers will need to contact the Algolia sales team directly for a quote.

Algolia Elevate

Elevate is the most advanced tier of Algolia’s platform, and like Premium, requires potential buyers to contact the sales team for pricing details. Subscribers can access everything from Premium as well as Algolia NeuralSearch, which supports further AI functionality and vector and keyword results processing in parallel. Users will need to commit to an annual contract with Elevate.

If you’re searching for a more advanced plan, the obvious next step is to obtain a quote from the Algolia sales team. However, entering into a sales conversation without any frame of reference on the price you’ll pay could make it challenging to get a good deal for your organization.

So, how else can you find out what you can expect to pay for Algolia's enterprise-level plans?

How to find out what other companies are paying

If you’re not yet wanting to engage with a sales representative, your second option is to scour the internet to find examples of what other companies are paying. One user on this Reddit thread, for example, shared an invoice showing a monthly charge of $6,309.30. While this is based on pay-as-you-go pricing and could therefore fluctuate month-on-month, if we were to assume similar usage levels each month, the annual spend could easily rack up to $76,000.

In contrast, a second user on the same thread claims to be paying $60,000 for the year.

While this approach to finding out the cost of an Algolia subscription can provide a good benchmark, in this instance the results are conflicting and outdated.

So, what’s the other, more reliable option?

Leverage.

Can you get a discount on Algolia pricing?

While the information above can be useful for providing a frame of reference on what others are paying for a subscription, it doesn't necessarily confirm whether or not they received a discount. Especially when the original list pricing is obscured, as is the case for Algolia's Premium and Elevate plans.

This is where additional pricing and discounting insights become invaluable.

According to our own data, the company has a pricing parity score of 68, meaning that some organizations with similar requirements are still paying markedly different amounts for their plans.

This, combined with the fact that DevOps companies in general offer average discounts in the region of 23%, indicates that it is indeed possible to secure a discount on an Algolia subscription.

But just how much of a discount will ultimately depend on the leverage you have, and your overall negotiation strategy.

Allow ample lead time

Regardless of whether you're purchasing Algolia for the first time, or simply renewing your subscription, you should allow ample time to conduct your research and gather the leverage needed to secure the best possible deal.

Of course, the pressure will be amplified for renewals, as there may well be a deadline and notification period to take into account, but even with new purchases you may need to be set up and onboarded by a certain date.

The problem is, when vendors know you need a fast turnaround, they gain more power and can become far less flexible. Starting negotiations well ahead of time is therefore crucial to avoiding this and securing not only the best price, but also more favorable contract terms.

Commit to a longer subscription period

Algolia offers two annually billed pricing editions — Premium and Elevate. When negotiating your contract for one of these plans, proposing a longer commitment period may encourage the vendor to offer a discounted rate.

In fact, our data tells us that vendors tend to offer an extra 5% discount to your quoted fee per extra year that you sign on for. Which means that if you’re confident Algolia will remain a steadfast asset to your business over the years to come, inquiring about a multi-year subscription could yield significant savings.

Leverage vendor pricing benchmarks

Software prices are rarely set in stone and with the right pricing intel, you can often achieve substantial savings. Procurement platforms provide this data in the form of pricing benchmarks – real-time, accurate intel into what similar companies are paying for the exact same subscription.

‍See how one company saved $155,000 on a single software contract.

Let Vertice negotiate you the very best deal

The best procurement software platforms won’t just provide you with these pricing benchmarks, instead they’ll leverage them on your behalf to secure you the very best deals on any contract – Algolia included.

What’s more, they’ll also utilize their detailed vendor knowledge and advanced negotiation skills, knowing which levers to pull and when, ultimately ensuring you’re not only getting the most favorable pricing, but also the best possible terms.

And it’s not just cost savings you stand to secure – it’s also substantial time savings.

With companies now using an average of 110 tools, procurement teams are left spending a huge amount of time handling negotiations. And often this still isn’t enough – many simply don’t have the required time or resources to effectively negotiate each and every one, leaving them renewing at unfavorable rates and on unfavorable terms.

At Vertice, we can handle your software procurement for you, freeing up valuable time to spend on more strategic initiatives. Get a better idea of what it means to outsource your procurement, or alternatively take a look at how we saved one company 115 hours on contract negotiations in the space of a few months.