# Earning models

URL: /business/business-models · Id: `page:business/business-models`

> How a Startup earns money, who pays whom under each of the five earning models, and which Product Template starts each one.

A business model is who pays whom, for what, and when. Every [Product Template](/business/nouns/product-template) names one of five earning models, and the model decides which money records a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) keeps.

## Five ways money arrives
| Earning model | Who pays whom | Records it keeps | Product Templates | Typical price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `subscription` | A [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) pays the Startup each period for access | [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) with an `interval`, [Subscription](/business/nouns/subscription), [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice), [Entitlement](/business/nouns/entitlement) | [SaaS](/products/templates/saas), [E2E managed service](/products/templates/managed-service) | $15 to $49 a month per seat |
| `usage` | A Customer pays for what it used: calls a [Meter](/business/nouns/meter) counts, or outcomes it accepted | Meter, Entitlement with a [Limit](/business/nouns/limit), [Credit Grant](/business/nouns/credit-grant), Invoice | [Dataset API](/products/templates/dataset-api), [Headless SaaS](/products/templates/headless-saas), [Agent as a Service](/products/templates/agent-as-a-service), [Services-as-Software](/products/templates/services-as-software) | $0.002 per lookup; $2 per accepted [Task](/business/nouns/task) |
| `commerce` | A Customer pays once per [Order](/business/nouns/order), and an upstream holds the stock and ships it | Order, with the upstream's tracking passed through | [Dropship store](/products/templates/dropship-store) | $20 to $80 per Order, at a 30 to 40 percent margin |
| `marketplace` | A Customer pays a [Supplier](/business/nouns/supplier) through the Startup, which keeps a take | Order, Supplier, and the take as a fee on each charge | [Marketplace](/products/templates/marketplace), [Licensed-human marketplace](/products/templates/licensed-marketplace) | 10 to 20 percent of each settled Order |
| `directory` | A listed business pays to be found, and readers search free | A Subscription per listing, with featured placement as a second Offer | [Directory](/products/templates/directory) | $29 a month per listing |

The model also decides who sells. Under `marketplace` the Supplier is the seller of record and the Startup collects a fee; in every other model the Startup sells. [Funds flow](/systems/finance/funds-flow) follows one dollar through each.

## Who does the work
The earning model says how money arrives, and the template's `worker` says who earns it: [Agents](/business/nouns/agent), [Humans](/business/nouns/human), or both. Agents serve the thousandth Customer the way they served the first, so an agent-run template needs only demand.

Humans in the loop change what a Startup runs. An [E2E managed service](/products/templates/managed-service) pairs its Agents with Humans who answer for the work. A [Licensed-human marketplace](/products/templates/licensed-marketplace) sells work only a licensed Human may sign, so each [Reserved Act](/business/nouns/reserved-act) waits for that person's [Attestation](/business/nouns/attestation).

## Who buys
A [Motion](/business/nouns/motion) is who buys and how they decide: a business, a consumer, a developer, or an agent buying for one of them. The same Offer sells through several. [Motions](/business/motions) compares the eight.

A [Startup Template](/business/nouns/startup-template) fixes all three choices at once: an [operating model](/agents/operating-models), one or more Product Templates, and its Motions. [Solo SaaS](/start/templates/solo-saas) is one founder, SaaS and Headless SaaS, sold to businesses and consumers.

## One Startup, several models
A Startup sells as many [Products](/business/nouns/product) as it likes, each from its own template and earning model. A tax-research Startup sells its rulings as a Dataset API, metered per lookup. Over the same records it sells a filing check as Services-as-Software, billed per accepted return.

Each Product keeps its own Offers, [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric) and books, so one model's numbers never hide another's. The Customer stays one record across both.

## A vertical is not a model
Legal, dental and property management are verticals, not models. A vertical brings its own [ICP](/business/nouns/icp), [Nouns](/business/nouns/noun), [Credentials](/business/nouns/credential) and rules, and every model above serves any of them. A tax-research Startup and a dental-billing Startup can run the same template.