Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add jonathimer/devmarketing-skills --skill free-tier-strategygit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jonathimer/devmarketing-skillsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/free-tier-strategy)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/free-tier-strategy"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/free-tier-strategy/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/free-tier-strategy"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jonathimer/devmarketing-skills/free-tier-strategy.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00056 | $0.02853 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00028 | $0.01426 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00011 | $0.00571 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00006 | $0.00285 |
Grade A, and why
free-tier-strategy scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 452 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Free Tier Strategy
Design free tiers that let developers build real things, demonstrate value, and convert naturally—without feeling like a trap or creating resentment.
Overview
Developer tools need free tiers. Developers expect to try before they buy, and they expect the trial to be meaningful—not a 14-day timer or a feature-locked demo. But free tiers also need to sustain your business. Get this wrong in either direction: too restrictive kills adoption, too generous kills revenue.
The best free tiers feel generous to individual developers while naturally scaling into paid tiers as projects grow.
Before You Start
Review the /devmarketing-skills/skills/developer-audience-context skill. Free tier design varies significantly based on whether you're targeting hobbyists, startups, or enterprises. Also understand your unit economics—what does each free user actually cost you?
Free Tier vs Free Trial vs Freemium
Definitions
Free trial: Time-limited full access (14 or 30 days)
- Best for: High-touch enterprise sales
- Worst for: Developer tools with self-serve motion
Free tier: Permanently free with usage/feature limits
- Best for: Developer tools with self-serve adoption
- Requires: Careful limit design
Freemium: Free tier plus premium features for payment
- Best for: Tools with clear hobby/pro distinction
- Requires: Obvious value in premium features
Open core: Free open source with commercial additions
- Best for: Infrastructure and platforms
- Requires: Active open source community
Choosing Your Model
| Factor | Free Trial | Free Tier | Freemium | Open Core |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales motion | High-touch | Self-serve | Self-serve | Mixed |
| Time to evaluate | Weeks | Months | Months | Unlimited |
| Conversion pressure | High | Low | Medium | None |
| Community building | Low | Medium | Medium | High |
| Support costs | High | Low | Medium | Variable |
Developer tools almost always need a permanent free tier, not a free trial. Developers build side projects, evaluate tools for future use, and recommend tools to others—all of which require long-term free access.
What ships with it
1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 10d ago First seen · 452 lines · 56 tokens per session scan A c3108fe4fd80
free-tier-strategy is a skill published in the GitHub repository jonathimer/devmarketing-skills (86 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 56 tokens to every session and 2,853 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
Other skills, from other repositories
systematic-debugging
Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.
local-ai-agents
Build local-first AI agents that run entirely on a developer workstation with Microsoft Foundry Local and Qwen function-calling models. Covers Small Language Models (SLMs), the OpenAI-compatible local endpoint, sandboxed local tools, local RAG with Chroma, local MCP servers, hybrid cloud/local routing, and the…
next-cache-components-adoption
Turn on Cache Components in a Next.js app and resolve the blocking routes it surfaces. Use when the user wants to enable, adopt, or migrate to Cache Components, flip the cacheComponents flag, work through a flood of blocking-prerender / instant validation errors, run the cache-components-instant-false codemod, or…
insight-error-page
Write or audit an insight-kind error page for the Next.js dev overlay. Use when creating a new errors/ .mdx page, auditing an existing one, or checking that a page matches the framework fix cards. Covers page structure, title alignment, FixCard cards with Copy prompt button, code snippets, terminology verification…
next-cache-components-optimizer
Drive a Next.js route to instant navigation by setting up an agentic loop, under Cache Components / PPR, on initial load (hard navigation) and client-side navigation (soft navigation). Encode the goal as a failing @next/playwright instant() e2e and work it to green, one verified route at a time; the shipped test then…
next-partial-prefetching-adoption
Turn on Partial Prefetching in a Next.js app and work through the insights it surfaces. Use when the user wants to enable or adopt Partial Prefetching, flip the partialPrefetching flag, opt routes in with export const prefetch = 'partial', audit Link prefetch={true} behavior, preserve existing prefetched UI with…