AM-135 · for Kite's trial-to-paid work (AM-106 credit ladder, AM-127 sign-ups)
How agentic products get free users to pay
We signed up for 11 agentic products with throwaway inboxes and screenshotted every step from landing page to checkout (no card ever entered). Four let us all the way in from this host (Native, Okara, Sintra, Zapier Agents). The rest stopped at an identity wall: a work-email check, Slack or Google sign-in, a captcha, or an instant suspension. For those, the screenshots come from pricing pages and help docs. The products that converted us fastest did the work first. A URL alone produced on-brand posts or a marketing brief in 1–3 minutes, and the paywall then sold the rest of that work.
ComparisonPatternsStandout tacticsRecommendations for KiteBlocked sign-ups
Comparison
Click a product for its screenshot-by-screenshot flow. Prices as shown on 28 Oct 2026 in USD (some checkouts converted to INR from the India IP).
| Product | Pricing | Trial / free entry | Card? | What free allows | Paywall trigger | Key upgrade tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native named · 37 steps Full flow |
Pro $79/mo ($47/mo first year on annual), Max $249, Agency $399 | No trial. Free = 3 posts to try from ~50 pre-generated for your brand | No to start; yes for anything past 3 posts | Approve 3 posts; every create/memory action is paywalled | Approving the 3rd post → '47+ more posts, made for Kite. Pick a plan to unlock them' | Sells your own already-made posts, shown blurred, with yearly preselected and a Halloween countdown |
| Lindy named · 15 steps Blocked |
Team $29.99/seat/mo for 3k credits (slider to $999.95); in-app Plus/Pro/Max | $50 credits, 7 days, whichever runs out first | No | 5,000 credits ≈ 5–20 deep-work tasks; live onboarding and computer use gated to Pro+ | Credits or 7 days run out → 'Choose a paid plan to keep using Lindy'; in-thread 'Usage Warning' pauses heavy tasks | Dollar-denominated grant + a credit explainer by task size (2–250 / 250–1,000 / 1,000–2,500 credits) |
| Viktor named · 17 steps Blocked |
Team $100/mo for 40k credits, flat $25 per 10k up to $95k; Enterprise | Up to $100 credits, never expire, every feature unlocked | No | ≈ 80–400 tasks; only top-ups, rollover and full rate limits are locked | Credits gone → Viktor pauses the task in Slack: 'Upgrade plan' / 'Ask an admin' | Out-of-credit asks travel up the org: Viktor DMs admins that '2 teammates are waiting on me' |
| Town named · 17 steps Blocked |
Starter $15, Pro $49 (annual), Power $99, Power Plus $199; Team $59/seat | 7-day Pro reverse trial at sign-up (or until trial credits run out), then Free | No | Trial = full Pro; after it, 30 chats/month, weekly briefing, routines pause | Trial ends → Free and routines pause; 80/90/100% credit emails; 'Out of credits' → upgrade | Reverse trial: you live on Pro for a week, then lose the automations you set up |
| Okara AI CMO added · 20 steps Full flow |
AI CMO Lite $129/mo ($108 annual), Pro $249 ($208 annual) | Free plan (documents) + 7-day trial, card required, defaults to annual | Yes for the trial (₹0 today, then the annual plan) | Product brief, 30-day strategy, competitor list, SEO audit; all 8 agents locked | End of onboarding → full-screen 'Start your free trial now'; every lock icon routes there | Free strategy, paid execution, with an Agent Log that narrates which steps 'unlock on the paid plan' |
| Sintra added · 29 steps Full flow |
'Sale': $48.50 first month (renews $97) or $15.60/mo first year (renews $624/yr); in-app $37.50/mo for 250 credits | Pay first + 14-day money-back; a hidden free 20 credits/mo via the login page | Yes on every website CTA; no via the hidden path | 20 credits/mo (≈ 6 research tasks); a 15-s video costs 51 | 'Generate video · 51' → 'You're out of credits — top up'; 'Low · 3 / 20' pill | Price shown on the expensive button + credit tiers translated into outputs ('up to 250 social posts / 5 videos') |
| Manus added · 18 steps Blocked |
$20 / $40 / $200 per month (annual −17%); team calculator defaults to 20 seats | Hidden free tier: 1,000 credits + 300/day; 7-day trial on the $40 tier | No (free); trial not verified | Daily 300 run only 'Manus 2.0 Lite', ≈ one standard task; 1 concurrent task | Zero credits blocks new tasks; credits can go negative | Daily refresh keeps free users returning, but the better model needs paid credits |
| Genspark added · 11 steps Blocked |
Plus $19.99/mo annual ($24.99 monthly), Pro $199.99; Team $35/seat (10-seat default) | Free 100 credits/day until a lifetime cap | No | 100/day, then 'You reached your lifetime limit of daily free credits' | Everything behind login (even /pricing); lifetime cap ends free use | A free tier that expires for good, while paid plans add a weekly no-credit 'Free Quota' |
| Tasklet added · 7 steps Blocked |
Starter $25/mo (10k credits), Pro $100, custom in $5 steps; no seat fees | Free account with 'limited trial credits' | No | Unpublished trial credits; create a first agent, connect tools | Credits run out (not observed); top-ups cost 20% more than plans | Paid plans earn 600 bonus credits every day you log in; one credit pool for the whole team |
| Gumloop added · 10 steps Blocked |
Pro $37/mo for 20k credits ('7,400 + 12,600 bonus'); Enterprise | 14-day Pro trial, card required, auto-converts; no free plan | Yes | Trial = Pro limits (not verified) | 20k credits used → agents stop until you enable pay-as-you-go (default ceiling $5,000) | Opt-out trial + pass-through pricing (+8% fee) and PAYG overage instead of plan jumps |
| Zapier Agents added · 27 steps Full flow |
Agents Pro $50/mo ($33.33 annual) for 1,500 activities; separate from Zapier platform plans | Free forever: 400 activities/month; sign-up also auto-starts a 14-day platform Pro trial | No | 400 activities/mo and 10 activities per run; one research task ≈ 25 activities | Mid-run, the agent itself: 'reached the limit of 10 activities per run on Agents' Free plan. Upgrade… Shall I continue?' | A per-run depth cap pitched by the agent at the moment of value (free users can still continue) |
Patterns across products
Do the work first, then charge for more of it
The two fastest 'aha's needed only a URL. Native returned ~50 on-brand posts for Kite in about a minute; Okara wrote a product brief and a 30-day strategy during a 3-screen profile. Both ran the analysis while asking their questions, and the paywall arrived when the user already had something in hand. Sintra did the opposite (15 typed setup screens before the first chat) and felt like work.
Credits everywhere, but the good ones speak in outcomes
Every product meters in credits or tokens. The ones that are easy to reason about translate them: Sintra's plan picker ('up to 250 social posts / 140 images / 5 videos'), Native's token table ('10 tokens a post'), Lindy's task-size bands, Viktor's '40,000 credits ≈ 80–400 tasks', Manus's example tasks with their credit cost.
Four ways in, ranked from generous to strict
(1) A large no-card grant with everything unlocked: Viktor ($100), Lindy ($50 for 7 days), Town (7-day Pro reverse trial). (2) Drip-fed free credits: Manus (300/day), Genspark (100/day to a lifetime cap), Sintra (20/mo), Tasklet. (3) A tiny free taste plus a hard paywall: Native (3 posts), Okara (documents only). (4) A card up front: Okara and Gumloop trials auto-convert; Sintra sells first with a money-back guarantee.
Paywalls sit on the user's own work
The sharpest upgrade prompts show what the agent already made or would make for this company: Native's blurred '47+ more posts, made for Kite', Okara's locked-agent modal over a blurred table of example work, and Sintra's half-built video board priced at 51 credits. Generic feature lists come second.
Annual is the default, with intro prices
Native (−40% + countdown, 'first year, then $63/mo'), Okara ('2 months free'), Town and Genspark (−20%), Manus (−17%) and Sintra (−70% first year, renewing at $624) all preselect annual. Native and Sintra make year one cheap and the renewal dearer. Native states the renewal price right on the card; Sintra keeps it in the checkout fine print.
Usage warnings escalate, and the agent delivers them itself
Sintra: a small counter, then a 'Low · 3 / 20' pill, then an 'out of credits' toast. Town: emails at 80/90/100%. Gumloop: emails at 75/90%, then pay-as-you-go. Viktor: 70% and 90% DMs with an estimated run-out date, then pausing the task in Slack and asking the admin. In-thread products (Viktor, Lindy) send these notices from the agent, in the conversation. Zapier's agent stops mid-run at the free plan's 10-activities-per-run cap and pitches the upgrade itself.
Habit hooks via daily credits
Manus (300/day), Genspark (100/day) and Tasklet (600 bonus credits on each day a paid user logs in) make returning daily worth something. Genspark's lifetime cap and Manus's Lite-only daily credits stop the free refill from becoming a permanent free tier.
Email isn't the hour-one lever, and identity walls cost sign-ups
In the first 1–2 hours, no product sent anything beyond a verification code or link; all the conversion pressure was in-app. Seven of eleven blocked a throwaway sign-up (work-email checks, Slack- or Google-only sign-up, a captcha, a PIN that never arrived, an instant suspension). The four that accepted any email are the four that got us to a first real result within minutes.
Standout tactics
- Native: paywall your own content. '47+ more posts, made for Kite. Pick a plan to unlock them' over a fan of the user's real posts, blurred and locked, with yearly preselected.
- Viktor: out-of-credit messages escalate to the person who pays. The agent pauses in Slack and offers to 'Ask an admin'. The admin is told how many teammates are waiting, and paused requests replay once credits return.
- Okara: the agent's log doubles as an upsell channel. A terminal-style log narrates real research on your company, then prints '[LinkedIn] LinkedIn posts unlocks on the paid plan'. Locked agents offer 'Ask the CMO what it would do'.
- Town: a reverse trial with a credit cap. Everyone gets Pro for 7 days or until the trial credits run out. Afterwards Free remains, but the automations built during the trial pause until you upgrade.
- Zapier Agents: a depth cap the agent itself announces. 'I've reached the limit of 10 activities per run on Agents' Free plan. Upgrade… to unlock up to 40 continuous activities per run. Shall I continue with the rest for now?' The free tier feels shallow on exactly the complex tasks people care about, and free users can still finish.
- Sintra: put the price on the button. 'Generate video · 51' after the free credits went on preparing it, plus an in-app picker that sells '+100 credits on us' and outcome counts instead of raw credits.
- Tasklet and Manus: daily credits. Paid users earn credits for showing up each day (Tasklet); free users get a daily trickle on a cheaper model (Manus).
Recommendations for Kite's trial-to-paid flow
Show finished work for the user's own brand in minute one, from the website alone
Ask for the URL, start the research immediately, and ask the 2–3 remaining questions while it runs (Native and Okara both do this). Land the user on 3 real deliverables (e.g. 3 LinkedIn posts plus a one-page competitor brief) before any credits are mentioned. For the many sign-ups with no website, offer a fallback in the same box (a Google Business Profile, an Instagram handle or two sentences) rather than a separate step.
AM-127: 72 of 219 sign-ups left at Kite's website step, and only 8 of the 18 who reached the $20 wall had a value moment first. Native: posts ready about 60 s after the URL.
Don't bill onboarding; make the first free unit an outcome, not dollars
Native's free unit is '3 posts', Okara's is 'your strategy + brief'. Neither meters the setup work. Kite could grant an outcome bundle (say, 3 posts and 1 research brief) on top of the $20 ladder and never charge for kickoff, onboarding or design work the user didn't ask for.
AM-127: a median $9 of the first $20 went on unrequested onboarding, kickoff and design work.
Put the paywall on the next batch of the user's own work
When the free unit is spent, show the already-generated next batch (the rest of the 30-day calendar, more posts, a deeper report) blurred and labelled for their brand ('22 more posts made for Acme are ready'), with one primary 'Unlock' button. A paywall that sells their own work converts better than one selling 'more credits'.
Native's paywall (steps 27–30), Okara's locked agents over blurred example work (step 15).
Translate credits into outcomes on the meter, the plan picker and expensive buttons
Show '≈ 14 posts or 3 research reports left' next to the dollar balance. Price big actions on the button before they run ('Generate video · $4.10'). Give each AM-106 ladder step an outcome-framed reward ('verify your phone: +$30 ≈ 15 more posts').
AM-127: nobody bought credits. Sintra, Native, Lindy and Viktor all explain credits as tasks or posts.
Let Kite deliver its own usage warnings, and route them to whoever pays
In Slack and web threads, Kite should warn at 70% and 90% with a run-out estimate, pause gracefully at zero ('I've paused this; want me to ask <admin>?') and replay the paused work after the upgrade. Teammates who hit the limit should generate an ask to the payer, not a dead end.
Viktor's Slack flow (steps 14–16); Zapier's in-run cap message (step 19); Town's and Gumloop's 75–90% emails. Sintra's toast-only 'out of credits' was a missed moment.
Narrate the work and tell the user what a paid plan would do next
Show a live activity feed while Kite researches and writes. Use the same voice for the next step that needs a plan: 'I can publish these every Tuesday and track replies; that's on Growth.' Offer 'ask Kite what it would do' on locked actions as a free preview.
Okara's Agent Log (steps 12, 16, 18) and the 'Ask the CMO what it would do' button (step 15).
Keep the trial no-card, but bound it by time and credits, and default to annual with a human touch
Town's reverse trial (7 days or the credits, whichever comes first, then a free floor) is the closest to Kite's ladder. Pair it with an annual default whose extra is human (Native's yearly-only '1-on-1 setup and strategy call'). State the renewal price on the card, as Native does, not in checkout fine print.
Native's yearly-only perks (step 37), Town's trial rules ([DOCS] steps 13–14), Sintra's renewal at $624 (step 3).
Re-engage at the paywall by email
None of the 11 sent a welcome or nurture email in the first hours. All the pressure was in-app, so a user who walks away at the paywall hears nothing. Send a 'your 22 posts for Acme are waiting' email a few hours after an abandoned paywall, with the blurred posts embedded.
Only verification emails arrived during the run: inboxes last checked 21:34 UTC, 1.5 h after the earliest sign-up (Native). Day-1 to day-7 emails are tracked in follow-up AM-138.
Blocked sign-ups Nikhil could unblock
- One dedicated test identity would unblock most of them: a fresh Google Workspace user on a Kite domain (e.g. a research@ alias with an empty mailbox). It passes Lindy's work-email check, lets us create an empty test Slack workspace for Viktor, and gives Town an empty inbox to connect. It also works for Gumloop / Tasklet / Genspark Google sign-in.
- Gumloop also needs a card for its 14-day trial; cancel before day 14 (one trial per customer).
- Manus suspended a brand-new account instantly, probably because of the throwaway email domain or this AWS IP. Signing up from a normal laptop and network should work.
- Genspark email sign-up needs an image captcha typed once by a person (Google sign-in skips it).
- Relay.app shut down in September 2026 (its homepage says all accounts were deleted), so Okara replaced it.
How this was captured
- 28 Oct 2026, a private headful Chrome (1440×900 viewport) on an India-hosted server; English forced where sites geo-redirected to Hindi.
- Throwaway inboxes on mail.tm (maxxspace.com) and maildrop.cc; website entered was kite.ai and test tasks were 'research 3 competitors of kite.ai and draft a LinkedIn post (don't post)', so outputs show what each product would do for Kite.
- Never entered card details, connected real accounts, or let a product post, email or invite anyone. Checkout pages were screenshotted and abandoned.
- Steps marked docs come from the product's public help pages, used where sign-up was blocked.
- Personal data of other people (Native's public feed of other users' posts) is blurred. Marketing testimonials shown on the vendors' own sites are left as published.