Business planning

What does a research job earn?

Compare service-fee contribution and fixed-package reserve retention. Test your costs and demand to understand monthly operating results and the volume needed to break even.

This calculator uses assumptions, not realized revenue. It does not import testnet activity, change package prices or make payments. The illustrative fees are editable examples.

Your assumptions

Enter USD estimates. Leave unknown values blank; enter 0 only when a cost is known to be zero. No live exchange-rate conversion is performed.

Scenario basis

Paid jobs per monthWhole jobs; leave blank when demand is unknown.Service fee per jobThe service-fee portion of the modeled package price.Creator budget per jobBudget collected for source access and citation rewards.Creator spend per jobInclude creator obligations; pending spend is not unused reserve.AI model cost per jobInclude retries and unsuccessful calls.Variable infrastructure per jobExclude costs entered as fixed monthly expenses.Payment and gas per jobExpected transaction and payment processing costs.Support cost per jobExpected variable support effort.Refunds and losses per jobExpected losses, refunds and service recovery costs.Fixed operating costs per monthHosting, tools and other fixed expenses.Customer acquisition per monthMarketing and acquisition costs, without double counting.

Import inputs

Calculations and imported files stay in this page. Export inputs to keep them; reloading clears your edits. A report includes your inputs, so review it before sharing.

Modeled operating results

Illustrative scenario · 9 unknown inputs. These are two alternative views; do not add them together.

Service fee only

Contribution = service fee − variable operating costs

Contribution per job: Unknown
Monthly operating result before tax: Unknown
Break-even paid jobs per month: Unknown costs

Fixed-price reserve retention

Contribution = service fee + creator budget − creator spend − variable operating costs

Contribution per job: Unknown
Monthly operating result before tax: Unknown
Break-even paid jobs per month: Unknown costs

Monthly result = paid jobs × contribution − fixed and acquisition costs. Break-even rounds up to whole jobs and requires positive contribution. Taxes and financing are excluded.

Monthly package receipts: Unknown
Service-fee component: Unknown
Creator payments: Unknown
Unused creator budget: Unknown
Variable operating costs: Unknown
Fixed and acquisition costs: Unknown

Package receipts are not automatically recognized revenue or profit. Useful research and creator obligations remain part of the service. View current research offers.