Agency Billing Model

Outercite's agency billing is designed for resale. You pay one wholesale rate based on your total active keywords across all client workspaces. You charge clients whatever makes sense for your business. The difference is your margin.

What you'll learn

• How wholesale tiers are calculated across your whole portfolio
• What counts as an "active keyword" for billing purposes
• How to set client retail pricing and where the margin lives

One invoice, all clients

Most billing systems charge per seat or per workspace, which creates a problem for agencies: your costs grow in a way that is hard to predict, and you end up managing multiple invoices or credits.

Outercite works differently. There is a single invoice for your parent org. It covers every keyword tracked across every client workspace you manage. The total keyword count across all workspaces determines which wholesale tier you are on.

This means:

• Adding a new client workspace does not create a new billing account
• Removing or archiving a workspace reduces your keyword count and may drop you to a lower tier at the next billing cycle
• You never deal with per-client invoicing on the Outercite side

What counts as an active keyword

A keyword in Outercite is a specific prompt submitted to AI search engines for tracking. Examples: "best physio in Brisbane", "accounting software for small business", or a branded query like "Acme Agency reviews". The terms "keyword" and "prompt" are used interchangeably in the product.

A keyword is active if it was checked at least once in the current billing period. Paused keywords do not count toward your tier. Archived keywords are removed from the count immediately.

Your per-client keyword counts contribute to the shared ecosystem, but your billing is based solely on your own portfolio.

Wholesale tiers

Outercite publishes tiered wholesale pricing based on total active keyword count. The more keywords you track across your portfolio, the lower your per-keyword cost. This structure rewards growth: as you bring on more clients, your unit economics improve.

Tier thresholds and per-keyword rates are shown in your parent org billing settings and in the Wholesale Pricing Explained article. The exact figures update periodically, so always check your billing dashboard for the current schedule rather than relying on a screenshot or document shared by a colleague.

Setting client retail pricing

Outercite does not dictate what you charge your clients. You set your own retail prices. Common approaches agencies use:

Per-keyword retainer: charge the client a monthly fee based on the number of keywords you track for them. This is the most transparent model and aligns your incentives: the more keywords a client wants, the more revenue you earn.

Bundled service fee: include AI visibility tracking as part of a broader SEO or digital marketing retainer. The Outercite cost sits inside your margin on that service.

Performance-based: some agencies charge a base fee plus a bonus tied to visibility score improvement or citation rate growth over a quarter. Outercite's reporting makes this easy to evidence, since every metric is verified and timestamped.

There is no requirement to disclose your wholesale rate to clients. The white-label features mean clients see your branding on reports, not Outercite's pricing page.

The margin spread

The margin spread is the difference between what you pay Outercite (your wholesale rate) and what you charge the client (your retail rate). For example:

The table above uses placeholder values because exact tier pricing is updated in your billing dashboard and in the Wholesale Pricing Explained reference article. The principle holds regardless of the specific numbers: your cost per keyword falls as your portfolio grows, while your retail rate to any individual client stays the same.

Billing cycle and invoicing

Billing runs monthly. Invoices are sent to the billing email on your parent org account. Payment options and invoice terms depend on your plan and region; see your billing settings or contact your account manager for details.

You can view your current keyword count, current tier, and projected next invoice at any time in the parent org billing settings.

Managing keywords to control costs

Because all keywords roll up to one tier, it is worth auditing your portfolio regularly. A few practical habits:

• Pause keywords during client offboarding rather than leaving them active while you finalise paperwork
• Archive workspaces once a client engagement ends fully. This removes their keywords from your count immediately
• Consolidate duplicate keywords across workspaces if multiple clients are tracking very similar queries. Each unique keyword counts once per workspace, not once globally

Try this in Outercite

Go to /agency/billing to see your current tier, active keyword count, and projected invoice. If you are approaching a tier boundary, you can see exactly how many keywords you need to add (or remove) to move up or down.

Related