Pricing
How Terac pricing works, including per-participant costs, platform fees, and cost estimation.
Terac pricing is based on per-participant payouts plus a platform fee. Each participant earns an incentive, which you either set yourself or have the Terac team price, and Terac adds its fee on top.
Pricing Structure
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Participant payout | The incentive each approved participant earns |
| Platform fee | Terac's fee for sourcing, screening, and managing participants |
| Total per participant | Payout + platform fee |
When a quote is given as a single cost per participant (sometimes called CPI), that figure is the total: the participant's incentive plus Terac's platform fee. The incentive is what the participant receives; the platform fee covers sourcing, screening, and managing them. Longer or more specialized studies carry a higher incentive because they are harder to recruit for.
Setting Compensation
When you create an opportunity, its Review step asks How do you want to set the incentive? Choose Send to the Terac team to have the Terac team price it, or Set my own incentive to set it yourself, starting from Terac's suggested price. Either way, nothing is charged until you launch, and you can change the incentive any time before then. See Creating an Opportunity for both paths.
If you set it yourself, consider:
- Market rates for the type of work (surveys pay less than multi-hour interviews)
- Participant expertise level required (specialized experts expect higher compensation)
- Time commitment (longer tasks should pay proportionally more)
- Complexity of the work (file uploads, multi-part tasks, etc.)
Cost Estimation
Before launching, Terac provides a cost estimate:
Estimated total = (participant payout + platform fee) x participant cap
You can also request a quote programmatically: POST /v2/quotes returns a priced quote, and GET /v2/quotes/{quoteId} retrieves it later. See the API documentation.
When You Are Charged
Credits are only deducted when you approve a submission. You are never charged for:
- Participants who are screened out
- Participants who abandon the opportunity
- Participants whose submissions are rejected
- Participants who time out
Re-runs and Platform Issues
You are not charged for work that fails because of a platform issue. If an interview or task has to be re-run because of a technical problem on Terac's side, that re-run is not deducted from your balance. If you believe you were charged for a submission affected by a platform issue, contact support and it will be reviewed.
Adjusting Pricing
You can change the per-participant payout on an active opportunity. The new rate applies to participants who have not yet been approved. Participants already approved keep their original rate.
If you need to adjust the cost per participant on a study after launch (for example, to raise the incentive for a hard-to-reach audience), your Terac contact can update it for you.