# Catalyst pricing Human Guide

## What This Is For
Catalyst pricing — free tier limits, pay-as-you-go rates, GB-seconds calculation, and cost estimation for functions, storage, and other services. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Catalyst pricing agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for catalyst pricing.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Catalyst pricing guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Load `references/pricing-basics.md`** — for free tier limits, pay-as-you-go rates, and the GB-seconds formula.
- **Free tier first** — Always present free tier limits before pay-as-you-go rates. Most hobby projects stay within free tier.
- **GB-seconds calculation** — `(memory in GB) × (execution time in seconds) × (invocation count)`. Present as a worked example with the user's expected usage.
- **Estimate honestly** — Flag that serverless cost depends on real traffic patterns; give a range rather than a single number.
- **Pay-per-use** model with generous monthly free tiers.
- **Free trial:** New customers get **$250 USD** in credits, valid for **60 days from the date claimed**.
- **Minimum billing:** $5/project/month once any free tier limit is exceeded.
- **No upfront commitments.** Subscription option also available.
- Free tier is **account-wide** (shared across all projects).
- **Free tier is account-wide** — shared across all projects.
- **Minimum $5/project/month** once any free tier limit exceeded. If usage = $7 across 2 projects: $7 + $5 = $12.
- **Billable = Max(0, Usage - Free Tier)**. Cost = Billable × Unit Price.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: How It Works, Triggers, References, Supporting file: references/pricing-basics.md, Overview, Pricing Table (USD), Serverless, Data Store, Cache, Stratus (Object Storage).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Free tier erodes at scale** — don't over-optimize for free tier savings in large projections.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Catalyst pricing human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the catalystbyzoho/agent-skills skill entry for `catalyst-pricing`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

## How It Works

1. **Load `references/pricing-basics.md`** — for free tier limits, pay-as-you-go rates, and the GB-seconds formula.
2. **Free tier first** — Always present free tier limits before pay-as-you-go rates. Most hobby projects stay within free tier.
3. **GB-seconds calculation** — `(memory in GB) × (execution time in seconds) × (invocation count)`. Present as a worked example with the user's expected usage.
4. **Estimate honestly** — Flag that serverless cost depends on real traffic patterns; give a range rather than a single number.

## Triggers

Use this skill for: "pricing", "cost", "free tier", "how much does Catalyst cost", "GB-seconds", "billing", "pay-as-you-go", "subscription model", "trial credits", "$250 credits", "function cost", "storage cost", "will this be free", "Catalyst pricing plans", or "DataStore pricing".

## References

| Reference | Load when the query is about… |
|-----------|-------------------------------|
| `references/pricing-basics.md` | Free tier limits, pay-as-you-go rates per service, GB-seconds formula, $250 trial credits, subscription vs PAYG |

---

## Supporting file: references/pricing-basics.md

> **Pricing data last verified: May 2026.** Always verify current rates at https://catalyst.zoho.com/pricing.html before quoting estimates to clients.

## Overview

- **Pay-per-use** model with generous monthly free tiers.
- **Free trial:** New customers get **$250 USD** in credits, valid for **60 days from the date claimed**.
- **Minimum billing:** $5/project/month once any free tier limit is exceeded.
- **No upfront commitments.** Subscription option also available.
- Free tier is **account-wide** (shared across all projects).

---

## Pricing Table (USD)

### Serverless
| Component | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Functions | $0.000016 | per GB-second |
| Circuits | $0.00002 | per state transition |
| AppSail | $0.08 | per GB-hour |

### Data Store
| Operation | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| SELECT | $0.00006 | per request |
| INSERT | $0.0001 | per request |
| UPDATE | $0.00008 | per request |
| DELETE | $0.00008 | per request |
| Storage | $0.02 | per GB/month |

### Cache
| Operation | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| GET | $0.00004 | per request |
| PUT | $0.00006 | per request |
| UPDATE | $0.00006 | per request |

### Stratus (Object Storage)
| Operation | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Upload | $0.000005 | per request |
| Download | $0.0000004 | per request |
| Storage | $0.02 | per GB/month |

### Other Backend
| Component | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| API Gateway | $0.000001 | per request |
| Web Client Hosting | $0.0000004 | per request |
| Mail | $0.001 | per email |
| Push Notifications | $0.00002 | per notification |
| Search | $0.00004 | per query |

### SmartBrowz
| Operation | Unit Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Headless Browser | $0.1188 | per hour |
| PDF Conversions | $0.0033 | per PDF |
| BrowserLogic | $0.000002 | per invocation |