CueIQ Financial Model And Usage Quotas

Version: 2026-05-21

Scope: Private Coach Beta v0.2 and early paid SaaS economics.

Operating Thesis

CueIQ should be library-first and quota-gated.

The profitable product is not unlimited AI video analysis. The profitable product is:

Subscriptions = predictable base revenue
Verified library = high-margin core value
Fresh analysis = metered premium feature
Overage credits = profit center
Academy accounts = expansion revenue

Core rule:

> Unlimited library access can be included. Unlimited fresh AI video analysis cannot be included.

Pricing

| Plan | Price |

| --- | ---: |

| Free | $0/mo |

| Hobbyist | $19/mo |

| Coach | $49/mo |

| Academy | $149/mo |

Recommended Included Fresh Analysis

| Plan | Included fresh analysis | Main value |

| --- | ---: | --- |

| Free | 0 min/mo | Demo library only |

| Hobbyist | 20 min/mo | Search verified library plus light analysis |

| Coach | 4 hr/mo | Coach boards, player comparison, lesson references |

| Academy | 15 hr/mo | Team or academy use, bulk analysis, full top-player library |

Fresh analysis must be hard-limited, metered, cached, and reviewable. Users should spend most of their time consuming the verified cached library.

External Cost Assumptions

Verify these before each pricing review because AI pricing and video URL rules can change.

Sources checked on 2026-05-21:

• Gemini video understanding supports public YouTube URL input, but Google marks the feature as preview and notes that pricing/rate limits may change: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/video-understanding
• Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite paid pricing currently lists $0.10 per 1M text/image/video input tokens and $0.40 per 1M output tokens: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
• Stripe US pricing is modeled at 2.9% + $0.30 per successful domestic online card transaction: https://stripe.com/us/pricing
• YouTube Data API default quota is 10,000 units/day; search.list costs 100 units and videos.list costs 1 unit: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/determine_quota_cost

Internal AI cost bands:

| Cost mode | Effective AI cost/min | Meaning |

| --- | ---: | --- |

| Optimized | $0.003/min | Flash-Lite, low-res, cached, segmented, batch where possible |

| Moderate | $0.01/min | More retries, more output, some stronger model usage |

| Heavy | $0.05/min | Re-analysis, poor caching, default-res, expensive workflows |

Base Scenario: 100 Hobbyists And 5 Coaches

100 Hobbyists x $19 = $1,900
5 Coaches x $49 = $245

Total MRR = $2,145
ARR = $25,740

Payment fees:

| Plan | Customers | Revenue | Stripe fee estimate |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Hobbyist | 100 | $1,900 | ~$85.10 |

| Coach | 5 | $245 | ~$8.61 |

| Total | 105 | $2,145 | ~$93.71 |

Included analysis load:

| Plan | Customers | Included usage | Total monthly usage |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Hobbyist | 100 | 20 min | 2,000 min |

| Coach | 5 | 240 min | 1,200 min |

| Total | | | 3,200 min / 53.3 hr |

Gross Margin By AI Cost Mode

| Scenario | MRR | Stripe fees | AI cost | Gross profit | Gross margin |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Optimized | $2,145 | $93.71 | $9.60 | $2,041.69 | 95.2% |

| Moderate | $2,145 | $93.71 | $32.00 | $2,019.29 | 94.1% |

| Heavy | $2,145 | $93.71 | $160.00 | $1,891.29 | 88.2% |

With roughly $700/mo lean OpEx:

| Scenario | Gross profit | OpEx | Net income | Net margin |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Optimized | $2,041.69 | $700 | $1,341.69 | 62.6% |

| Moderate | $2,019.29 | $700 | $1,319.29 | 61.5% |

| Heavy | $1,891.29 | $700 | $1,191.29 | 55.5% |

Growth Scenarios

Assuming optimized cost controls and the included usage limits above:

| Scenario | MRR | ARR | Gross profit | Est. OpEx | Net income | Net margin |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| 100 Hobbyists + 5 Coaches | $2,145 | $25,740 | $2,041.69 | $700 | $1,341.69 | 62.6% |

| 100 Hobbyists + 10 Coaches | $2,390 | $28,680 | $2,274.49 | $700 | $1,574.49 | 65.9% |

| 250 Hobbyists + 25 Coaches + 5 Academies | $6,720 | $80,640 | $6,394.62 | $1,500 | $4,894.62 | 72.8% |

| 500 Hobbyists + 50 Coaches + 10 Academies | $13,440 | $161,280 | $12,789.24 | $3,000 | $9,789.24 | 72.8% |

| 1,000 Hobbyists + 100 Coaches + 25 Academies | $27,625 | $331,500 | $26,286.88 | $6,000 | $20,286.88 | 73.5% |

Unit Economics

Using optimized AI cost at $0.003/min:

| Plan | Price | Stripe fee | Included AI cost | Contribution profit | Contribution margin |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Hobbyist | $19 | ~$0.85 | ~$0.06 | $18.09 | 95.2% |

| Coach | $49 | ~$1.72 | ~$0.72 | $46.56 | 95.0% |

| Academy | $149 | ~$4.62 | ~$2.70 | $141.68 | 95.1% |

Break-even at roughly $700/mo fixed OpEx:

| Customer type only | Contribution/customer | Customers needed |

| --- | ---: | ---: |

| Hobbyist only | ~$18.09 | 39 |

| Coach only | ~$46.56 | 16 |

| Academy only | ~$141.68 | 5 |

Academy accounts are disproportionately valuable. One Academy account is worth roughly 7.8 Hobbyists in monthly contribution.

Unlimited Usage Risk

| Usage behavior | Monthly analysis minutes | AI cost at $0.01/min | AI cost at $0.05/min |

| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |

| Quota-controlled | 3,200 min | $32 | $160 |

| Heavy usage | 36,000 min | $360 | $1,800 |

| Abuse/unlimited | 75,000 min | $750 | $3,750 |

Business rule:

> Never offer unlimited fresh video analysis on low-price plans.

Overage Credit Pricing

| Add-on | Price | Price/min |

| --- | ---: | ---: |

| 60 analysis credits | $9 | $0.15/min |

| 300 analysis credits | $29 | $0.097/min |

| 1,000 analysis credits | $79 | $0.079/min |

| Academy bulk pack | Custom | Custom |

At an effective cost of $0.01/min, the 1,000-credit pack produces roughly:

Revenue: $79
AI cost: 1,000 x $0.01 = $10
Gross before payment fees: $69

Required Product Controls

1. Make the default product search/cached-library based.
2. Give every paid plan a hard monthly analysis allowance.
3. Use Flash-Lite, low-res, and batch processing for ingestion where quality allows.
4. Use stronger models only for short clips, prompt evaluation, or human-review workflows.
5. Cache every analysis by video URL, prompt version, model version, media settings, and fps.
6. Never re-analyze the same public video unless the model/prompt/media settings changed.
7. Charge for overage credits.
8. Push serious users into Coach and Academy.
9. Use annual plans with a 15-20% discount to improve cash flow.
10. Track AI cost per user, run, video, and subscription tier.

Metrics To Instrument Before Private Coach Beta

• Included analysis minutes used per user.
• Overage credits purchased and consumed.
• Gemini input/output token estimates per run.
• Analysis cost estimate per minute.
• YouTube quota units spent per source.
• Cache hit rate by video URL + prompt version + model version.
• Reanalysis rate and reason.
• Gross margin by subscription tier.
• Coach/Academy activation and retention.

Bottom Line

With the current CueIQ pricing, the model is viable if it stays library-first and quota-controlled.

Base case:

100 Hobbyists + 5 Coaches
MRR: $2,145
ARR: $25,740
Gross margin: ~88%-95%
Estimated net income: ~$1.2K-$1.35K/mo before taxes and founder salary

Stronger early scale:

500 Hobbyists + 50 Coaches + 10 Academies
MRR: $13,440
ARR: $161,280
Estimated gross margin: ~95%
Estimated net income: ~$9.8K/mo