AI Recruiting Software Pricing: Who Publishes a Rate
Most AI recruiting software is quote-priced: of the 16 vendors whose pricing pages are on our record, 6 put a number on the page; the rest are quoted per deployment, priced per seat, or recorded without a note either way. The Cognitive publishes its own - AI interviews from $99/month, AI sourcing credits from $49/month, annual billing saves 17%, with 2 free interviews and 100 sourcing credits to start. This page maps who shows a rate, what each vendor's pricing page does rather than what it charges, and how to compare seat, credit and plan models before any sales call.
Why there are no competitor prices on this page
Because a price we copied last quarter is a price we invented this one. Vendor pricing in this category changes without announcement, most of it is quoted per deployment, and a stale number published by a competitor is worse than no number at all - it looks authoritative and it is wrong. So every row below states what that vendor's pricing page DOES, from our own records and captures, and links the search demand for it. For the figure itself, go to the vendor.
The Cognitive publishes this comparison, lists itself first, and competes with every vendor named on it — price that bias in. Each vendor's line is its own public positioning, not our reading of its quality: quoted wording comes from that vendor's homepage as read on 1 September 2026, unquoted wording from our August 2026 records. A dash means the vendor does not publicly advertise that capability; it is never proof the tool cannot do it. Positioning in this category changes monthly — check the vendor's own site before you decide.
Pricing visibility across 16 vendors
| Vendor | What its pricing page does (our record) | Shows a rate? |
|---|---|---|
| The Cognitive | Published: interviews from $99/month, sourcing credits from $49/month, per-tier overage rates listed | Yes |
| Eightfold AI | Enterprise-first, not published | No |
| HireVue | Quote-based, not published | No |
| Paradox | Quote-based, not published | No |
| Metaview | Published for lower tiers | Yes |
| hireEZ | Seat-priced | Not on record |
| SeekOut | Enterprise seat-priced | Not on record |
| Gem | Seat-priced | Not on record |
| Juicebox | Published | Yes |
| Truffle | Published | Yes |
| Apriora | Not published | No |
| Maki | Published, EU/GDPR positioned | Yes |
| Mercor | Marketplace fees, not software pricing | Not on record |
| micro1 | Not published | No |
| InterviewFlowAI | Published per interview | Yes |
| Elly | Not published | No |
| Jack & Jill | Free for candidates; company pricing published on site | Yes |
"Not on record" is exactly that - our sweep recorded a pricing model (seat-based, marketplace fees) without recording whether a rate is shown. It is not a claim that the vendor hides one.
The pricing questions buyers actually type
| Search term | US searches/month |
|---|---|
| linkedin recruiter pricing | 880 |
| linkedin recruiter cost | 720 |
| seekout pricing | 480 |
| hirevue pricing | 390 |
| vidcruiter pricing | 170 |
| hireez pricing | 140 |
| paradox ai pricing | 40 |
| gem recruiting pricing | 20 |
| metaview pricing | 20 |
US monthly search volume, Semrush. "seekout pricing" alone (480) is searched more often than "hirevue alternatives" and "hireez alternatives" together (40 and 20): in this category the price question comes before the replacement question, which is an argument for publishing a number rather than a form.
What a demo-gated pricing page looks like
Captured for our records rather than described: this is the shape most of the category takes, a form where the number would be. It is a legitimate choice - enterprise deployments genuinely vary - but it moves a week of evaluation onto your calendar, and the search volumes above show buyers trying to avoid exactly that.
What a published pricing page looks like
The other shape: tiers, what each includes, and a number you can hold a quote against. Juicebox, Truffle, Maki, Metaview, InterviewFlowAI and Jack & Jill all publish at least their lower tiers, per our records; The Cognitive publishes its full ladder including overage rates.
Seats, credits and plans: three cost models
| Model | You pay for | It wastes money when | Priced this way on our roster |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per seat | a recruiter licence for a year, whatever they use it for | seats sit idle, or hiring is seasonal | hireEZ, SeekOut, Gem (seat-priced per our records) |
| Per credit | candidates returned and contact details revealed | you reveal contacts you never contact | The Cognitive (sourcing) |
| Monthly plan | an allowance of AI interviews on a published tier | the allowance goes unused in a quiet month | The Cognitive (interviews) |
| Enterprise contract | a negotiated deployment, usually annual | procurement takes longer than the hiring it serves | HireVue, Paradox, Eightfold AI (quote-based per our records) |
| Marketplace fee | the person, not the software | you wanted a pipeline rather than a placement | Mercor, micro1 (network and marketplace models) |
What The Cognitive costs
- AI interviews: published monthly tiers from $99/month, up to $999/month, custom above that; annual billing saves 17% and includes ATS integration on all tiers
- AI sourcing: credit plans from $49/month for 500 credits, up to $299/month for 5,500
- Credits: 1 per candidate a search returns; a verified personal email is 5; a direct phone number is 10, charged only when the reveal succeeds
- Going over an interview allowance never interrupts an interview in progress - it bills at your tier's rate
- Start free: 2 AI interviews and 100 sourcing credits
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does AI recruiting software cost?
Published plans in this category start around the price of a monthly SaaS seat and enterprise deployments are quoted individually, so a single figure would be fiction. The Cognitive's own is published: interviews from $99/month, sourcing credits from $49/month, annual billing saves 17%, with 2 free interviews and 100 sourcing credits to start. For any other vendor here, the row above says whether its pricing page shows a rate; the rate itself belongs on their site, not ours.
Which AI recruiting platforms publish their pricing?
Per our records: Juicebox, Truffle, Maki, Metaview, InterviewFlowAI and Jack & Jill publish at least their lower tiers, and The Cognitive publishes its full ladder including per-tier overage rates. hireEZ, SeekOut and Gem are seat-priced; HireVue, Paradox, Eightfold AI, Apriora, Elly and micro1 quote per deployment. Verify on the vendor's own pricing page before you plan a budget - this is a record of what those pages did when we captured them, not a price list.
Why do so many recruiting vendors hide their pricing?
Usually because the deployment genuinely varies - seats, volume, integrations and compliance work differ enough between a 40-person startup and a 40,000-person employer that one number would mislead both. The cost is borne by the buyer: a demo cycle before a comparison is possible. That is why published tiers are worth something even when they are not the cheapest - you can benchmark a quote against them the same day.
Why is VidCruiter not on this page?
Because it is not on our tracked roster and we have not swept its public positioning, so anything we wrote about it would be a guess. "vidcruiter pricing" is searched 170 times a month in the US, which is a real gap - it is a gap we would rather leave open than fill with invented detail. The same rule governs every vendor here: no positioning claim without a source, no price without the vendor.
What is the difference between seat pricing and credit pricing?
A seat licence charges for access - one recruiter, one year, whatever they use it for - so the cost per hire falls as a team searches more and rises when hiring is quiet. Credits charge for output: The Cognitive spends 1 credit per candidate a search returns, 5 for a verified personal email and 10 for a phone number, charged only when the reveal succeeds. Seats suit constant high-volume sourcing; credits suit uneven or seasonal hiring, and make the cost per engaged candidate legible.
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