AI screening pricing: compare credits, fees and monthly cost

AI screening pricing is hard to compare when one supplier charges per completed interview, another uses credits and another adds fees for ATS access or reviewer seats.

Price the same workload under each contract. This worksheet compares quiet, expected and busy months so you can see the real monthly cost, including the features and commitment your team needs, rather than comparing a credit price in isolation.

First, ask what uses a credit

Does the charge happen when you invite someone, when they start, when they finish or when the result becomes available? Does one person applying for two jobs count once or twice? Does revising your requirements trigger another charge?

Get those answers for the quoted plan, not merely for the product in general.

For example, Truffle’s pricing page, checked on 30 October 2026, assigns one credit to a résumé screen, two to an assessed candidate and five to a completed one-way interview. A single pool funds different tasks. Five hundred credits therefore cannot be read as five hundred interviews.

Screened uses separate résumé-screening and interview allowances. Its interview-credit guide, available to signed-in users, describes a completed Comprehensive Phone Interview as one credit and a Short Phone Interview as half a credit. The relevant format and cost appear in the job’s settings.

That does not make the products equivalent at a particular credit price. A one-way recording and a conversational interview may do different work. First decide whether each proposed service meets the requirement; then compare its cost.

Reserved is not the same as billed

A usage counter may include work that has not finished.

Screened’s guide gives the example of ten invitations for one-credit calls. Six completed calls use six credits; four outstanding invitations reserve four more. The dashboard can show ten credits of estimated usage while only six calls have completed. If the remaining invitations close without completion, their reservations are returned.

Its incomplete-interview guide states that Abandoned, No-show and Withdrew statuses do not count as completed interviews. A missed call may nevertheless remain pending while rescheduling is attempted.

When reviewing a bill, distinguish the completed usage, pending reservations and final overage charge. Ask the supplier to explain a sample billing cycle using actual event dates.

On Screened’s recurring plans, reaching the included interview allowance does not stop invitations. Completed calls above it are billed at the account’s overage rate. Trial and fixed-quota accounts work differently. Confirm which arrangement applies before treating the displayed balance as a spending limit.

Do not try to reduce a pending counter by archiving applicants without checking the hiring workflow. In Screened, archiving can trigger an ATS action, and restoring the candidate does not automatically reverse that action. A billing question should not accidentally become a rejection.

Count applications and repeat work separately

Your résumé-screening estimate needs more than the number of people in the ATS.

Screened’s résumé-credit guide counts screening per job application. Assessing the same person for another role can use another credit. By contrast, changing requirements and rescreening the existing applications does not use additional credits under the documented workflow.

Another supplier may define those events differently. Keep the activities separate in your worksheet even where one vendor prices an activity at zero. That lets you apply each supplier’s rule without losing track of the work.

For interviews, distinguish an interrupted attempt from a completed replacement interview. A vendor might not charge for the interruption but may charge for a later completed interview, or for a second completed interview requested after the candidate has already finished. Confirm the exact rule.

An unanswered pricing question is not a zero charge. Mark it “quote needed” until the supplier confirms the cost.

Send every vendor the same quote worksheet

Begin with the work you expect to run in one billing period. Include the number of jobs and reviewers, then ask suppliers to complete the commercial details.

Use one currency and handle tax consistently. Keep the quoted date and plan name beside the worksheet so a later pricing change does not silently alter the comparison.

Work through a quiet, expected and busy month

Reuse the calculation with your own prices. The two sample plans show the method and are not vendor offers.

The credit bundle costs £300 for the month and includes 1,000 credits. Each résumé assessment, including a rescreen, uses one credit. Each completed interview uses ten. Additional credits cost £0.50 each.

The usage-only plan has no base fee. Each résumé assessment, including a rescreen, costs £0.25. Each completed interview costs £6.

For this example, both plans charge for a completed replacement interview, charge nothing for an incomplete attempt, provide the required features and have no other fees. Both can be bought for one month. Change those assumptions to match the quotes you receive.

In the expected month, 440 résumé assessments and 65 completed interviews use 1,090 credits. The credit bundle costs £300 plus 90 extra credits at £0.50: £345. The usage-only plan costs 440 × £0.25 plus 65 × £6: £500.

Credit bundleUsage only

The bundle wins at the expected workload, but costs over twice as much in the quiet month. Its advantage narrows again in the busy month.

Do not count the invitations as completed interviews. Do not count the five replacement completions as five additional people. And do not apply the example’s chargeable-rescreen assumption to Screened, whose documented rule is different.

Completion changes the bill, but not always the value

Suppose fewer of the 100 invited applicants finish than expected. Under a completion-priced plan, the interview bill may fall. That is not automatically good news: you may now lack the information needed to fill the vacancy.

Ask what happened to the unfinished applications. Some people may have withdrawn, some may still have time to complete and others may need help. The billing status does not explain the hiring outcome.

Likewise, a completed interview is not automatically useful evidence. The report may need correction, or a recruiter may not yet have reviewed it. For the commercial comparison, use the supplier’s billable definition. For the operational review, also count how many completed reports the team could actually use.

Label those measures separately. Dividing campaign spending by the number of useful, reviewed reports can help you compare complete processes. But that spending includes résumé screening, setup and other work, so the result is not the supplier’s interview price.

A monthly price can conceal an annual commitment

An advertised monthly equivalent may require paying for a year. Truffle’s pricing page illustrates the distinction: its annual options make a year’s credits available upfront. Check the total commitment and payment schedule, not just the displayed monthly equivalent.

Show both the campaign’s expected usage cost and the minimum amount you must commit to. An eight-week hiring campaign does not turn an annual contract into an eight-week purchase.

Unused capacity needs the same attention. Truffle’s published terms distinguish monthly rollover on certain plans from an annual pool, while its Starter plan has no rollover. The page also describes caps and forfeiture on cancellation or downgrade. “Credits roll over” is not a complete description of every plan.

Screened’s guides say unused credits on recurring plans reset each cycle without rollover; fixed-term or custom agreements use their agreed allowance and expiry terms. Confirm the account-specific terms in writing rather than assuming the general help article overrides the agreement.

Include the connection you will actually use

An “ATS integration included” line does not establish the price or scope of every available connection.

Screened’s wider ATS catalogue guide states that connections through that catalogue carry an additional monthly fee. The information returned and available controls vary by ATS. Include the relevant connection in the quote rather than assuming a standard integration price covers it.

Ask each supplier to show the result in your intended workflow. If someone must download a report and copy its contents into the ATS, include that work in the comparison. A low software bill can coexist with an expensive manual process.

Keep staff time separate from cash savings. Releasing five recruiter hours creates capacity; it does not automatically reduce payroll by five hours’ salary. The benefit depends on what useful work the team does with that time or which real expense it avoids.

Make the decision on three numbers

Before signing, put three figures next to each option: the cost at your expected workload, the cost in a busy period and the minimum total commitment. Keep the quiet-month calculation nearby when hiring is irregular.

Then list any unanswered commercial question that could change those figures. A supplier should be able to explain the bill for your workload without asking you to infer the rules from a marketing calculator.

Buy the workload and service you need, not the largest pile of credits that looks inexpensive.