How much does Backplain cost?

Backplain Business is $129 per seat per month with a 10-seat minimum. Team is $59/seat (3-seat minimum). Personal is $14/month. Enterprise starts at $4,500/month. Sovereign Compute starts at $15,000/month.

Is there a free trial?

Yes — 14 days, no credit card required. The AI Firewall is on by default.

Are there per-message or per-token charges?

No. Backplain is flat-rate per seat. There is no per-message metering and no overage.

What is the AI Firewall?

The AI Firewall is a patent-pending stateful substitution-and-reconstitution layer. It detects sensitive entities (PII, PHI, trade secrets, custom types) at prompt time and replaces them with reversible tokens before the prompt leaves your boundary. The model never sees the protected values; the response is reconstituted on the way back. Every substitution is logged.

How many AI models does Backplain include?

47 frontier models across 9 providers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, xAI, Perplexity, Amazon, and Cohere — in one governed workspace, with side-by-side comparison.

Where can Backplain be deployed?

Three options: SaaS (Backplain-hosted), BYO cloud (your AWS, Azure, or GCP account), or Sovereign — dedicated bare-metal in our Tier 3 data center in Carlsbad, California for ITAR, CUI, and pre-disclosure IP workloads.

Flat rate · Every model · All month

No tokens. No surprises. No per-call billing.

One number covers all 47 models for every seat. What you pay in January is what you pay in December. The AI Firewall is on at every tier — including Personal.

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What every plan includes

The baseline you get on day one.

·47 models across 9 providers

·AI Firewall (mode set varies by tier)

·Audit logs — every session, every prompt

·RAG file upload (PDF, JPEG, Word)

·Mobile app (iOS)

·Admin console

·No training on your data

·No token costs · no overages

·Sandbox Mode after free trial — read-only access, no payment, no archive

Five tiers

Choose the plan that fits the buyer you are.

Personal

$14

/mo

1 seat

$140/yr (17% off)

·Up to 5 models per session
·AI Firewall — warning mode
·Mobile app (iOS) + web
·100 prompts/day
·RAG file upload (PDF, JPEG, Word)

Team

$59

/seat/mo

3-seat minimum ($177/mo entry)

$49.16/seat with annual · $44.16 with 2-yr

·Up to 10 models per session
·AI Firewall — warning + hard block
·Shared workspaces & history
·5 custom PII filter patterns
·RAG file upload

Sarah Chen sweet spot

Business

$129

/seat/mo

10-seat minimum ($1,290/mo entry)

$107.50/seat with annual · $96.66 with 2-yr

·Premium frontier models (GPT-5.5, Claude Opus, Gemini Ultra, Grok)
·AI Firewall — all 3 modes incl. silent reconstitute
·Unlimited custom PII filters
·Audit log export · AWS QuickSight reporting
·SSO · Compliance alerts · BAA on request

Enterprise

From $4,500/mo

+ $30K setup

25-seat minimum

Annual / 2-yr / 3-yr ladder

·BYO cloud (AWS / Azure / GCP) or Backplain Private Cloud
·BAA included · custom retention policy
·Pro Services included (onboarding)
·Premium support · named CSM
·API access included

Sovereign

From $15,000/mo

+ $50K–$100K setup

25-seat minimum

Annual / 2-yr / 3-yr ladder

·Dedicated single-tenant compute
·FedRAMP-aligned controls (pursuing certification)
·BYOK · customer-managed keys · optional air-gap
·40 hrs/mo embedded Pro Services included
·Site inspection by arrangement

Annual billing saves 17%. Two-year saves 25%. Three-year (Enterprise/Sovereign only) saves 30%. Standard list does not move on the SMB tiers — term length does.

Two on-ramps

Try it without committing. Pilot it before procurement.

Replaces the free tier

Sandbox Mode

After your 14-day trial, your account drops to Sandbox Mode automatically: read-only access to your chat history, AI Firewall logs, and admin console. Free, indefinite, no credit card. Pick a paid plan when the procurement window opens — your history is still there.

Business tier

30-Day Paid Pilot

For teams that need to evaluate Backplain against a real workload before signing a full contract. Business tier at 50% of list for 30 days. Pilot fee credits toward annual commitment if you proceed. Ask your sales contact to set this up.

Heavy infrastructure

Sovereign Compute and the AI Lab — priced separately.

From $9,500/mo

Bare Metal

One Lambda Scaler. Dedicated. Backplain-owned, colocated in a SOC 2 Type II certified Tier 3 data center in San Diego. Your team operates the OS and stack.

From $11,500/mo

Bare Metal + DevOps

OS, patching, observability, and standard backup operated by Backplain.

From $14,500/mo

Full Managed Ops

Full Backplain stack on dedicated compute. NOC, SecOps, change management.

From $12,500/mo

AI Lab Fractional

Half-time named ML engineer at the Carlsbad AI Lab for fine-tuning and evaluation. Full AI Lab tier (1 server + 1 ML engineer + 1 data scientist) starts at $25,000/mo.

Flexible terms on the heavy stuff: month-to-month adds 20%, quarterly adds 10%, six-month and twelve-month commitments are at list. So a 90-day fine-tuning sprint or a one-quarter defense pilot does not require a 24-month contract.

See Sovereign Compute & AI Lab in depth →

Pro Services

Real engagements with real scope.

From $5,000/mo

Implementation Retainer

Fractional Backplain engineer embedded with your team. Onboarding, AI Firewall tuning, custom filter design, Model Groups, reporting build-outs.

From $8,000/mo

Fractional CISO / AI Counsel

Named senior advisor for governance, policy authoring, vendor risk, and security questionnaire response. Bookable in 4-hour blocks.

$300/hr

T&M Overflow

For one-off work that does not justify a retainer. Reporting, integration, audit prep, custom dashboards. Scoped per engagement.

We will not let Pro Services exceed 25% of revenue. Services support the product; the product is the product.

The math

What you'd pay for the same seats elsewhere.

Platform	Per seat / mo	10 seats / yr	Notes
Harvey AI	~$1,200	~$144,000	20-seat min ($288K floor)
CoCounsel All Access	$500	$60,000	—
Hebbia	~$1,500	~$180,000	Mandatory paid POC
Glean Chat	~$50–$65	~$7,200	$60K min ACV · 100-seat min
ChatGPT Enterprise	~$60	~$7,200	150-seat min · single model
Claude Team Standard	$25	$3,000	1 model · no Firewall
Perplexity Enterprise Pro	$40	$4,800	Search-focused · no Firewall
Backplain Business	$129	$15,480	47 models · AI Firewall · 10-seat min

Run the ROI calculator → email-gated report

FAQ

Common questions about pricing.

Are there per-token or per-call charges?

No. Backplain charges a flat seat rate. All model usage is included. There are no token costs, no overage charges, and no API bills for standard chat usage. The only exception is the custom-report pro services line on Enterprise, which is project-scoped and quoted separately.

How do seat changes work?

Add or remove seats through the admin console. Changes take effect at the start of the next billing cycle. There is no automatic true-up.

Does Backplain offer a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA)?

Yes — on Enterprise and Sovereign. BAA on request on Business tier.

Is SSO available?

Yes, on Business and above. Setup is assisted (under 48 hours).

What happens at the end of the free trial?

Your account moves into Sandbox Mode automatically — read-only, indefinite, no payment required, no archive. Pick a plan whenever procurement is ready; your chat history is still there.

Where does Backplain run?

Personal, Team, and Business tiers run as multi-tenant SaaS on a top-tier cloud provider with SOC 2, HIPAA-eligible, and FedRAMP-aligned controls (pursuing certification — not yet listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace). Enterprise runs in your AWS / Azure / GCP, on-prem, or in a Backplain Private Cloud. Sovereign runs on Backplain-owned dedicated bare metal, colocated in a SOC 2 Type II certified Tier 3 data center in San Diego, California — alternates available at your site or your chosen colo.

Sovereign Compute pricing?

Bare Metal from $9,500/mo. Bare Metal + DevOps from $11,500/mo. Full Managed Ops from $14,500/mo. AI Lab Fractional from $12,500/mo. Full AI Lab tier from $25,000/mo. Flexible terms: month-to-month +20%, quarterly +10%, 6-month and annual at list.

Do you discount for startups, education, or nonprofits?

We do not have a startup tier. Our list prices are within reach of well-funded startups, and the flexibility is in the heavy infrastructure terms. Education and nonprofits are case by case — contact us.

Refund policy?

New Business customers can request a pro-rated refund within the first 30 days. The 30-Day Paid Pilot at 50% of list is the cleaner option for evaluation.

Try it for 14 days. No credit card.

Every plan. Every model. AI Firewall on. Your first day is usually the Tokyo Test.

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