Pricing Guide

System1 Pricing: What to Expect

System1's star ratings are backed by real panels and years of validation — and priced accordingly. No public rate card exists; here's the shape of what you'd be buying and how to know if your creative volume fits it.


How System1's cost model works

Every System1 test fields your ad to human respondents whose emotional responses are measured and distilled into star ratings, backed by a norms database connecting emotion to long-term market share. Panels get recruited and paid per study — a real marginal cost that platform pricing has to recover. Access is sold through enterprise agreements sized on volume and markets: a research line item, not a SaaS subscription.

Questions to ask before signing

What's the per-test cost at your realistic annual volume, and the turnaround per market? How do costs scale if creative output doubles — because with AI generation, it will? And which of your ads actually need emotion-and-brand-growth measurement versus a faster, cheaper answer to the question that kills most feed creative first: does anyone survive the hook?

When System1's price is worth paying

Big-budget brand work: TV flights, seasonal moments, campaigns whose success is measured in brand equity over years. When one ad carries that weight, star-rating validation is exactly the depth you're paying for. Honest head-to-head: PreTestAds vs System1.

The screening-layer alternative

For the stream of feed creative that refreshes monthly, PreTestAds prices testing as a step, not a study: $49/month for 20 analyses (about $2.45 each), packs from $45, first free. AdCortex™ — trained on fMRI brain-response data — scores each ad against 76 top TikTok performers with Hook Strength, drop-off second, and the full curve, in minutes. Emotion still matters — but attention gates it, and gating is cheap now. More options: System1 alternatives compared.

Match the instrument to the budget it protects

A useful rule: research spend should be proportional to the media spend it de-risks. Six-figure flight → research-project testing is rational. Four-figure feed experiment → the test has to cost dollars, or testing simply won't happen and the media budget becomes the test — the most expensive research design there is.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does System1 ad testing cost?

System1 doesn't publish prices. Testing runs through panel fieldwork — real respondents watch each ad — sold via enterprise agreements shaped by test volume, markets, and platform access. Every test carries genuine fieldwork cost, so per-ad economics are structural, not a pricing choice.

Who is System1 priced for?

Brand advertisers where individual ads carry major budgets — TV flights, seasonal campaigns, brand platforms. When one film decides a quarter, panel-measured emotional response validated against long-term brand growth justifies research-project pricing.

What's a cheaper alternative to System1 for digital ads?

For feed creative, PreTestAds screens attention from about $2 per test (plans from $49/month, first analysis free) using an fMRI-trained model instead of a panel — built for volumes and turnarounds panel economics can't reach.

By Chris Krecicki · Published