Answer in brief
Data point pricing bills attribution software by the number of events your app sends, such as installs, sign-ups and purchases. A plan includes a monthly allowance of data points and charges a per-unit rate above it. Your cost follows how active your users are and how many events you track, and ad spend changes it only through the events that new users send.
What data point pricing charges for
It charges for events. Each time your app reports something to the attribution tool, the tool records one data point. An install is one. A sign-up is one. A purchase is one. At the end of the month the vendor adds them up and compares the total with what your plan includes.
This makes the event the billing unit. Ad spend, the number of campaigns and the number of ad channels are not in the formula. They change the bill only through the events they bring.
How the monthly allowance works
A data point plan has three numbers: a base price, an included amount and a rate for each data point above it. You pay the base price every month. If you stay inside the included amount, that is the whole bill. If you go over, the extra data points are charged at the per-unit rate, which is a form of overage.
Airbridge Core is one published example: $40+/mo with 500,000 data points included, then $0.0001 per data point.[1] At that rate, 10,000 extra data points cost 10,000 × $0.0001 = $1. The Airbridge pricing page on this site works through a full month.
What makes the count go up
Three things drive the total, and you control one of them.
| Driver | What it means | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Active users | More people using the app send more events. | Your growth |
| Activity per user | A daily-use app sends more events per person than an app opened once a week. | Your product |
| Events tracked | Every event type you add to the SDK is counted each time it fires. | You |
Always read the vendor's definition before you estimate. Vendors differ on whether clicks, impressions or server-sent events count. Airbridge, for instance, states that clicks and impressions on tracking links are free.[2]
How to keep the count down
Decide which events earn their place before the SDK goes in.
- List the decisions you make about ad spend. For most small teams these are which campaign to scale, which to pause and what a paying user costs.
- Keep the events those decisions need. That is usually the install, the sign-up or trial start, and the purchase.
- Leave screen views, button taps and other product behaviour to a product analytics tool. An attribution tool is the wrong place to pay for them.
- Check the count after the first full month and remove any event no report uses.
The guide on which in-app events to track first goes through the choice event by event.
Who data point pricing suits
It suits an app that tracks a short list of events, because the bill grows only with the events new users send, not with the spend itself. It can also suit a team whose installs come mostly from paid ads. Under a definition like Airbridge's, an install is one event whether or not an ad produced it.[2] It suits a high-frequency app less if that app sends many events per session. For the other common model, read how conversion-based pricing works.
What to do next
Write down your event list and count how often each event fired last month. That one number is all you need for estimating your monthly bill.
Questions and answers
Is a data point the same as a user?
No. A data point is one recorded event. One user creates several data points as they install, sign up and buy, so an app with few users and many tracked events can use more data points than a larger app that tracks little.
How do you lower a data point bill?
Track fewer events. Keep the events you use to judge a campaign, such as trial starts and purchases, and stop sending events nobody reads in a report. The count falls without losing the numbers you act on.
Continue reading
Guide
How conversion-based pricing worksConversion-based pricing charges an attribution tool per attributed install or re-engagement. What counts as a conversion and how the bill moves with ad spend.
Guide
Estimating a monthly attribution bill from your own numbersA step-by-step way to estimate what attribution software will cost each month, using your own installs, events and active users, with a worked example.
Guide
Costs that sit outside the plan priceSeven costs that sit outside an attribution plan's headline price, from add-ons and usage above the allowance to engineering time and renewal terms.
Guide
How the bill changes as the app growsHow attribution costs scale under data point, conversion and MAU pricing as an app grows, with a published-figure example and a way to budget a year ahead.
Guide
Questions to ask when a vendor shows no priceTwelve questions to ask an attribution vendor that publishes no price, grouped by unit, volume, extras and contract, and what a complete written quote contains.
Pricing
Best attribution software for your budget: compare the billing unitThe published prices of seven attribution software providers, the unit each one bills, and how to estimate your own monthly cost.
Sources
- Airbridge: https://www.airbridge.io/en/pricing Checked 2026-11-10.
- Airbridge: https://www.airbridge.io/en/plans/core Checked 2026-11-10.
Cite this page
Airbridge. “How data point pricing works.” bestattributionsoftware.com. Reviewed 2026-11-10. https://bestattributionsoftware.com/data-point-pricing