Subscriptions make sense for tools you use every day. Spotify. Notion. Your email client. You use them continuously, so spreading the cost over time is fair.
Job searching doesn't work like that. It's a sprint. You spend two or three weeks applying intensively, maybe a month if it's a tough market. Then it's over — you got the job. The last thing you want at that point is to remember to cancel a subscription before it charges you for another month of a tool you no longer need.
That's why Remotato uses tokens instead of a subscription. Here's the thinking.
The problem with job search subscriptions
Most job search tools that charge a monthly fee have a misaligned incentive: they want you to keep not finding a job. The longer the search, the more months they collect. That's not a conspiracy — it's just the natural consequence of subscription pricing in a context where success means churning.
Pay-per-action flips this. We make money when you use AI features. You use AI features when you're actively applying. The more efficiently AI helps you get a job, the better — because a satisfied user tells other people. The incentive is aligned with your success, not your failure.
What tokens actually cost
Tokens are straightforward. One dollar buys 60 tokens. Here's what the AI features cost:
- Match Score — 5 tokens (~8¢). See your keyword fit before you apply.
- Cover Letter — 15 tokens (~25¢). Role-specific, native-level English.
- Resume Tailoring — 25 tokens (~42¢). Your CV rewritten to match the role's keywords.
- Smart Apply — 25 tokens (~42¢). AI submits the application for you.
A full application — match score, tailored CV, cover letter, Smart Apply — costs 70 tokens, about $1.17. For a role paying $120k, that's a rational spend. Browsing and finding jobs is always free.
Why not just make it all free?
Running LLMs at scale isn't free. Every cover letter, every CV rewrite, every Smart Apply session costs real compute. "Free AI features" either means you're the product (your data trains the model), or the company is burning VC money and will either raise prices or disappear later.
We'd rather be honest about the cost. Tokens let us charge exactly what it costs to help you, with a margin to keep the lights on. No hidden cost. No data selling. No subscription that outlasts your job search.
The minimum is $3
Stripe charges a fixed fee per transaction, so micropayments don't work economically. The minimum token pack is $3 (180 tokens). That's enough to do a Match Score on 36 roles, or fully apply — tailored CV, cover letter, Smart Apply — to two positions.
If you use all your tokens and want more, you buy more. If your search is over and you have tokens left, they stay in your account indefinitely. No expiry.
Browse free, always
The jobs board is completely free. No account required to browse. You only need tokens when you want AI to help you apply. That boundary is intentional — we want Remotato to be useful even if you never spend a dollar.
The AI features are there when you want them. They're not mandatory. If you prefer to write your own cover letters, tailor your own CV, and submit manually, the direct ATS links are there and everything works fine.
We just think most people, once they see what Smart Apply does in 47 seconds, won't go back.