CHI Company Investigation · Productivity Software
Figma
The Question Isn’t Whether Figma Charges for AI. It’s Which AI Actions Can Be Priced Before They Run.
Collaborative design software · Design · Dev Mode · FigJam · Make · Agent · Weave tools
Standard company investigation · No score assigned · Research current through 6 October 2026
Free betas became a two-layer credit system. Some AI actions have a published price. The agent’s is known only after it runs.
Figma held its design-seat price flat for years, then raised it once, in March 2025, while bundling more products into every paid seat. Its AI features arrived free in beta and moved, step by step, onto a monthly credit allowance with paid add-ons. On 6 October 2026 the Figma agent and Weave tools joined that meter. Weave tools and image generation now have fixed, published credit rates; the agent does not, and Figma says it cannot predict exactly what a request will use. This page sets out the value Figma added, the controls it repaired, and the specific mechanisms that remain.
- 2024Free betasAI features free while in beta
- Jul 2025Credits attachedAn allowance on every seat; Full seats not strictly enforced
- 18 Mar 2026Limits enforcedA hard stop at the allowance; add-ons on sale a week earlier
- Mar – Aug 2026Add-ons and controlsSubscription, opt-in pay-as-you-go, per-user limits
- 6 Oct 2026Agent + Weave meteredFixed rates for Weave; the agent priced after the run
More value What customers gained
More products in every seat, a free tier that stayed, and seat controls that finally put admins first.
Since March 2025 every paid seat includes FigJam and Slides, and Draw, Make, Sites, Buzz and Motion were later added to the Full seat with no further seat-price change. Starter remains free, viewers and commenters on paid plans are free, and Education users get the product and 3,000 AI credits a month at no charge. Paid seats now need admin approval by default, and running out of AI credits stops use rather than producing a bill.S1S25S11S3
Less predictable What became harder to forecast
A meter that now covers the main AI entry point, in a unit Figma prices at both ends.
Since 6 October 2026 the agent, which Figma calls the primary way to access AI features in design files, draws on credits. Figma says it “can’t predict exactly” how many credits an agent request will use. The dollar price of add-on credits is shown in the paid-plan admin interface rather than publicly, and Figma’s documentation reserves changes to consumption with no notice period stated.S10S3S4
The issue is not that Figma charges for AI. It is that bundled and free-beta functionality moved onto a credit system in which some actions carry a fixed, published price and agentic actions are priced only after they run.
01Commercial evolution
A long flat price, one increase, and then a second pricing axis.
Figma began as a free browser-based design tool, added per-editor paid plans, and held its design-seat list price flat from at least February 2019 until March 2025. The shape of its pricing then changed twice: one seat for every product, and a metered AI credit on top of the seat.S31
Free, then per editor
A free design tool, then paid Professional and Organization plans priced per editor. Viewers did not need a paid seat.S31S21
Design seat price: set
New products, flat seat price
FigJam (2021), Dev Mode (2023) and Slides (2024) launched as free betas, then became paid seats or were bundled.S31S22S25
Design seat price: flat
Dev Mode becomes paid
The developer workspace moved out of free beta onto paid seats, with a basic inspect experience left free for viewers.S23
New paid entitlement
One seat, more products
Per-product seats became Full, Dev, Collab and View. The Full seat rose 20–33% and absorbed FigJam and Slides.S25
Design seat price: +20–33%
Through 2024, Figma sold new products as new seats. From 2025, it bundled them into the seat and began metering AI instead.
CHI interpretationThe effective price of the newest bundled products, such as Make, the agent and Weave tools, is therefore the seat price plus any credits a team buys. That is a reading of the documented sequence, not a statement about Figma’s intent.02The March 2025 seat and price change
The first Full-seat increase came with more in the seat, and no way to buy less.
Figma announced the change on 10 December 2024 and applied the new Full-seat price at each customer’s first renewal on or after 11 March 2025, about 91 days later. Its S-1 describes it as the first increase to the Full seat.S25S31
| Plan | Before (Design seat) | From 11 Mar 2025 (Full seat) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional, billed annually | $12 | $16 | +33% |
| Professional, billed monthly | $15 | $20 | +33% |
| Organization | $45 | $55 | +22% |
| Enterprise | $75 | $90 | +20% |
More in every paid seat
All paid seats gained FigJam and Slides; Professional gained a cheaper Dev seat; admins moved to one seat per user with approval before any new cost. Dev and Collab prices did not rise, and viewers stayed free.S25S1
No Design-only seat
“No, you cannot buy Figma Design on its own.” A customer who used only Figma Design paid 20–33% more for products it had not asked for, with no cheaper design-editing seat to move to.S2
Smallest customers, largest share
The largest percentage rise fell on Professional customers using only Design. Customers who already held both Design and FigJam seats saw smaller rises, from none to about 12%; FigJam-only users and developers on Dev seats saw none.S25
Finding: mixed, not pure extraction.
CHI interpretationThe increase was real, was the first to the design seat, and Figma reports the new pricing to investors as a contributor to revenue from existing customers. It also arrived with materially more product per seat and with the seat-approval repair described in section 06. Which effect dominates depends on the customer.S31S33Professional monthly figures are from the price table in Figma’s December 2024 announcement; the live pricing page shows annual figures. No seat list-price change was found between March 2025 and October 2026.S25S1
03The Dev Mode transition
Free developer handoff became a paid developer product. How much was lost is contested.
- 2017 (as commonly dated)
Figma 2.0 gives view-only users a code panel. Figma told customers: “You’ll no longer need to pay for engineers to have editor seats.”S21
- 21 Jun 2023
Dev Mode launches in free beta, “free for all users for the rest of 2023”, with the 2024 paid model and dev-only prices ($25 a seat on Organization, $35 on Enterprise) announced in the same post, 224 days ahead.S22
- 31 Jan 2024
Dev Mode requires a paid seat. On Professional it was included in the Design seat only. Figma’s announcement six days earlier said viewers who don’t upgrade “can still view properties and measurements, copy code, and export assets.”S23
- 11 Mar 2025
A Dev seat arrives on Professional ($12 annual, $15 monthly), cheaper than the Design seat developers there had needed. Organization and Enterprise dev-only prices stayed at $25 and $35 while gaining FigJam and Slides.S25S1
Stayed free for viewers
Moved behind a paid seat
CHI interpretationNeither fully removed nor fully preserved. The functions of free inspection remain free; the always-visible inspect panel in its old form does not. Figma described the free version as accessed in a “slightly different” way; in Figma’s own forum some customers called it materially worse and others found it less stripped down than expected. CHI did not test it, and this page does not claim that developers must pay to view designs.S24
04The AI credit rollout
Free in beta, then an allowance, then a hard limit, then paid ways past it.
Each step CHI located was announced in advance, and each free AI beta was labelled temporary at launch. The sequence still matters: by Figma’s own account, most large customers were using AI credits weekly a month before limits were enforced.S33 Figma frames seat credits as a way to “try Figma AI and see what it can do”; for “ongoing, everyday use” an admin buys more.S3
- Jun 2024
Figma AI enters beta, free for all users through 2024. Figma said it might introduce usage limits as it learned the tools’ costs, and would give pricing guidance at general availability.S27
- 24 Jul 2025
Credits attached to every seat. Figma said “we won’t be strictly enforcing credit limits for Full seats”; lower limits applied to Starter, View, Collab and Dev.S28
- 9 Dec 2025
Enforcement and add-ons announced, 99 days ahead, alongside usage tracking for users and admins.S29
- 11 Mar 2026
AI credit subscription goes on sale: pooled monthly credits for the whole team.S29
- 18 Mar 2026
“We will enforce all seat credit limits.” Use past the allowance needs purchased credits; usage above the limit before this date was not billed retroactively, according to Figma staff.S29S34
- Q2 2026
Pay-as-you-go arrives during the quarter Figma had promised. It is opt-in, and an admin sets a monthly spending limit.S29S5S18
- Aug 2026
Per-user limits on paid credits: full access, a custom limit or no access.S6
- 25 Aug 2026
More credits for the same price: “2x more credits on the Professional plan, and 1.6x more credits on the Organization and Enterprise plans” at customers’ current subscription and pay-as-you-go cost, applied automatically.S4
- 6 Oct 2026
The agent in Figma Design and Weave tools begin consuming credits. See sections 05 and 06.S4
05The AI-credit mechanism
Two kinds of AI action: some priced to the credit in advance, some priced only after they run.
This is the strongest current CHI issue on the page, so the distinction has to be exact. Figma’s first-party Weave tools have fixed credit rates. The Figma agent does not. Rates below are verbatim from Figma’s Help Center as captured on 6 October 2026, and they are in credits only.S3
Rate published before use
“Each Weave tool in Figma Design has a fixed credit cost per run.” Users choose how many runs to generate; by CHI’s reading, one click costs the per-run rate times the runs selected.S3S8
37 first-party Weave tools · credits per run
- 13Image to vector
- 18Change aspect ratio, Grainy airbrush, Minimal sketch, Risograph, Stamp machine, Tattoo machine (6)
- 19Add logo to product, Apply style to sketch, Brutalist, Change lighting, Create multiview product sheet, Create packaging concepts, Cross stitch embroidery, Extract color palette, Extract material, Generate mockup, Marker art, Monochrome pixel art, Replace background, Text to vector illustration, Texturize, Transfer style, Vintage illustration, Virtual try-on (18)
- 21Album mockup, Art Nouveau, Generate on-brand icons, Product shoot, Time machine (5)
- 37Apply color palette
- 55Art Deco, Bauhaus, Crayon art, Mystical folk (4)
- 78Sticker pack
- 110Generate product variations
Other fixed rates
- Make image or Edit image, per imageChatGPT Images 2.0 / Nano Banana 2 Lite / Nano Banana / Nano Banana 22 / 6 / 8 / 16
- Add interactionsPer use20
- AI search, Rename layers, FigJam summarize and clusterError-correction in Make (Auto fix) uses no additional creditsFree
Community-published Weave tools are the exception: Figma does not list them “because their credit usage varies depending on the workflow, models, and number of steps they use.” Some image tools and FigJam generation are published as ranges (for example 1–5 or 5–10 per image).S3
Cost known after the run
“Because the AI determines what actions it needs to perform in order to complete the task, we can’t predict exactly how many credits it will use.”
Figma, answering “Can I see the cost of a prompt in Figma Make or with the agent before I run it?”S3Figma’s agent examples · approximate credits
- 30+Change the fonts for a designSearches layers for text nodes, updates the fonts
- 100+Summarize what’s on the canvasSearches designs and comments, identifies themes, writes summaries
- 300+Generate a 5-screen mobile checkout flowCreates a visual theme and layouts, generates content and imagery
What drives the cost, per Figma
- Complexity. “the model decides which actions it will take”; a more complex prompt means more actions.S3
- Context. Attached files, design libraries, connectors and chat history all add processing. “As a chat grows, even simple prompts cost more.”S9
- Corrections. “Every prompt costs credits, including the ones you send to fix a previous result,” and undo does not refund credits.S9S3
- After the run. Hovering the credits icon below a completed prompt shows what it consumed, in credits.S3
Every agent example ends in “+”, and no maximum is published. Figma describes the figures as approximations and says “Your own usage history will provide the most accurate estimate”. Figma Make and Slides generated through ChatGPT are also variable.S3
Two conversion layers, both set by Figma
A customer’s cost for an AI action is the product of two rates: how many credits a dollar buys, and how many credits an action consumes. FactFigma sets both. They sit in different documents under different rules.S18S3
Dollars → credits
Credits → actions
- Set by
- Figma, in its Help Center table; for the agent, at run time.
- Notice
- None documented. Costs “may change as models are optimized or new models become available”, and Figma “may run experiments” that may affect consumption.S3
- Visible to
- Everyone for fixed rates; after the run, in credits, for the agent.
Control is not itself hostility. No adverse use of either lever has been established.
CHI interpretationEvery usage-priced service sets its own prices. The only observed change on the dollar side, on 25 August 2026, gave customers more credits for the same money, and no pre-existing consumption rate changed between the 5 and 6 October captures. The finding is structural: both levers exist, only the dollar side carries a notice requirement, and for the agent the second rate is fixed only once the task has run.S4S3The allowance each seat brings
| Action | Credits | Pro Full (3,000) | Org Full (3,500) | Ent Full (4,250) | 500-credit seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent: change the fonts | 30+ | ≥1.00% | ≥0.86% | ≥0.71% | ≥6% |
| Agent: summarize the canvas | 100+ | ≥3.33% | ≥2.86% | ≥2.35% | ≥20% |
| Agent: 5-screen checkout flow | 300+ | ≥10.00% | ≥8.57% | ≥7.06% | ≥60%; twice the Starter and View daily cap |
| Weave: Generate mockup, one run | 19 | 0.63% | 0.54% | 0.45% | 3.8%* |
| Weave: Generate product variations, one run | 110 | 3.67% | 3.14% | 2.59% | 22%* |
| Five images, Nano Banana 2 | 80 | 2.67% | 2.29% | 1.88% | 16% |
| Add interactions, ten uses | 200 | 6.67% | 5.71% | 4.71% | 40% |
CHI arithmetic on Figma’s published figures, not product observations. Agent rows are minimums with no published maximum. Allowances are shared across all AI features and do not roll over. *Weave tools are not offered on Starter, and whether 500-credit seats on paid plans can run them is not documented. On a paid Full seat a small agent edit or a single Weave run is around 1% of the month or less; a multi-screen generation is 7–10% at Figma’s floor.S3S8
066 October 2026
The agent and Weave tools began drawing on credits, and their rates appeared the same day.
Figma’s FAQ, edited on 6 October: the agent in Figma Design and Weave tools “moved from open beta to general availability on October 6, 2026. They now consume Figma AI credits.” The release note reads: “The Figma agent uses AI credits as of Oct 6.” CHI compared verbatim captures of Figma’s pages taken the morning before and the evening of the change.S4S20
| Item | 5 Oct 2026, 07:15 UTC | 6 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open beta; free to use | General availability; consuming credits |
| Agent rate | No row in the rate table | “Varies”; examples 30+, 100+, 300+ |
| Weave rates | No row; the FAQ said rates would follow “once we have more information on credit consumption details” | 37 first-party tools, 13–110 credits a run |
| Rate table date | “as of August 25, 2026” | “as of October 6, 2026” |
| Existing rates | Image tools, Make, Add interactions and others | Every pre-existing row identical; none raised or lowered |
| Seat allowances | 3,000 / 3,500 / 4,250 / 500 | Unchanged |
| Pre-run price question | Asked about Figma Make only; answer “can’t predict exactly” | Extended to the agent; same answer |
Figma disclosed the direction of this change 139 days ahead. It disclosed the rates on the day charging began.
FactThis describes what Figma’s public pages said, and when. Beta usage was not billed; Organization and Enterprise admins had a beta-usage export to help forecast, with no equivalent for Professional or Starter; and the agent in FigJam and Slides remains free in closed beta. The agent’s own Help Center article dropped its “available to try for free while in beta” line the same day. Earlier publication of the date could not be verified, and email or in-product notices could not be inspected. Nothing here is an observation of what a task cost in the product.S30S4S7S307Billing and admin controls
A seat-billing design Figma itself called frustrating, then fixed by default.
Before March 2025
- In Figma’s words, “seat upgrades are driven by user actions and admins have the ability to review them afterwards, before their next bill.”S25
- Figma added: “We’ve heard from you that this can be a frustrating experience for admins.”S25
- Safeguards were reminders and manual downgrades; in 2024 Figma added upgrade-notification emails and a restricted default role.S26
Since March 2025
The pre-2025 problem is established by Figma’s own statements, not only by complaints, and so is the repair. Its incidence and the amounts involved are not public. Figma’s troubleshooting guidance still attributes higher-than-expected bills mainly to added paid seats and points admins to stricter approval settings.S16
What still runs one way
- Additions bill at once. New seats are charged “prorated from the day of approval through the end of your subscription period.”S14
- Removals are not refunded mid-term. “We won’t issue a prorated refund when you downgrade a user to a free View seat, or remove the seat”; someone else may use it until renewal.S14
- The default grants purchased seats automatically. Under the default setting a requester receives any purchased, unassigned seat without a prompt, and plans are billed for all seats, assigned or not.S15S12
- Mid-term Professional seats bill monthly. On annual Professional plans, seats added during the term go on a separate monthly subscription at the monthly price until converted.S13
- Renewal carries the count forward. Self-serve subscriptions renew “at the then-current rate and seat quantity in Customer’s account on Customer’s renewal date.”S19
CHI interpretationEach rule is ordinary for annual software contracts. Together they mean seat spend within a term can rise through routine administration but not fall. Contractually, the self-serve terms let Figma “change its fees at any time”, with changes to an existing subscription taking effect at renewal; in practice Figma gave 91 days’ notice in 2025 and 99 days before AI enforcement.S19
08Customer safeguards and counter-evidence
Why Figma is a mixed case, and where its safeguards stop.
The counter-evidence
Documented, first-party, and substantial.
- A persistent free tierStarter remains free, with 500 AI credits a month.S1
- Free viewers and commentersPaid plans can “let others view and comment on your files without purchasing extra seats.”S1
- Education accessThe Education plan is free, and its users get 3,000 AI credits a month.S35S11
- Advance notice on major changesDev Mode prices 224 days ahead; the 2025 repricing 91 days; AI enforcement 99 days; agent credits 139 days.S22S25S29S30
- Price changes tied to renewalThe Full-seat increase applied at each customer’s first renewal on or after 11 March 2025.S25
- A hard stop, not automatic overage“If you have no credits, you will be unable to complete any additional AI actions.”S3
- Opt-in pay-as-you-go with an admin capAn admin must enable it and set a monthly spending limit; per-user limits are available.S5S6
- More credits for the same priceOn 25 August 2026, two times the add-on credits on Professional and 1.6 times on Organization and Enterprise, at unchanged cost.S4
- Better seat-management controlsAdmin approval by default since March 2025.S25
Where the safeguards stop
They bound total spend. They do not price a task.
- No pre-run price for the agentFigma says it can’t predict exactly what a request will use, and publishes no ceiling.S3
- No documented notice on consumptionThe 30-day notice covers the pay-as-you-go dollar price only.S18S3
- Rates on day oneAgent and Weave rates appeared on the day charging began.S4
- Dollar price shown to admins onlyAdd-on prices sit in the admin interface; the public pricing page states none.S4S1
- Allowances unchanged“Seat credits aren’t changing” as the agent and Weave began drawing on them.S4
- Purchased credits open to all by default“All users have access to additional purchased AI credits by default.”S5
- Reporting is tieredHistoric usage is for Organization and Enterprise admins; “Granular reporting by feature is not available at this time.”S5
CHI interpretationStrong on bounded exposure, weaker on the unit itself. With default settings no user can create a bill, and many AI actions are priced to the credit in advance. For the agent, the cost of a task is unknown before it runs, consumption rates can change without a documented notice period, and the dollar value of a credit is not public.
09Timeline
The material commercial changes, in order.
- 2017 (as commonly dated)
Figma 2.0: free view-only developer inspection.S21
- Feb 2019 – Mar 2025
No design-seat list-price change found.S31
- 21 Jun 2023
Dev Mode free beta; 2024 paid model announced.S22
- 31 Jan 2024
Dev Mode requires a paid seat; basic inspect stays free.S23
- Jun 2024
Figma AI free beta, with limits and pricing flagged for later; upgrade-notification emails for admins.S27S26
- 10 Dec 2024
Seat, price and billing overhaul announced, 91 days ahead.S25
- 11 Mar 2025
Full, Dev, Collab and View seats; Full seat +20–33%; FigJam and Slides bundled; admin approval by default.S25
- May 2025
Make, Sites, Buzz and Draw added to seats at no new seat price.S31
- 24 Jul 2025
Credits on every seat; Full-seat limits not strictly enforced.S28
- 9 Dec 2025
Enforcement and add-ons announced, 99 days ahead; usage tracking ships.S29
- 11 – 18 Mar 2026
Credit subscription on sale; all seat limits enforced.S29
- Q2 2026
- 20 May 2026
Agent beta: “During beta, the agent won’t consume credits. AI credits will apply at general availability.”S30
- 25 Aug 2026
More add-on credits for the same price.S4
- 29 Sep 2026
6 October date stated in Figma’s FAQ (earliest verified).S4
- 6 Oct 2026
Agent and Weave tools consume credits; rates published the same day; pre-existing rates unchanged.S3S4
10CHI interpretation
Three signals supported, one weakly. One candidate mechanism under review.
CHI interpretationA result of supported means the mechanism is factually present. It is not a finding of hostility.
Access that was included becomes metered or paid.
SUPPORTED · strengthened 6 Oct 2026AI moved from free in beta, to unenforced allowances, to enforced limits with paid overflow. On 6 October the agent and Weave tools followed the announced path, with no increase in seat allowances. Dev Mode is a partial, contested instance; on its own it would be weak.
More yield from existing customers through pricing, packaging or add-ons.
SUPPORTEDFigma reports the Full-seat increase, Dev Mode and credit add-ons as revenue drivers among existing customers. Most of that yield came with added functionality, and the 2025 package removed user-driven seat upgrades.S31S33
Customer-facing withdrawal or migration of a legacy product or plan.
SUPPORTED, narrowlyThe March 2025 migration retired per-product seats and left no Design-only seat. No plan tier was withdrawn, a cheaper Dev seat was added, and notice ran 91 days. Supported as an event, not as broad portfolio concentration.
An explicit link between external cost pressure and a customer charge.
WEAKLY SUPPORTEDFigma says credit pricing reflects “the model’s cost to Figma” and its filings tie rising costs to AI infrastructure. The same sentence also cites “the value it provides to customers”, and nothing is quantified.S3S32
Candidate mechanism · under CHI review
A vendor-controlled usage unit with two adjustable exchange rates. Dollars-to-credits and credits-to-actions are set separately, only one carries a notice requirement, and agentic actions have no pre-run estimate. Recorded for review; it is not a Lexicon entry, and no adverse use of either rate has been observed.
Second-tier concerns
Seat-change asymmetry and the Dev Mode transition. Both are documented and bounded: the first by ordinary annual-contract rules, the second by free basic inspection. Neither supports a company-level conclusion.
What this does not find
No finding of motive or hostility. The record shows designs and sequences, disclosed in advance, alongside real value and real repairs. It does not show intent to extract.
11Tested and not supported
What the evidence did not support.
One design-seat increase after years flat, more value per seat, persistent free access, long notice and working safeguards rule out a blanket reading.
Every pre-existing rate is identical in the 5 and 6 October captures; only the date stamp and the new rows changed.
Figma’s 37 first-party tools each have a fixed per-run rate. Only Community-published Weave tools vary.
Figma says agent usage varies and publishes only open-ended examples with no maximum.
Viewers keep free measurements, code copy and export; the paid seat buys the fuller Dev Mode workspace.
Use stops at zero unless an admin has bought credits or enabled capped pay-as-you-go.
Final disposition
Figma is not a simple extraction story. It held its design-seat price for years, raised it once with more product in the seat, kept a free tier and free viewers, gives Education users the product free, and replaced the user-driven seat upgrades it had itself called frustrating.
Its pricing has nonetheless become layered: seat types, a bundle that cannot be declined, a monthly credit allowance, and paid credits on top. The 2024 Dev Mode transition reduced the form of an entitlement Figma once marketed as free, though its core functions remain free.
The mechanism worth monitoring is the AI credit. Figma sets both the dollars-to-credits and the credits-to-actions rates, only the first carries a notice requirement, and for the agent, now the main way into AI in design files, the cost of a task cannot be known before it runs.
Control is not itself hostility, and no adverse use of either lever has been established. The finding is about architecture and transparency, and it is specific to that mechanism.
12Methodology and sources
How this page was built, and how far it can be relied on.
Evidence base
A multi-stream research dossier dated 5 October 2026 and a focused follow-up on 6 October, built on verbatim captures of Figma’s pricing page, legal terms, release notes and dozens of Help Center articles taken at 07:15 UTC on 5 October and 19:02 UTC on 6 October 2026, compared line by line.
Hierarchy
First-party evidence leads: Figma’s pricing, terms, Help Center, blog, release notes, SEC filings and staff replies in its own forum. Customer reports are used only to illustrate, never to establish a finding, and none is used as evidence of cost.
Labels
Statements marked Fact are drawn from Figma’s documents. Statements marked CHI interpretation are reasoning from those documents. Percentages of allowances are CHI arithmetic on Figma’s published figures.
Research limits
- Public documentation verified the 6 October transition and the published consumption structure, including every rate shown on this page.
- The dollar price per add-on credit was not independently verified. Figma shows it in the paid-plan admin interface, which CHI did not access.
- No signed-in product test was conducted. Agent and Weave deductions were not observed in the product; no screenshots were taken.
- This investigation therefore makes no claim about the actual dollar cost of any agent task.
Also not tested: how equivalent today’s free inspection is to the pre-2024 panel. Quotations from Figma’s blog and forum were checked against the live pages before publication.
Figma pricing page, captured 5 and 6 October 2026: plans, seats, AI credit allowances, view-and-comment access. figma.com/pricingFirst-party
Pricing FAQ: “Can I buy Figma Design on its own?” figma.com/pricing-faqFirst-party
Figma AI Terms, §6: AI credits, subscriptions, pay-as-you-go and the 30-day price-change notice (§6.3). figma.com/legal/ai-termsFirst-party
Figma Terms of Service (Starter and Professional): fee changes, automatic renewal. figma.com/legal/tosFirst-party
How Figma AI credits work: allowances, the rate table “as of October 6, 2026”, 37 Weave tool rates, agent examples, cost factors, hover receipts. help.figma.comFirst-party
AI credit updates FAQ: the 25 August 2026 add-on change and the 6 October 2026 move to general availability; edited 29 September and 6 October. help.figma.comFirst-party
Manage AI credits: subscriptions, pay-as-you-go, spending limits, default access, reporting. help.figma.comFirst-party
Set AI credit limits: per-user access to paid credits. help.figma.comFirst-party
Work with the Figma agent in design files: availability, seats, stopping a task. help.figma.comFirst-party
Use Weave tools in Figma: plans, edit access, runs per generation. help.figma.comFirst-party
Best practices for optimizing AI credits with the Figma agent: prompts, context and corrections. help.figma.comFirst-party
Use AI tools in Figma Design: the agent as “the primary way to access AI features in design files”. help.figma.comFirst-party
AI credits on the Education plan: 3,000 credits a month. help.figma.comFirst-party
Compare and manage seats in Figma: seat types; billing for assigned and unassigned seats. help.figma.comFirst-party
Manage billing on the Professional plan: mid-term seats on a separate monthly subscription. help.figma.comFirst-party
Manage billing on the Organization and Enterprise plans: proration and the no-refund rule on downgrades. help.figma.comFirst-party
Set approval settings for new seats: the three approval settings and the default. help.figma.comFirst-party
There are additional charges in my Figma bill: Figma’s troubleshooting guidance on unexpected seat charges. help.figma.comFirst-party
Guide to Dev Mode and Guide to inspecting: what is seat-gated and what every viewer can inspect. Dev Mode · InspectingFirst-party
Figma for Education: free Education plan eligibility and terms. help.figma.comFirst-party
Figma release notes, entry of 6 October 2026: “The Figma agent is generally available”. figma.com/release-notesFirst-party
Figma 2.0: now with prototyping and developer handoff: free view-only code mode. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Introducing Dev Mode, 21 June 2023: free beta and the 2024 paid model. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Dev Mode general availability, 25 January 2024: paid seat from 31 January; what stays free. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Updates to our pricing, seats, and billing experience, 10 December 2024: the March 2025 changes, price table, admin approval. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Billing updates for freelancers and agencies, June 2024: upgrade-notification emails and restricted default roles. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Meet Figma AI, June 2024: free during the beta through 2024; limits and pricing to follow. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Figma Make general availability, 24 July 2025: credits on all seats; Full-seat limits not strictly enforced. figma.com/blogFirst-party
Updates to AI credits in Figma, 9 December 2025: subscription, pay-as-you-go and enforcement from 18 March 2026. figma.com/blogFirst-party
The Figma Design agent is here, 20 May 2026: “AI credits will apply at general availability.” figma.com/blogFirst-party
“Dev mode pricing” thread, including a Figma product-team reply of 18 January 2024 on the free “basic” inspect panel; customer replies cited only as illustration. forum.figma.comFirst-party staff; customer posts illustrative
Staff replies on usage before enforcement, 30 March and 1 April 2026: usage above the limit before 18 March not billed retroactively. forum.figma.comFirst-party staff
Figma, Inc. Form S-1, filed 1 July 2025: company history, the first Full-seat increase, products added to seats. sec.govFirst-party filing
Figma, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026: AI infrastructure costs and reliance on third-party models. sec.govFirst-party filing
Q4 2025 prepared remarks: renewals into the new pricing and the move to monetizing seats and credits. investor materials (PDF)First-party
The complete research dossier, its follow-up and the dated page captures, with their evidence ledgers and register of points withheld from publication, are preserved by CHI and are not reproduced here. Figma and related marks belong to their owners; the name is used only to identify the company, and no endorsement or affiliation is implied. This page is research, not legal or financial advice.
Reading this beside the rest of the index
Every company here is assessed against the same question. Figma is the one where some AI actions carry a price tag and the agent does not.
Read it alongside the methodology, the other AI-credit investigation, and the sector peers.