So, you’re trying to figure out how much Glean costs. If you’ve been looking, you’ve probably noticed there’s no pricing page on their website. Instead, you’re greeted with a "Get a Demo" button. It’s a classic move for enterprise software, but it leaves you completely in the dark about budgeting and what you’ll actually end up paying.
In this guide, we’re going to pull back the curtain on Glean pricing. We’ve dug through public reports, customer feedback, and vendor marketplaces to break down their pricing model, estimate the real costs, and uncover some of the hidden fees you should know about. We’ll also look at how it stacks up against more modern, transparent alternatives.
What is Glean? (and what it isn’t)
First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. The Glean we’re talking about here is Glean.com, the AI-powered search tool for businesses. It hooks into all your company’s apps, like Slack, Confluence, and Zendesk, to give your team one unified search bar to find information and get answers fast.
A look at the Glean search bar, which allows users to search across all their connected applications from one place.It’s easy to mix it up with other companies with similar names. This isn’t "glean.ai", which is a tool for automating accounts payable. It’s also not the old "glean.co" (which is now a note-taking app for students called Genio). This guide is all about the enterprise search tool.
A complete breakdown of Glean pricing and plans
Glean sticks to a traditional enterprise sales model, which is why you won’t find a pricing list anywhere. To get a quote, you have to jump on a call with their sales team. But by piecing together industry reports and purchasing data, we can get a pretty clear idea of how their pricing works and what you can expect to pay.
The Glean pricing model explained
Glean’s pricing is mostly built around a per-user, per-month subscription. The final number they give you will depend on a few things:
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The total number of employees in your company.
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Which specific apps you need to connect.
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The level of support you need.
It’s a straightforward model, but it can get pricey if you have a lot of people who only need to use it occasionally, since you’re paying a full seat price for every single one. Right now, they don’t seem to offer a more flexible, usage-based option.
How much does Glean pricing cost?
Based on reports from competitors like GoSearch and real purchasing data from Vendr, here are the numbers you should probably brace for:
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Starting Price: You’re likely looking at around $45 to $50+ per user, per month.
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Work AI Features: If you want their generative AI features (part of the "Work AI" suite), that could be an extra $15 per user, per month.
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Minimum Contract: Glean is designed for big companies, and reports suggest a minimum annual contract of around $50,000 to $60,000. This often means you need to commit to at least 100 users.
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Paid Proof of Concept (POC): Want to test Glean with your own data? It’ll cost you. A paid POC can run up to $70,000.
To put it simply, the median annual deal size for Glean is about $65,000. It’s a serious investment meant for large-scale operations.
The hidden costs and challenges of the Glean pricing model
That subscription fee is just where it starts. With enterprise software that uses a sales-led, opaque pricing model, other costs and headaches often pop up down the line.
Glean pricing: Looking beyond the license fee
Beyond the per-seat cost, be ready for a few other line items that can bulk up your total bill:
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Support Fees: Customers have reported a mandatory support fee that’s 10% of the annual recurring revenue (ARR), and there’s no way to opt out of it.
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Implementation Costs: Getting everything up and running often comes with extra charges for the technical setup, configuration, and training for your team.
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Renewal Hikes: It’s pretty standard for these types of contracts to include renewal price increases of 7, 12% each year, which can make long-term budget planning a bit of a guessing game.
How Glean pricing impacts the ‘try before you buy’ process
Glean does offer a "sandbox" trial, but it uses dummy data, not your organization’s actual information. This makes it tough to know how well it will actually perform or how accurate its answers will be for your team. If you want to see how it works with your own content, you have to sign on for that paid proof of concept.
That’s a pretty high barrier to entry. In contrast, modern platforms like eesel AI let you run powerful simulations on your own historical support tickets. You can see the exact ROI and automation potential before you ever switch the tool on for your customers, which takes all the risk out of the evaluation process.
A transparent alternative for AI support: eesel AI pricing
If the lack of transparency, high minimums, and locked-in annual contracts don’t feel right for your team, there’s another way. eesel AI was built from the ground up to be transparent, flexible, and self-serve.
Clear pricing that makes sense
With eesel AI, what you see is what you get. All our pricing is public, with plans designed to grow with you. Instead of a rigid per-seat model, our plans are based on monthly AI interactions. An interaction is just an AI reply or an AI-powered action (like tagging a ticket). This means you only pay for the value the AI is actually delivering, not for how many people are on your team. It’s a more efficient model that ensures you’re never shocked by a bill at the end of a busy month.
Get started on your own time
You shouldn’t need a dozen sales calls and a five-figure check just to see if a tool works for you. With eesel AI, you can sign up and connect your helpdesk in a few minutes. Our plans are available month-to-month, so you can cancel anytime.
This self-serve approach, combined with a risk-free simulation mode, lets you build a business case using your own data. It’s a faster, more flexible, and more confident way to bring AI into your workflow.
Glean pricing: Choosing the right model for your team
Glean is a powerful enterprise search platform, no doubt. But its traditional, opaque pricing model makes it a fit almost exclusively for large corporations with six-figure budgets and the time to go through a long procurement process. For most teams, the high minimum contracts, mandatory fees, and lack of a real trial are major roadblocks.
If your team values transparency, flexibility, and the ability to move quickly, a modern solution is probably a better match. Platforms like eesel AI offer predictable, value-based pricing and a self-serve experience that lets you get going in minutes. The right AI partner isn’t just about the tech; it’s about a business model that works with you, not against you.
Ready for an AI support platform with transparent pricing and a setup that takes minutes, not months? Start your free eesel AI trial and see how it could impact your support workflows today.
Frequently asked questions
Glean uses a traditional enterprise sales model, which means they don’t publish a public pricing page. Instead, interested companies need to request a demo and consult with their sales team to get a custom quote tailored to their specific needs.
The core of Glean’s pricing model is a per-user, per-month subscription. The total cost is influenced by factors like your company’s employee count, the number of apps you need to integrate, and your required support level.
Based on industry reports, you can expect a starting price of around $45 to $50+ per user, per month. Additionally, there’s often a minimum annual contract in the range of $50,000 to $60,000, typically requiring a commitment for at least 100 users.
Yes, beyond the subscription fee, customers often face mandatory support fees (reportedly 10% of ARR), implementation costs for setup and training, and potential annual renewal price increases of 7-12%.
Glean offers a sandbox trial with dummy data, which doesn’t reflect your actual organizational content. To evaluate the tool with your own data, you typically need to commit to a paid Proof of Concept, which can cost up to $70,000.
The generative AI features, part of Glean’s "Work AI" suite, are generally an add-on. They can incur an additional cost of about $15 per user, per month on top of the base subscription.
