AI recruiter vs recruiting agency: who does the work?
A contingency firm invoices a share of first-year cash when the hire starts. Metix AI invoices a subscription that includes monthly Credits and AI Agents. Those are two invoices for different products, and this page keeps them apart.
A contingency recruiting agency bills 20 to 25 percent of first-year cash compensation, and only if it fills the job, per Mark Feffer's 18 July 2016 guidance for SHRM; retained search runs about 33 percent. Metix AI plans cost $99 to $499 a month and give your team Mira, its AI recruiter, which runs sourcing, approved outreach, interest screening, and first-interview booking; the interviews and the hiring decision stay with you. Annual billing runs $1,068 to $5,388, and plans include 5,000 to 27,000 monthly Credits plus 1 to 5 AI Agents. A failed contingency search costs nothing; a quiet Metix AI month still bills. The fee fits executive, confidential, or closing-heavy work. Metix AI fits when the hard part ends at a booked first interview.
Disclosure: Metix AI publishes this page and sells one of the products compared. Read our column the way you would read any vendor writing about its own neighbor.
Two invoices, two units
Buyers shortlist an agency and Metix AI together because both promise to produce people you can meet. The invoices do not describe the same purchase. One is a share of first-year cash, triggered by a start date. The other is a monthly subscription that includes Credits and AI Agents. Booking an interview does not spend a Credit.
The arithmetic that treats those as interchangeable prices is the subject of recruiting agency fees vs software cost. That essay works the break-even against seats. This page stays on the question in the title: who does the work under each invoice, and when each one earns it.
A word on method. The fee bands below come from SHRM, opened 19 August 2026, not from a sales deck. Dollar figures are our derivations. Metix AI figures are ours, and you should read them with the same care. Close to a hundred companies now hire through Metix AI, company-reported; that count is not a reason to prefer either column.
What the fee actually buys
On a $120,000 hire, SHRM's contingency band comes to $24,000 to $30,000, our derivation rather than a quote, and the full fee table at three salaries sits with the cost arithmetic. A contingency invoice is the price of a filled role, not the price of effort. No placement, no invoice. The firm eats the cost of every search that dies. In exchange you get finished work: sourcing, outreach, screening, a shortlist of people who have already said yes to the conversation, and, on the searches that deserve it, closing craft. Reference back-channels, counteroffer handling, the read on whether someone will actually resign. That last slice is why the fee exists on roles where a calendar hold is not the hard part.
Retained search buys something else. SHRM's same 2016 guidance puts the standard retained fee at about 33 percent of first-year cash, billed for running the search rather than only for filling it. You are paying for exclusivity, a dedicated desk, and a map of who would move. That is a different contract from contingency, and it is a different contract from a Metix AI plan.
Speed belongs in its own sentence, because it is easy to smash three clocks together. On Metix AI, 95 percent of roles have a first interview scheduled within 24 hours of defining the role: a confirmed calendar slot, vendor-reported, not a meeting that day, not a hire rate. An agency search, on the Metix AI FAQ, usually takes 4 to 6 weeks. SHRM's 2025 nonexecutive median time-to-fill is 44 days, the figure already cited on interview scheduling. Those clocks measure different spans. This page will not headline that Metix AI is faster than an agency.
Contingency, retained, and Metix AI
Three columns, one question per row: what is on the invoice, and what is still on your desk after it is paid?
| Contingency agency | Retained search | Metix AI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The invoice | 20 to 25 percent of first-year cash, SHRM 2016, only if they fill | About 33 percent, SHRM 2016, for running the search | Subscription: $99 to $499 monthly |
| A failed search | Costs you nothing | The retainer is owed for the work | The subscription still bills; Credits meter platform usage |
| Who employs the person | You do, after they place | You do, after they place | You do. Metix AI is not the employer |
| What lands | A candidate the firm will stand behind as a placement | A dedicated search, often exclusive | A qualified, interested candidate booked for a first interview |
| Quality gate | The recruiter's judgment and the firm's reputation | The partner running the search | Mira screens for interest; outreach sends only after you approve |
| Talent pool | The firm's bench and network | The partner's map of the market | 860M+ profiles in 190+ countries |
| Clock we will stand behind | Usually 4 to 6 weeks on the Metix AI FAQ, not a SHRM figure | A search, not a 24-hour booking claim | 95 percent first interview scheduled in 24 hours, vendor-reported, a confirmed slot |
| Getting started | A search assignment; fee on success | A retained engagement | Free 14-day trial, 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits, no card |
Fee bands from SHRM, opened 19 August 2026. Metix AI plans and the 95 percent figure are ours, vendor-reported. Profile counts are company-reported. For the step-by-step split inside the Metix AI column, see what Mira runs and what you approve.
What Metix AI invoices, August 2026
The Metix AI ladder is public. Starter is $99 a month for 5,000 Credits and 1 AI Agent. Growth is $199 for 10,500 Credits and 2 AI Agents. Professional is $299 for 16,000 Credits and 3 AI Agents. Scale is $499 for 27,000 Credits and 5 AI Agents. Annual billing is $1,068, $2,148, $3,228, or $5,388.
Metix AI price ladder: $99 / $199 / $299 / $499 monthly, with 5,000 / 10,500 / 16,000 / 27,000 Credits and 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 AI Agents. Annual billing uses $89 / $179 / $269 / $449 monthly-equivalent rates.
Credits meter standalone usage outside an AI Agent workflow: 10 Credits unlock contact information, 100 unlock a Deep Search list, and 3,000 add an AI Agent after the included quota. Once an Agent is active, work completed inside its workflow uses 0 Credits, so Credits are not a per-candidate charge. Each AI Agent runs one hiring workflow, and the AI Agents in a plan are a monthly allowance for starting new workflows. Metix AI is not a placement guarantee or a recruiting agency.
When the agency is the right buy
We sell the subscription column, so read this list as a concession rather than a pitch. There are searches where the fee is the best money a company spends that year.
Executive search. The candidates for a VP role are not answering a sequenced email. They are walked out of jobs they like by someone they already trust. SHRM's 2016 retained band, about 33 percent, is the price of that map. Pay it when the chair is the job.
Confidential replacements. Sometimes the search cannot be public because the person being replaced does not know yet. A search firm can hold that secret through months of quiet approaches. A product that sources across a public graph and waits for you to approve outreach is the wrong instrument for that silence.
Closing craft on a make-or-break hire. Reference back-channels, counteroffers, the read on whether someone will resign. A booked interview does not include that. If the hard part starts after the first meeting, buy the fee.
One hard role, no bandwidth. A small company with a single role that has to close, and nobody free to run interviews at volume, is the classic contingency client. The fee buys a recruiter who lives in that niche. Twenty-five percent is a lot of money. A lost quarter can be more.
Contingency economics pay on speed, without exclusivity, so effort flows toward the roles most likely to close. That is the model working as priced. It also means the hardest role on your desk can be the one that sits.
Where Metix AI is the wrong buy, and where the agency is
Where Metix AI is wrong. We do not run executive search. We do not hold a confidential replacement in a closed book. We do not negotiate the offer or talk a candidate through a counter. We do not employ the person, and we do not guarantee a hire. If you need a partner who will sit in the close, the fee is the product. If you need an ATS, a sourcing database, or a dedicated human sourcer on a software plan, those are other pages: ATS pricing, Metix AI vs SeekOut, Metix AI vs Fetcher. If you are weighing whether to outsource the whole recruiting function, start with recruiting agency vs RPO vs software.
Where the agency is wrong. Steady professional hiring without a recruiter on staff, more than one role a year, no confidentiality constraint, and a hiring manager who can run the interviews. The fee prices that work as if it were a search. A failed search is free, which is honest, and it is also why the hardest req can wait. If what you actually need is a booked interview on a published subscription price, the fee is the wrong unit.
How to decide on one live role
Pick the role you were about to send out. Write the same brief for both: must-haves, compensation, location, two people who should pass and one who should not. Then ask four questions that do not care about the monthly number.
Is the search confidential or executive? If yes, the agency has the argument. Can you run the interviews yourself if someone is booked this week? If no, you need a closer, not a calendar hold. If the real gap is a recruiter on staff, read AI recruiter vs human recruiter first. Would a failed search that costs nothing be more useful than a plan that bills while credits sit? That is the contingency advantage, and it is real. Do you want to employ the person at the end, with no placement fee attached to the start date? That is the Metix AI side.
The sticker comparison will always make the plan look cheap. It is incomplete. Use the live role, not the table, to finish the sentence.
We send interviews
Bring the role where the fee made you wince, or the one you would not give an agency because it is not a search. The free 14-day trial includes a one-time 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits, no card required. Credits meter standalone usage outside an Agent workflow. Outreach sends after you approve. Mira screens for interest.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between contingency search, retained search, and an AI recruiter?
A contingency agency bills 20 to 25 percent of first-year cash in SHRM's 2016 guidance, only if it fills the role, so a failed search costs you nothing. Retained search runs about 33 percent and pays for running a dedicated search, often exclusive, so the retainer is owed whether or not anyone is hired. Metix AI is a $99 to $499 monthly subscription: Mira, its AI recruiter, delivers a qualified, interested candidate booked for a first interview, and the subscription bills whether or not you hire. In all three you employ the person. The full fee table at three salaries is in recruiting agency fees vs software cost.
Is Metix AI a recruiting agency?
No. Metix AI is a subscription hiring platform. You employ the person, and there is no placement fee as a share of first-year cash. Outside an AI Agent workflow, Credits pay for platform actions: 10 to unlock one candidate's contact information, 100 to unlock a Deep Search list, or 3,000 for an additional AI Agent. Work inside an active AI Agent's workflow uses 0 Credits, so Credits are not a charge per candidate.
When is Metix AI cheaper than an agency?
On sticker, Metix AI's subscriptions run $99 to $499 a month, or $1,068 to $5,388 a year. That is still an incomplete comparison: an agency fee buys search and closing work, while a Metix AI subscription includes platform access, monthly Credits, and AI Agents. Compare the work delivered, internal operating time, and usage, not just the invoice.
Does Metix AI guarantee a hire?
No. Metix AI can source, contact, screen, and schedule interview-ready candidates, but interviews, verification, and the hiring decision stay with the employer. Outside an AI Agent workflow, Credits meter contact unlocks, Deep Search lists, and additional AI Agents; they do not guarantee a hire.
Sources opened 19 August 2026
- SHRM, Mark Feffer, "How to Work Effectively with an Executive Search Firm," 18 July 2016: contingency 20 to 25 percent of first-year cash; retained about 33 percent.
- Metix AI, interview scheduling: SHRM 2025 nonexecutive median time-to-fill, 44 days.
- Metix AI FAQ: agency search usually 4 to 6 weeks; 24 hours defined as a confirmed calendar slot.
- Metix AI pricing: $99 to $499 a month; trial 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits.
- Recruiting agency fees vs software cost: the fee table at three salaries and the seat-versus-fee arithmetic this page does not repeat.