Pay-per-candidate recruiting: what the fee actually buys.

Three per-candidate meters, and one subscription

Start with the handoff, because the feature grids will lie to you. "Interview-ready" is not a regulated term. Vendors attach it to a calendar hold, a ranked profile, a scored resume, and an inbound applicant who finished a test. If you compare the monthly numbers before you compare the artifact, you are ranking four products by accident.

Completed inbound vet. Picked's pricing page, opened 19 August 2026, is $0.99 per AI-vetted candidate who completes the funnel. The first 50 are free per role. Posting is free. You book the meeting. Picked's homepage promises three finalists in 48 hours and shows a median time-to-shortlist of 31 hours 12 minutes, which is a shortlist clock; what each vendor's speed claim measures is compared separately. That is inbound screening priced per completer, not outbound delivery priced per hold.

Delivered scored engineer. Recruo Performance, opened the same day, lists $300 to $800 for a Qualified candidate and $1,000 to $2,500 for Interview-Ready. The page we opened does not make that fee contingent on hire, and it does not attach a 90-day guarantee at this tier. You are buying a delivered engineer at an agreed bar, not a subscription of credits and not a placement.

Unlocked profile. Hire22 meters confirmed profiles in INR. The trial card we opened is ₹0 for 2,000 credits over 3 months. Docs list Starter at ₹2,000+GST / 2,000 credits and Growth at ₹10,000+GST / 10,000. Unlock is 100 credits at or under 10 LPA, then 10 credits per Lakh. We are not converting those rupees. The paid Starter card on Hire22's public pricing page did not match the docs when we opened it in August 2026, so it is not in the grid.

Subscription plus usage. Metix AI still delivers qualified, interested, interview-ready candidates, but it does not charge per candidate. Monthly plans are $99 / $199 / $299 / $499, or $89 / $179 / $269 / $449 per month on annual billing ($1,068 / $2,148 / $3,228 / $5,388 per year). They include 5,000 / 10,500 / 16,000 / 27,000 monthly Credits and 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 AI Agents. Each AI Agent runs one hiring workflow; a plan's AI Agents are a monthly allowance of new workflows, not a cap on how many run at once. The 14-day trial includes a one-time allowance of 1 AI Agent and 500 Credits, no card required. The outcome pricing page explains how Metix AI Credits are metered.

Per-candidate meters and the alternatives, with published prices

These are the vendors whose pages we opened on 19 August 2026: three per-candidate meters, Metix AI as the subscription alternative, the three neighbors covered in the next section, and three vendors with no price we could read. For those three, the cell says whether the vendor quotes privately or the price did not render.

Three products that share the aisle

Wellfound Autopilot bills $500 a month per open role plus 10 percent on hire. The page we opened says the first batch usually arrives in week one, then 5 to 10 candidates a week. That is a retainer-plus-success hybrid sitting next to per-candidate language, not a credit for a booked interview.

Dover publishes a free ATS and Premium at $199 a month. The recruiting work lives on the marketplace. A Dover blog dated 31 January 2026, on fractional recruiter costs, puts marketplace rates at $75 to $125 an hour, $2,000 to $7,000 per hire as typical, and an $800 deposit. That is human labor on a marketplace, not a software credit.

CogniAgent sells platform credits from $10. Its recruiting agent screens inbound applicants. It is not a per-candidate recruiting product in the sense of this grid, and filing it as one will waste a week.

What "interview-ready" means on each page

Spell it out, because the label travels and the artifact does not.

Metix AI. Interview-ready means the person clears the bar you approved, has confirmed interest, and is booked. Mira has screened for interest. This delivery definition is separate from Credit usage.

Recruo. Interview-Ready is a priced tier, $1,000 to $2,500, above Qualified at $300 to $800. It is a delivered engineer at an agreed bar. It is not, on the page we opened, contingent on you hiring them.

Hire22. Interview-ready is how SARA markets 22-hour matches: ranked, consent-ready profiles. Unlocking one spends credits. We did not verify a calendar hold.

Picked. The product ends at three finalists plus a ranked list. You book. Calling that interview-ready is their language for a completed inbound vet, not a hold on your calendar.

Where a per-candidate meter is the wrong buy

Match the job, then pick the meter. These are the jobs this page will not pretend to cover.

• You want a database. Search depth, filters, cleared or clinical pools: Metix AI vs SeekOut, LinkedIn Recruiter vs Juicebox, Juicebox alternatives.
• You want an ATS. Applications, scorecards, offers, records: ATS pricing comparison. Dover's free ATS sits in that aisle. Metix AI does not replace it.
• You want an agency placement. A share of first-year cash for a filled role, including the close: AI recruiter vs recruiting agency, with the fee math in recruiting agency fees vs software cost.
• You want enterprise talent intelligence. Eightfold and Phenom. Both are quote-only, and neither showed a public price on the pages we opened in August 2026.
• You want inbound flood screening. Picked at $0.99 a completer, or CogniAgent credits from $10. Those products assume applicants already exist.
• You want a dedicated human sourcer on a software plan. Fetcher Amplify, already walked in Metix AI vs Fetcher.

The seat-versus-subscription arithmetic, Recruiter Lite against a Metix AI plan, lives on per-seat vs usage-based pricing. The units here are output meters, not seats.

Pick by the artifact, then read the invoice

Write down what you want to receive on Tuesday: a hold on the calendar, a ranked inbound list, a scored engineer, or a profile you can unlock. Then open the vendor's own pricing page and see whether the unit matches. If the page quotes, write quote-only and stop. If the page is in INR, leave it in INR.

Metix AI is a subscription with AI Agents and usage Credits. It is the wrong buy if you only need an applicant database or a placement guarantee. It fits teams that can define the role and run interviews but want the middle of the funnel operated for them.

Frequently asked questions

What does a pay-per-candidate fee actually buy?

It depends on the vendor. On Picked, $0.99 buys a completed inbound AI vet, first 50 free per role, and you book. Recruo Performance prices a delivered scored engineer at $300 to $800 Qualified or $1,000 to $2,500 Interview-Ready. Hire22 unlocks a confirmed profile in INR credits. Those are different meters. Metix AI does not charge per candidate: outside an AI Agent workflow, its subscription Credits cover standalone contact unlocks, Deep Search lists, and additional AI Agents.

How is pay-per-candidate different from pay-per-hire?

A pay-per-candidate fee is billed when a candidate is vetted, delivered, or unlocked; on the Recruo page we opened, even the Interview-Ready tier was not contingent on a hire. Contingency recruiting works the other way: the agency takes a share of first-year cash only for a filled role, and the fee includes the close. Wellfound Autopilot sits between the two as a hybrid, $500 a month per open role plus 10 percent on hire. The agency arithmetic is in recruiting agency fees vs software cost.

How does Metix AI charge?

Metix AI does not charge per candidate. Monthly plans run $99 to $499, or $1,068 to $5,388 a year on annual billing, and include 5,000 to 27,000 Credits plus 1 to 5 AI Agents; outside an AI Agent workflow, Credits pay for standalone actions such as a 10-Credit contact unlock, and work inside an active Agent's workflow uses 0 Credits. Current plans and how Credits are metered are on the pricing page.

Is "interview-ready" a standard term?

No. It is not a regulated term. Metix AI means a booked calendar slot after approved outreach. Recruo means a delivered engineer at an agreed bar. Hire22 means a ranked, consent-ready profile you unlock. Picked means an inbound applicant who completed the vet; you book. Read the handoff, not the label.

Do Eightfold, Phenom, or Leelu publish a per-candidate price?

Not on the pages we opened in August 2026. Those three are quote-only or did not render a public dollar figure. SeekOut Spot is already priced as quote-only on Metix AI vs SeekOut; we do not re-price it here.

Sources opened 19 August 2026

• picked.ai/pricing and picked.ai: $0.99; first 50 free; three finalists in 48 hours; median 31h 12m.
• recruo.com/pay-per-candidate: $300–$800 Qualified; $1,000–$2,500 Interview-Ready.
• hire22.ai/recruit/pricing: trial ₹0 / 2,000 credits / 3 months. The paid Starter card on this page did not match the docs, so it is not used here.
• Hire22 credit docs: Starter ₹2,000+GST / 2,000; Growth ₹10,000+GST / 10,000; unlock 100 credits ≤10 LPA, then 10 per Lakh.
• wellfound.com/recruit/pricing: Autopilot $500/mo per open role + 10% on hire.
• dover.com/pricing: ATS free or Premium $199/mo. Dover blog, 31 January 2026: marketplace $75–$125/hr, $2,000–$7,000 per hire typical, $800 deposit.
• cogniagent.ai/pricing: platform credits from $10.
• leelu.ai: clock claims; plan dollars did not render when we opened it.
• Metix AI vs SeekOut: SeekOut Spot quote-only; not re-priced here.
• Per-seat vs usage-based pricing: the seat-versus-subscription arithmetic this page does not repeat.