Cost per Mandate Instead of Cost per Seat: How Recruitment Agencies Calculate Tool Costs

Recruitment agencies should calculate tool costs per mandate, not per seat: add the seat or credit cost of one mandate to the contact data and screening it uses, then compare that with the fee it earns. In our worked example, one mandate costs about 58 € in credits; a Recruiter Lite seat (79 € a month) becomes cheaper once a recruiter runs about four such mandates a month. Prices are from the Sprad pricing page, as of 29 October 2026; the mandate profile is an assumption, not a measurement.

Why does seat pricing fit mandate work badly?

A seat is paid every month, whether the recruiter runs three mandates or none. A mandate, by contrast, has a start, a budget and a fee. In our conversations with small consultancies, per-seat prices fit badly for exactly this reason: agencies think in mandates, and their workload swings from month to month. Credit-based pricing follows the work instead, but it is hard to budget unless you know what one mandate consumes.

What does one mandate consume? A worked example

The profile below is an assumption for one specialist mandate. Change the numbers to your own routine; the logic stays the same. Credit prices are Sprad's list price of 0.10 € per credit; plans bring it down to 0.07–0.09 €.

Against a placement fee, this is small. At the common range of 20 to 33 percent of the annual salary, a mandate for a 70,000 € role earns 14,000 to 23,100 €. The tool cost of 58 € is well below one percent of the lower figure. What matters is not the tool cost itself but whether it is predictable.

Seat or credits: where is the break-even?

Recruiter Lite costs 79 € per seat and month and includes searches in the Quick and Normal stages; deep search, company search and contact data still run on credits. In the example, contact data and voice screening use 380 credits (38 €) per mandate, so a Lite seat costs 79 € divided by the number of mandates, plus 38 €.

Rule of thumb under these assumptions: fewer than four mandates per recruiter and month, pay by credits; from four, a Lite seat is cheaper. Atlas Recruiter (299 € per seat and month, unlimited search within fair use, several clients in one account) only pays off at around 15 mandates a month by this arithmetic, so it fits recruiters who search every day or need deep search often, not the occasional mandate. If you run many deep searches, your credit use per mandate is higher than in the example and the break-even moves down.

One limit of the Lite seat: it includes 500 profiles a month. With up to 100 profiles shown per mandate (two runs of up to 50), that covers about five mandates a month, so the six-mandate row needs a few extra credits.

What else belongs in the cost per mandate?

• The parallel licence. In our conversations with agencies, a LinkedIn Recruiter licence is rarely replaced at once; it runs in parallel first. For a fair view, count it in the mandate cost until it expires. LinkedIn Recruiter Lite lists at about $140 per user and month (our price research, September 2026).
• Add-ons. Ask whether AI search, contact data and call notes are in the seat price or extra.
• Idle months. A seat costs the same in a month without a mandate. Credits do not.
• What Sprad does not cover. There is no call notetaker and no placement or fee reporting, and the client CRM for agencies is in beta. Those costs stay with your other tools.

Is there a price per result instead of per tool?

Yes. For agencies that do not want to run the tool themselves, Sprad offers sourcing as a service from 300 € per role and month plus 6 to 8 percent success fee, paid only when someone is hired, with no minimum term. That moves the whole calculation from tool cost to cost per hire.

Five questions to ask any vendor

1. What does one typical mandate consume, in credits or in seat time?
2. Which steps are inside the seat price and which run on top?
3. What happens to my data and my talent pool if I cancel? At Sprad the talent network stays free.
4. Can several recruiters share one credit balance?
5. What does a month without mandates cost?

FAQ

How much does a recruiting tool cost per mandate?

It depends on the mandate profile. In our example of two searches, 40 email addresses, 10 phone numbers and 8 voice interviews, it is about 58 € in credits at list price.

Are credits cheaper than seats for small agencies?

Below about four mandates per recruiter and month, yes, under the assumptions above. Above that, a seat is cheaper.

Does a free plan work for a first mandate?

The free account includes 100 credits a month (200 in the first month), enough for a search run and some contact data. ATS, CRM and talent network are free for the whole team.

Is the example a measured average?

No. It is a transparent assumption. Run your own last three mandates through the table to get your number.

See how a mandate runs from search to shortlist on Sprad for recruitment agencies, the plans on the pricing page, the talent pool that stays yours, and how the three CRM pricing models compare.