ZoomInfo is moving customers off seats and isn’t counting on it for revenue. Ask for fixed credits before you renew.

ZoomInfo CFO Graham O’Brien told analysts on November 4 that the company can now offer customers “fixed arrangements on the data credit consumption side.” A few minutes earlier he’d said fourth-quarter guidance assumes “the pricing transition and GTM1 rollout contribute no net benefit.”

So ZoomInfo is changing how it charges the customers it already has, and its own forecast doesn’t expect the change to bring in more money this year. If your contract comes up in the next two quarters, you probably have more room on terms than you think.

What ZoomInfo reported

Third-quarter revenue was $308.8 million, down 3% from a year earlier and above the top of the company’s guidance. Net revenue retention fell to 88% from 89%, which O’Brien put down to “fewer and smaller upsells, primarily in software.” ACV from customers paying at least $100,000 rose 4%, while the number of those customers fell 2%. Downmarket ACV fell 14%.

CEO Henry Schuck said the company had “introduced new hybrid pricing and packaging models geared to expand our non-seat mix” and had “selectively introduced this to existing customers.” He described GTM1 as “one platform where sales, marketing, and operations run on the same data and context, with agents that work across all of it,” due later this quarter. ZoomInfo’s sales team and “a couple dozen customers” already use it.

What hybrid means here

O’Brien avoided calling it consumption pricing. “Our stated goal from a few quarters ago was to move away from a seat-based model. That does not necessarily mean that we are moving to a full consumption model,” he said. Customers can pick a more fixed or a more variable arrangement, and AI credit purchases are sized to give them “a level of comfort in that first year on the new product.” One new customer signed for a mix of seats and data.

He also said “most of that usage is customers drawing down capacity they have already bought.” They’re spending credits they prepaid, so there isn’t much evidence yet about what metered use will cost anyone.

ZoomInfo gave no price points or credit rates, and didn’t say how many customers have switched. When an analyst asked whether customers pay the same after moving to hybrid, management said some renew flat and some renew for less, without figures.

Our take

A vendor at 88% net retention that is repackaging its installed base needs those renewals to land, which makes your renewal the point where you have the most leverage. Take the fixed option on data credits unless you already know your monthly lookup and enrichment volume. Seat licenses never made teams track that, and plenty of teams don’t.

Treat AI credits as a first-year pilot. Size them to something you can measure, and get year-two terms in writing now, because the comfortable sizing O’Brien described is for “that first year.”

Questions for your renewal call

• What do data credits and AI credits cost, and can those rates change at renewal?
• Do unused credits roll over? ZoomInfo didn’t say on the call.
• If we cut seats, which users lose access to the web app, and what do they keep?
• Is GTM1 included in our package, sold separately, or paid for in credits?
• Can we keep our seat contract for one more term and switch later at the same discount?

What would change our mind

We’d stop recommending fixed credits if ZoomInfo published credit rates and rollover terms that make a wrong guess cheap, or if customers who moved to hybrid reported paying less for the same usage. We’d also look again if next quarter’s guidance starts counting on the pricing change, since that would mean ZoomInfo expects customers to spend more under it.

If ZoomInfo has offered you the hybrid package, did you choose fixed or variable credits, and did your renewal go up or down?