Pricing · Built for the top 100 US shippers

Free to run. Paid only when freight moves.

No platform fee. No per-seat fee. No monthly minimum. We earn the way a brokerage earns — standard margin on the loads we actually ship — plus a transparent metered cost-plus only past a generous monthly fair-use threshold. Most accounts never reach it. And any cost-plus is billed openly and transparently — never a surprise.

$0platform fee
$0per-seat
$0monthly minimum
$0
Platform fee
no per-seat fee · no minimum
Your rate
On the record
sell-side, every load
100%
Audit coverage
every decision, logged
Cost-plus
Past fair-use only
transparent · no surprise invoice
The model, stated plainly

Two ways we earn. Neither hits your P&L as software.

There is no catch and no asterisk. Here is exactly how the business makes money — so the CFO can sign without a second meeting.

Primary engine

Brokerage margin on shipped loads

The same model every freight broker runs on: we buy the truck, we sell the load, the margin is the difference. The difference here is your rate is shown on the load instead of buried. You only pay when freight actually moves — no load, no charge.

Abuse guard, not a fee trap

Metered cost-plus past a generous threshold

Quoting, tracking, and tracing carry real compute cost. Past a generous monthly fair-use threshold, usage is billed at transparent cost-plus — not a markup on a markup. It keeps someone from hammering the quote endpoint as a free market-data API. Most accounts never reach the threshold.

No surprise bills

A usage charge is never a surprise.

The fair-use model is built so a usage charge is never a surprise: usage past a generous monthly threshold is billed at transparent cost-plus, openly — something you decide on, not something you discover on an invoice.

Illustrative · how fair-use worksfair-use quota
48%Illustrative · model band
70
85
95
70% Runway85% Plan95% Decide

This is how the fair-use model is structured — usage past a generous monthly threshold is billed at transparent cost-plus, openly. Most accounts never reach the first marker.

70%Plenty of runway under the threshold.
85%Plan the month — adjust volume or raise the threshold.
95%Decide on cost-plus deliberately — nothing auto-charges in the dark.
Three tiers · all free to run

Pick the tier. The platform is free on all three.

Pilot
Free
$0 platform fee · no per-seat fee · fair-use quota
The whole platform. Spot loads. No per-seat fee.

Sign up and you have the whole platform from your first quote. Run spot loads with no per-seat fee. We earn on the brokerage margin in the loads we ship — plus metered cost-plus only past a generous monthly fair-use threshold.

  • No per-seat fee, ever You never pay per user — the platform is free at the seat level, dispatch to finance. No per-seat fee, ever.
  • Spot RFQs and shipped loads Quote a lane and authorize sourcing in one place — with tracking and settlement as your account goes live. No per-load platform fee.
  • Quote in seconds with a real capacity read A data-informed rate estimate beside a capacity-probability score, in seconds — commit to coverage that exists.
  • An AI-assisted desk on the phones Inbound carrier calls answered by AI, outreach drafted automatically, and a human desk on the line — so your team stops chasing trucks.
  • Carriers vetted before any rate-con FMCSA authority + safety and a 45-point fraud-pattern library before we book; Highway and Carrier411 layering in. Negotiation never weakens vetting.
  • Milestones pushed to your TMS Carrier confirmed, in-transit, delivered, exception — milestone events delivered to your TMS via webhook, set up with you.
  • Generous fair-use threshold Usage is billed at transparent cost-plus only past it — openly, never a surprise. Most Pilot accounts never reach it.
  • 100% audit coverage Every decision and action logged. A complete, reproducible record you can get for any load.
  • A human on every irreversible step A person signs before dispatch, banking changes, and more. Never an upsell, never off.
Most teams start here
Scale
Free + contract
$0 platform fee · 20+ loads/mo committed · contract terms
No fee · no shortfall penalty
Commit volume. Get a better margin.

Everything in Pilot — plus commit your monthly volume and we price it back at a lower, transparent margin with priority capacity. A partnership, not a fee. The market still passes straight through, so neither of us is caught out when rates move. Fall below your commitment and you simply run as Pilot — measured on a trailing basis, never a single bad month.

  • Commit volume, get a lower margin Cost-plus a lower, transparent markup on your committed volume — not a locked price. The market passes through; your margin with us stays predictable.
  • Contract terms + RFP / RFQ awards Move your committed book, not just spot. Lane-level commitments and award terms for steady volume.
  • Priority capacity Forecastable volume earns first call on capacity for your freight. An effort guarantee, not a price bet.
  • Commercial terms sized to your book + a contact you can reach Fair-use and cost-plus terms sized to a real book and written into your agreement, plus a name, a number, and a recurring lane review.
  • Soft floor, never a fine Measured on a trailing 90-day average; dip below and you revert to a Pilot relationship. No shortfall fees, no lock-in.
Enterprise
Free + a team
$0 platform fee · contracted terms · dedicated team
From ~$2,000/mo · month-to-month · cancel anytime
Still free to run. Pay for the team and the rate.

Everything in Scale. The platform stays free — you never pay for access. A flat month-to-month service plan buys a named team that owns your book, better commercial terms across your freight written into your agreement, and priority response in writing. No load commitment, no lock-in.

  • A named team that owns your book An account manager and an ops pod, not a queue. They know your lanes, make the judgment calls, and work your freight before you ask.
  • Better commercial terms, in writing A managed account runs on better, contracted commercial terms across your freight — written into your agreement, not a quota game. The relationship, not a slider.
  • Priority support, in writing Front of the line with SLA-backed response times. A human on a contracted clock when a load is on fire.
  • Proactive lane + rate work Recurring lane reviews, rate negotiation on your contract book, capacity planning for your specific lanes.
  • The platform stays $0 Same free platform as Pilot, top to bottom. You pay for the team and the rate — never for the software.
  • Procurement-ready when you need it Optional dedicated infra, contracted SLA, and MSA + DPA + sub-processor review for top-100 shippers.
On every tier · never on a slider

The guarantees you can hand to procurement.

These are not tier perks and they do not get turned off for volume. Whichever tier you start on, you get all of them on day one.

A human signs before anything irreversible

Five gates — dispatch, banking changes, and more. Money never moves unattended.

48-hour cooling period on any banking change

No carrier banking detail changes hands without a mandatory wait and re-verification.

Carrier verification before any rate-con

FMCSA authority + safety and a 45-point fraud-pattern library before we book; Highway and Carrier411 layering in. Negotiation never weakens vetting.

100% audit coverage

Every decision and action on your freight logged and reproducible — yours to get for any load.

A complete record on every load

Every decision and action logged to a reproducible trail — yours to get, load by load, built for your CFO and auditor.

Keep the TMS you already run

Milestone + carrier events delivered to your TMS via webhook, set up with you. Additive, not rip-and-replace.

The shift

What you pay for now vs what you pay for here

Same freight. Different line items. This is the budget review in one frame.

The old line item
  • Per-seat software bill
  • Monthly platform minimum
  • Rip-and-replace TMS migration to fund
  • Vendor lock-in on the way out
  • A rate you never get to see
  • Surprise overage on the invoice
  • Chase a truck's status by phone
The Throughline line item
  • $0 platform fee, no per-seat fee
  • No monthly minimum
  • Keep your TMS, layer on top
  • Leave anytime, no data hostage
  • Your rate shown on every load
  • Transparent cost-plus, no surprise bill
  • Status comes to you, pushed to your TMS
Transparency · why you can believe the price

Your rate is shown. The trail is yours to read.

Pricing transparency is not a promise on this page — it is a record on every load. Every decision and action is written to an audit trail you can get for any load, and your rate is shown on the load, not buried. Hand it to your CFO, your board, your auditors.

100% audit coverage

Every decision and action on your freight is logged and reproducible — the full record, not a summary.

A complete record on every load

Ask for any load’s full record and get it fast — the complete decision-and-action trail, built to hand straight to your CFO or auditor. No black box, no runaround.

Your rate, on the record

The price you pay is shown on the load — sell-side only, never a buy-rate or internal figure.

A human signs the irreversible steps

Dispatch and banking changes carry a human signature in the record — proof, not assertion.

operator.throughline / audit / TLN-Q-48211Sample 100% logged
audit_reports · row2026-04-27
request
TLN-Q-48211
lane
Detroit, MI → Dallas, TX
decision
quote priced · capacity read
checks
FMCSA authority + safety
fraud_screen
45 patterns · 0 flags
latency_ms
1842
result
$2,440 · 78% capacity
gate_required
dispatch_approval
signed_by
J. Rivera · ops
Sample record — every decision + action on a load, logged and yours to get.
Straight answers

The questions finance and procurement ask first.

So how do you actually make money?

Two streams. Most loads pay us through the standard brokerage margin — what we buy the truck at versus what we sell the load at, the model every freight broker runs on. The platform itself is metered cost-plus only past a generous monthly fair-use threshold; most accounts never come close, and any cost-plus is billed openly and transparently — never a surprise on the invoice.

What's the catch on 'free'?

There isn't a hidden one. No platform fee, no per-seat fee, no monthly minimum, no migration to fund, and no lock-in on the way out. We make money when your freight moves, and we charge transparent cost-plus only if you run past the fair-use threshold. If your freight doesn't move, we don't get paid.

Will a usage bill blindside us?

No. Usage past your fair-use threshold is billed at transparent cost-plus, shown openly — never an auto-charge in the dark. On Enterprise the threshold and any cost-plus rate are written into your MSA. You see a charge coming, not a surprise.

Can we keep our existing TMS?

Yes. The cockpit is additive, not a replacement — we keep your TMS in the loop by delivering milestone and carrier events via webhook, set up with you. No rip-and-replace, no data hostage, leave anytime.

What does 'a human signs' actually mean?

Five specific actions require a human signature before they happen — dispatch authorization, banking changes, and more. The system queues the work and never clocks out, but a person clicks before anything irreversible. Money never moves unattended.

How do we prove any of this to our auditors?

100% audit coverage means every decision and action on a load is logged to a complete, reproducible record — and you can get any load’s full record on request and hand it to your CFO, your board, or your auditor. The deeper platform controls live on /security.

Ready

Run one real lane. Read the whole trail.

Free to use, no per-seat fee, keep your TMS, carriers vetted before the rate-con, a human on every irreversible step, your rate shown, and an audit you can verify on every load. There's almost nothing to lose by piloting — and your first quote is seconds away.

Get a rateOpen account