Pay what you want pricing can work for a small business, and the safest way to try it is as a short promotion with a limited number of slots. An Italian restaurant in Austin runs it one night a week, and the owner says people are paying more than he expected. Radiohead tried it with an album in 2007, letting fans set their own price. I’m sharing it because it got my wheels turning, and I want it to get yours turning too.
What is pay what you want pricing?
You hand the customer the menu, there’s no price next to the lasagna, and they pay what they think it’s worth.
The restaurant in Austin was seeing its business decline a little bit. So one night of the week they open the doors, diners order whatever they want off the menu, and they decide the bill.
Do customers really pay when the price is up to them?
Some do and some don’t, and Radiohead’s experiment shows you both sides. In 2007 they released an album called In Rainbows and let fans pay whatever they wanted. I was in radio at the time, and everyone lost their mind.
What would my customers pay if I let them choose?
Think about what you do for a living. If you said, “Hey, just pay what you think it’s worth,” how do you think your customers would react? Would they pay you more, less, or anything at all?
Then think about how it would change you. The money you’d get would be directly proportional to the value they thought they received. You’d have to do even better work to make even more, and that’s an interesting dynamic to build into a product or service.
What kind of business can try pay what you want pricing?
When I thought through where I could use this, I landed on a digital product. I don’t know if I have the guts to do a physical product pay what you want. I guess you could, but a digital product would make it a lot better.
It can also work for a service if you put a fence around it. On the same show, I talked with an owner who records trust-building videos for professionals. She’d been making short free videos for people, and her husband kept telling her she needs to earn money with them.
She wondered about asking clients to pay what the video was worth to them a month later. My answer was to make it a focused promotional campaign.
How do I run a pay what you want offer without giving away the store?
Limit it. She told me five to ten new clients would be a good month, so I suggested five slots in the next five weeks, where people get to pay whatever they want.
Then tell people why you’re doing it. The pitch I gave her was, “This is helping me better understand who my customers are. It’s helping you generate trust with your ideal clients. I’ve only got five slots, so who wants to play ball?”
Anyone who sees any value in what you’re doing will raise their hand instantly, thinking they’re going to get a deal. And they may end up paying you more than you normally get paid in the first place.
What should I do this week?
Here’s the homework. Pick one thing you sell, a digital product if you have one, and ask yourself what customers would pay if the price was up to them.
Next, decide how many slots would make a good month and set a short window.
Then write the offer in a few sentences and send it through your referral partners and your social media. Watch who raises their hand and what they pay, because that helps you better understand who your customers are.
This came from Businessing with Pat Miller. Watch the full May 26, 2026 episode.
More on this topic: Pricing answers from the Small Business Owners Community