| Platform | Free Tier | Entry Paid Tier | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gretel | Monthly credits: 100K+ synthetic records, or 2M+ Transform/PII-detection records, or 1.5M Navigator characters | No published self-serve paid tier — additional credits require contacting sales | Custom quote |
| Tonic.ai (Fabricate) | $0/mo, $5 in monthly credits, Tonic Cloud, Discord support | Plus: $29/mo, $25 in monthly credits plus pay-as-you-go overage | Custom quote; Tonic also sells separate Structural and Textual products, both custom-priced |
| MOSTLY AI | Free forever, capped at 2 credits/day (up to 25/month), 1 active chat, SaaS only | No dollar price published — Cloud Marketplace (AWS) and Custom Deployment tiers are both “contact for pricing” | Custom Deployment with unlimited usage, SSO, on-prem or private cloud |
Short Verdict
Of the three, Tonic.ai’s Fabricate product is the only one with an actual self-serve dollar price above free: $0 to start, $29/month for the Plus tier. Gretel and MOSTLY AI both run on a credits model where the free tier is clearly defined — Gretel measures it in records and characters, MOSTLY AI in a simple daily/monthly credit cap — but neither publishes a dollar figure for what comes next; both require talking to sales once you outgrow the free allotment. All three are selling the same underlying idea: generate statistically realistic fake data that preserves the structure and relationships of real data (for ML training, testing, or compliance) without exposing the real records.
What Each Platform Actually Is
Gretel
Gretel’s free “Getting Started” tier gives you a monthly credit allotment usable across several of its tools: Workflows (high-quality synthetic record generation, 1 credit = 5 minutes of API duration), Transform, PII detection, or the Navigator inference API (1 credit = 100,000 input/output characters). The free tier is capped at 2 concurrent workers. Credits reset monthly and don’t roll over. Beyond the free allotment, Gretel’s pricing page gives only a heading — “Upgrade to power your most critical use cases” — with no listed quantities or prices; its FAQ confirms additional credits require contacting sales.
Tonic.ai
Tonic.ai actually spans three distinct products with separate pricing. Fabricate (synthetic data generation) has a genuinely public, self-serve price ladder: Free ($0/month, $5 in monthly credits, no card required) and Plus ($29/month, $25 in monthly credits plus pay-as-you-go overage), both running on Tonic Cloud, with a custom Enterprise tier above that. Structural (de-identifying structured/database data) and Textual (de-identifying unstructured/text data) are both sold separately, entirely on custom or usage-based enterprise quotes with no public dollar figures.
MOSTLY AI
MOSTLY AI’s public pricing page lists three tiers without naming dollar amounts for any of them: a Free tier (forever free, capped at 2 credits per day up to 25 per month, one active chat, SaaS-only), a Cloud Marketplace tier deployed through AWS Marketplace into your own AWS environment (one platform installation, unlimited usage, SSO support), and a Custom Deployment tier for on-prem or private-cloud installs (unlimited usage, SSO, at least one platform installation). Actual pricing for the two paid tiers requires using the page’s “View pricing plans” link or contacting sales directly.
Trade-offs
- Gretel’s free tier is generous and clearly quantified, making it easy to prototype, but there’s no visible self-serve path past it — every larger use case routes to a sales conversation.
- Tonic.ai is the only one of the three with a real credit-card-and-go paid tier ($29/month Plus), but that pricing applies only to its Fabricate product; its Structural and Textual de-identification products are both enterprise-quoted separately.
- MOSTLY AI’s free tier is the most restrictive of the three on a daily basis (2 credits/day cap) but is explicitly “forever free,” and its paid tiers add real deployment flexibility (your own AWS account, or fully on-prem) rather than just more credits.
Who It’s a Good Fit For
Gretel fits teams that want to prototype synthetic-data workflows quickly using a generous, well-defined free tier before committing to a paid conversation. Tonic.ai fits teams whose main need is synthetic test data generation (Fabricate) and who want an actual self-serve paid tier, or larger enterprises that also need structured/unstructured data de-identification as separate, dedicated products. MOSTLY AI fits regulated or security-conscious organizations that specifically want the option to deploy entirely inside their own AWS account or on-premises rather than relying on a vendor-hosted SaaS.
Bottom Line
Start with whichever free tier matches your use case — Gretel for record/character-based prototyping, Tonic Fabricate if you want a real credit-card paid tier waiting at $29/month, MOSTLY AI if on-prem or your-own-cloud deployment is a requirement from day one. Expect a sales conversation for anything beyond entry-level usage with all three.
FAQ
Which of these three has a real self-serve paid plan?
Only Tonic.ai’s Fabricate product publishes a specific self-serve paid price: $29/month for its Plus tier. Gretel and MOSTLY AI both require contacting sales for pricing beyond their free tiers.
Can I deploy any of these fully on my own infrastructure?
MOSTLY AI explicitly offers a Custom Deployment tier for on-prem or private-cloud use. Tonic’s Structural and Textual products also support Cloud or self-hosted deployment on their Enterprise tiers.
Do free-tier credits roll over month to month?
Gretel’s FAQ states free monthly credits reset each month and do not roll over. Tonic.ai and MOSTLY AI’s pages do not explicitly address rollover for their free tiers.
Sources
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