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Software Development · head to head

Braintrust vs Factory

Braintrust logo

Braintrust

Software Development

The active observability platform for agents

From
Free
Rated
-
Factory logo

Factory

Software Development

The autonomy stack for enterprise teams

From
$20/month
Rated
-

The short version

  • Only Braintrust has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Braintrust enterprise plan pricing not published, requires custom quote; Factory business and Enterprise plans require direct sales contact for pricing
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Braintrust and Factory actually diverge.

Attributes where Braintrust and Factory differ
AttributeBraintrustFactory
Starting priceFree$20/month
Pricing modelfreemiumsubscription
Free tierYesNo

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Software Development).

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Braintrust

  • Monitoring production AI agents for qualitynot Factory
  • Detecting patterns in agent failuresnot Factory
  • Defining quality expectations before shipping agentsnot Factory
  • Tracking prompts and tool calls in productionnot Factory

Factory

  • AI agent development and deploymentnot Braintrust
  • Multi-platform automationnot Braintrust
  • Background task executionnot Braintrust
  • Agent orchestrationnot Braintrust

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Braintrust

  • Enterprise plan pricing not published, requires custom quote
  • Pro plan includes 6-12 months free discount for startups only

Factory

  • Business and Enterprise plans require direct sales contact for pricing
  • Individual plans (Pro, Plus, Max) have limited feature details

Pricing, plan by plan

Braintrust

Free
  • StarterFree
    • $10 model credits monthly included
    • 1 GB processed data monthly
    • 10000 scores monthly
  • Pro$249/month
    • $249 model credits monthly included
    • 5 GB processed data monthly
    • 50000 scores monthly
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Custom data retention and export capabilities
    • RBAC and premium support
    • On-premises or hosted solutions available

Factory

$20/month
  • Pro$20/month
    • Agent-native multi-platform experience
    • Desktop, CLI, and SDK access
    • Cloud and local background agents
  • Plus$100/month
    • Everything in Pro
    • Approximately 5x usage limits
    • Droid Computers for remote agents
  • Max$200/month
    • Everything in Plus
    • Approximately 10x usage limits
    • Early access to new features
  • Business$null/mo

Which should you pick?

Choose Braintrust if

  • You want to start without paying.

Choose Factory if

Nothing in the data separates Factory from Braintrust on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Questions people ask

Is Braintrust or Factory better?
Neither clearly leads. Braintrust starts at Free and Factory at $20/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Braintrust or Factory?
Braintrust has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Braintrust and $20/month for Factory.
Does Braintrust or Factory run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Braintrust for free?
Yes. Braintrust has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Factory starts at $20/month.
What is Braintrust best used for?
Braintrust is most often used for monitoring production ai agents for quality, detecting patterns in agent failures, defining quality expectations before shipping agents, tracking prompts and tool calls in production. Of those, monitoring production ai agents for quality and detecting patterns in agent failures are not what Factory is typically brought in for.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Braintrust: Does Braintrust have a free plan?

Braintrust Starter plan is free and includes $10 model credits monthly, 1 GB processed data, 10000 scores monthly, and 14-day data retention with unlimited users and projects. No credit card required.

Source
Factory: What is Factory.ai's pricing?

Factory.ai offers individual plans starting at USD$20 per month for Pro, USD$100 per month for Plus, and USD$200 per month for Max. Team plans including Business and Enterprise tiers are available at custom pricing based on the number of seats required.

Source
Braintrust: How much does the Braintrust Pro plan cost?

Braintrust Pro plan costs $249 per month and includes $249 model credits, 5 GB processed data, 50000 scores monthly, and 30-day data retention. Qualifying startups receive 6-12 months free.

Source
Factory: What are the usage limits for each plan?

The Pro plan is the baseline tier. Plus provides approximately 5 times the usage limits of Pro, while Max provides approximately 10 times the usage limits of Pro. Exact usage limits are not specified on the pricing page.

Source
Braintrust: What are Braintrust's overage charges?

Braintrust charges overage rates after monthly allocations: model credits beyond monthly allotment are charged at token rates, data overage is $4 per GB on Starter or $3 per GB on Pro, scores overage is $2.50 per 1000 on Starter or $1.50 per 1000 on Pro. Extended data retention beyond the included period costs $0.50 per GB per month.

Source
Factory: What AI models are included with Factory.ai?

All Factory.ai plans include access to GPT-5, Claude Opus and Sonnet, Google Gemini, and open-weight models. Business and Enterprise plans also include dedicated compute with partitioned inference and options for on-premise deployment.

Source
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