# Culpa vs PromptLayer > PromptLayer publishes data retention control on Enterprise only. Culpa keeps the ledger on your own infrastructure, so history is a disk decision. URL: https://getculpa.com/culpa-vs-promptlayer Last reviewed: 2026-08-03 ## Answer PromptLayer is a prompt management and evaluation platform billed on requests, eval cells and agent node executions, with data retention control published only on Enterprise. Culpa, a local-first LLM cost, margin, and forecast ledger, prices every call from a versioned price book and forecasts next month from history you hold yourself. ## Why this happens PromptLayer meters more dimensions than most and publishes them clearly. Free is $0 with 5 users, 2.5k requests a month, 750 agent node executions and 250 eval cell executions. Pro is $49 a month with the same limits plus unlimited playgrounds and workspaces, and pay-as-you-go at $0.003 per transaction. Team is $500 a month with 25 users, 100k requests, 7.5k eval cells and $0.002 per transaction. The detail worth pulling out is on the feature table rather than the price cards: Data Retention Control appears under Enterprise and nowhere else, and self-hosting is Enterprise too. So on every published tier below Enterprise, how long your history lives is the vendor's decision rather than yours. For prompt work that's fine. For cost work it's the whole ballgame, because a forecast is made of history. ## What this usually looks like - You can't state your data retention because your plan doesn't expose it as a setting. - Three separate meters move and only one of them is on your dashboard. - A per-transaction rate applies to work nobody thinks of as a transaction. - Prompt versions are well managed and nobody can price them. - Self-hosting turns out to be a sales conversation rather than a setting. ## Common mistakes - Assuming retention is configurable on any paid plan. Why it hurts: PromptLayer lists Data Retention Control under Enterprise only, so the lower tiers inherit a default you didn't set. Do instead: Read the feature table rather than the price cards, and confirm retention in writing. - Budgeting from the request count alone. Why it hurts: Agent node executions and eval cell executions are separate published meters with their own limits. Do instead: Model all three meters against your own traffic before choosing a tier. - Treating prompt version history as cost history. Why it hurts: Knowing which version ran isn't knowing what it cost, and only one of those reconciles to an invoice. Do instead: Price each version's traffic from a rate book and compare on money. ## Self-check - Find your data retention in writing and check whether you can change it. - List every meter your plan bills on and which ones you monitor. - Price your two most-used prompt versions and compare them on cost, not score. - Ask what your best prompt version costs per thousand calls. ## What a per-transaction rate does at agent volume PromptLayer publishes pay-as-you-go at $0.003 per transaction on Pro and $0.002 on Team. Agent workloads emit many logged steps per user request, which is the shape that makes per-transaction pricing bite. Take an agent averaging 8 logged steps per request. Rates are published. The step count and request volume are modelled. 50,000 user requests x 8 logged steps = 400,000 transactions a month 400,000 x $0.003 on the Pro rate = $1,200 400,000 x $0.002 on the Team rate = $800, plus the $500 Team platform fee = $1,300 the cheaper per-unit rate produces the larger bill at this volume Per-unit rates and platform fees cross over, and where they cross depends on a step count that nobody sets deliberately. Work out your own crossover before picking the tier with the lower headline rate, and price your model spend somewhere that doesn't move when you add a logging step. ## Cost figures Every figure carries its confidence and its source. For each provider-reported figure below, its own source line names the published record it came from, the date that record was read, and any aggregation applied to it. - $500 per month, PromptLayer's published Team plan price, before per-transaction charges [provider-reported] Source: promptlayer.com/pricing, read 2026-08-03. Team covers 25 users, 100k requests a month and 7.5k eval cell executions with pay-as-you-go at $0.002 per transaction. Pro is $49 a month at $0.003 per transaction. Free is $0. Data Retention Control and self-hosting appear on Enterprise only. - $1,200 per month, modelled per-transaction charges for an agent at 8 logged steps per request on the Pro rate [calculated] Source: 50,000 requests x 8 logged steps = 400,000 transactions, x the published $0.003 Pro rate = $1,200. Request volume and steps per request are modelled. The per-transaction rates are published on promptlayer.com/pricing, read 2026-08-03. ## FAQ Q: What does PromptLayer cost? A: Free is $0 with 5 users, 2.5k requests, 750 agent node executions and 250 eval cell executions a month. Pro is $49 a month with pay-as-you-go at $0.003 per transaction. Team is $500 a month with 25 users, 100k requests and $0.002 per transaction. Enterprise is custom. Read 2026-08-03. Q: Can I control data retention on PromptLayer? A: Its published feature table lists Data Retention Control under Enterprise and not on Free, Pro or Team. Self-hosted and managed single-tenant hosting are also Enterprise. On the lower tiers, retention is a default you inherit rather than a setting you choose. Q: Does PromptLayer track LLM cost? A: Its published tiers meter requests, agent node executions and eval cell executions rather than publishing a model rate book, and nothing on its site claims margin against revenue or a forecast of spend, as read 2026-08-03. Treat it as prompt and evaluation tooling. Q: Do PromptLayer and Culpa compete? A: Not really. PromptLayer manages and evaluates prompts. Culpa prices the traffic those prompts generate, attributes it to customers against revenue, and forecasts the month. The overlap is that both see every call, and they do entirely different things with it. ## Sources - PromptLayer: https://www.promptlayer.com - PromptLayer pricing: https://www.promptlayer.com/pricing/ Run the free Cost Leak Scan: https://app.getculpa.com/scan?source=pseo&slug=culpa-vs-promptlayer&cluster=competitor Machine-readable index of every guide: https://getculpa.com/api/pages Human-readable index of every guide: https://getculpa.com/guides Site overview: https://app.getculpa.com/llms.txt Privacy: Culpa runs on your infrastructure. Your prompts and responses never leave it. Culpa counts calls to run your plan, and it fails open, so if it ever breaks your app keeps running.