FAQ
Questions, answered.
Everything buyers usually ask before they get started. Missing something? Start a free workspace and ask Vera directly.
GETTING STARTED
What is Vera AI?
The platform enterprise teams use to run their software vendor relationships: know what everything should cost, negotiate from evidence, cut run-rate spend, and catch what vendors slip past you. Analyst-produced benchmarks are the foundation it grew from, around them sits an AI analyst across every contract you own, cost optimizers for cloud and licensing, renewal and negotiation management, and invoice reconciliation.
Is it just a benchmarking tool?
Not anymore. Benchmarking is where we started and it is still the core credential, but most teams live in the rest of the platform day to day.
- Asking the AI questions across all their contracts
- Tracking renewals and notice deadlines
- Running negotiations
- Reconciling invoices
- Cutting cloud and license run-rate
See the 33 use cases or pick your role on the roles page for what that looks like in your job.
How does an expert benchmark work?
Four steps: you upload, we pick it up for review, our analysts benchmark it against thousands of comparable deals, and the finished report is delivered to your workspace. You can follow the status the whole way. Everything else on the platform (Vera, the optimizers, renewals, invoice checks) works immediately, no analyst in the loop.
How do I get access?
Self serve. Go to get started and a workspace is provisioned in seconds from your corporate email, with a sample portfolio already loaded.
- Until a background check clears
- it runs as a sandbox, usually 1 business day
- To see real work first
- read the sample benchmark report or decode a contract free, both with no account
- For a guided start
- request access and our team sets you up
Is Vera AI the same as VendorBenchmark?
Yes. The product was renamed Vera AI on July 16, 2026, after Vera, the analyst at the center of the platform. The company remains Vendor Benchmark LLC, and the platform, domain, your data, and the team behind it are unchanged. Citable research keeps the established name, like the VendorBenchmark Software Price Index.
Is there training or a certification?
Yes, and it is free. Vera AI Academy is 6 analyst-written lessons and a 12 question exam.
- Pass it
- and you hold the Certified Software Negotiation Analyst certificate, with a public verification page you can add to LinkedIn
- How long
- most people finish in about 30 minutes
What can I upload?
Proposals, quotes, order forms, and signed contracts as PDF, DOCX, or XLSX. The earlier in the deal you send it, the more leverage the benchmark gives you.
How fast do I get my report?
The typical turnaround from upload to delivered report is 48 hours. Complex multi-product agreements can take a little longer, and we tell you up front when they will.
BENCHMARKS & DATA
Where does the benchmark data come from?
The library covers 1,471 vendors and is refreshed continuously. Each vendor carries a modeled peer cohort calibrated to documented market evidence: a curated price book of list prices and rate cards, vendor filings and published pricing, reseller and marketplace quotes, an anonymized community pricing pool, and the firm's buyer side advisory work. Every figure in a report is tagged to the evidence behind it, and a report tells you when an assumption is doing the work.
What do I actually get in a report?
A metric-by-metric comparison of your terms against market low, median, and high, your percentile on each, an overall score, and an analyst summary of where to push. Reports are downloadable as PDF.
What if my vendor is niche?
The 20 largest publishers are covered in depth, and the rest of the 1,471 vendors in the library are refreshed continuously. A vendor outside it is benchmarked on request, and that is included in the normal flow.
Is my pricing shared with other customers?
Never in identifiable form. Benchmark aggregates are anonymized and pooled, and nothing that could identify your company, your contract, or your specific terms is ever exposed to another customer.
What are the AI reports, and how are they different?
AI contract reports give you an instant machine-generated read on a contract: risks, market position, and negotiation angles in minutes. Expert benchmarks are produced by our analysts and are the defensible number you take into a negotiation. Most customers use both.
PLATFORM & AI
Can I search across all my contracts at once?
Yes, and this is where the platform earns its keep day to day. Ask AI reads every agreement you’ve uploaded, and answers in seconds with the exact clause cited.
- “Which contracts give the vendor audit rights?”
- “Which agreements can we terminate for convenience?”
See the use-cases page for 33 examples.
What are the cost optimizers?
Self-serve tools that turn an export you already have into a savings plan: cloud cost (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI), a cross-cloud workload comparator, M365 license optimization, Claude AI-spend optimization, a VMware VCF licensing calculator, and an Agentforce commit sizer. Each returns identified savings, pricing scenarios, and an AI-written playbook.
Can it check my invoices against my contracts?
Yes. Upload invoices or forward them by email and line-item intelligence reconciles what you were billed against what you contracted, flagging overbilling, unagreed price increases, and quantities you never ordered.
Does it manage renewals and negotiations too?
Yes. A renewals calendar with notice-deadline warnings, approvals routing, and a deal execution suite for running a negotiation like a project: mandate, tactics, concession ledger, vendor commitments, and post-mortems.
What are the AI agents?
Coworkers you switch on per task, in four classes: analysts that write documents, watchdogs that monitor your portfolio and the market, autopilots that act under a mandate you set, and workflows your team builds by describing the goal in one sentence. Anything that would leave the platform waits at an approval gate until a person clears it, and every run lands in your audit log. The Agent Center shows each agent's cadence, what it reads, its last run, and where its work lands.
How do I know the AI's numbers are right?
Every figure in an AI-written document is tagged to its source, and a figures ledger traces each cited number back to the stored fact it came from and its as-of date. Negotiation briefs carry a figures-verified note, vendor intel briefings close with a sources legend, and AI-generated reports pass a groundedness check before delivery.
Is there a mobile app?
Yes. Renewals, reports, and alerts on iOS and Android, with push notifications when something needs your attention.
SECURITY & PRIVACY
How is my contract data protected?
Tenant isolation is enforced with row-level security at the database, so one organization can never read another’s rows.
- Files
- private storage, with short-lived signed URLs for downloads
- Encryption
- everything, in transit and at rest
The security overview covers the full model, and the security & data FAQ answers the long list your review team will bring.
Who can see my contracts?
Members of your own organization, and the analysts who produce your benchmarks. Analyst access is logged: every view and download of a contract file lands in an audit trail.
Do you support multi-factor authentication?
Yes. TOTP multi-factor authentication is available for all users and mandatory for platform staff.
Can I delete my data?
Yes. You can delete contracts yourself, and deletion removes both the database records and the stored files.
PLANS & BILLING
What does it cost?
The decoder is free for anyone, the free 7 day trial runs another 30 days when you answer the exit survey, and Renewal Radar costs nothing for as long as you want it.
Paid plans are billed annually, and every one of them carries every AI feature and every tool on the site.
- Growth
- $30,000 a year, with 2 hours a month of Vera AI join calls
- Professional
- $60,000 a year, with 4 hours a month and up to 2 benchmarks and reports a month by human analysts; Negotiation Services available as a contingency add-on
- Enterprise
- from $120,000 a year on a three year agreement, priced to your team and your contract estate, with 8 hours a month and up to 4 analyst benchmarks and reports a month, plus add-ons for a Dedicated Team, Advisory hours, and Negotiation Services on fixed fee or contingency
Full details are on the pricing page.
Is there a free plan?
Yes: Renewal Radar. The free plan keeps your renewal calendar and notice-deadline warnings running, so the dates that cost real money stay watched even if you never pay us.
- When a trial ends
- you drop to Renewal Radar rather than being locked out, and your data stays yours
- Start one
- at get started
What happens when I hit my plan's quota?
Nothing breaks: your data and reports stay available. You can upgrade your plan at any time for more capacity.
Can I cancel?
Yes. When a trial ends you keep the free Renewal Radar plan and your renewal calendar; there is no lockout and nothing to cancel. Paid plans run on an annual agreement and renew unless canceled before the renewal date.
What is the referral program?
Anyone can refer. You earn 10% of what every company you refer spends in their first 12 months as a customer, with no cap. See the referral program for how it works.