Qualfacto vs User Interviews: Real Cost Per Interview in India

A per-session fee in dollars is only one line in an Indian team's budget for interview recruitment. The others are the incentive each participant receives, what the dollar line costs once it is converted and taxed, and whether the people recruited live in your city and speak the language your study needs.

A price page usually lists the first line and leaves you to assemble the rest. Written down together, the lines show what a study costs before you commit, and which questions to put to a provider while you can still change your mind.

This page builds that cost sheet for User Interviews, with the arithmetic shown so you can redo it with your own incentive and exchange rate. It then tests the annual plan against Pay As You Go for a small team, compares User Interviews with Qualfacto, and ends with six checks you can run on any quote.

• User Interviews charges $49 per completed session on Pay As You Go (as of 1 November 2026). Incentives and a 3% fee on them are extra, so budget for three lines, not one.
• Ten interviews at $49 are $490 in platform fees before any incentive. The cost sheet below turns that into your own total.
• The annual Essential plan at $41 a session beats Pay As You Go only above about 50 sessions a year, if you pay for all 60 up front (our arithmetic, shown below).
• Choose Qualfacto when you need participants recruited by city, interviews in languages other than English, in-person fieldwork or one scoped quote.

As of 1 November 2026, User Interviews charges $49 per completed session on its Pay As You Go Recruit plan, and $94 per session with advanced B2B (business-to-business) targeting, which means recruiting by job role or industry. The annual Essential plan lowers the fee to $41 per session. A Custom plan is negotiated, from 250 sessions, billed annually. All prices are in US dollars.

Incentives are not part of any of these fees. A 3% processing fee is added to the incentive portion of your bill when User Interviews distributes incentives.

Before committing, ask which currency the invoice is in and whether Indian GST (Goods and Services Tax) applies. Your accountant can tell you how a foreign invoice is taxed.

A study costs the platform fee, plus the incentive pool, plus 3% of that pool, plus exchange-rate cost and any tax on the dollar line. Only the first of these is on the price page. This is our model, built from the fees above, with one illustrative incentive that you should replace with your own.

The formula

Total = (sessions × fee per session, in dollars) + (sessions × incentive per person) + (3% × incentive pool) + exchange cost and tax on the dollar line.

Worked example: ten consumer interviews on Pay As You Go

The rupee incentive lines below assume incentives are counted in rupees. Ask User Interviews which currency it bills incentives in and how it pays participants out.

With advanced B2B targeting, which adds $45 per session on Pay As You Go, the platform line becomes 10 × $94 = $940. Convert the dollar line at your bank's rate on the payment date. The ₹2,000 is an example, not a recommended rate.

The platform fee is the easy line to find, so it is the one teams budget. The incentive line is the one you control, so set it before you ask any provider for a quote. For a general budget worksheet that works for any recruiter, see our user research recruitment cost sheet for India.

Only if you will complete more than about 50 sessions in the year. Essential at 60 sessions costs 60 × $41 = $2,460 a year, against 60 × $49 = $2,940 on Pay As You Go, a $480 saving. That saving exists only if you use every session.

Our break-even arithmetic assumes the annual price is paid in full for the committed sessions: $2,460 ÷ $49 = 50.2, so you need 51 or more completed sessions for the 60-session plan to be cheaper.

Check the contract for whether unused sessions carry over. If they do not, a team running a handful of studies a year is cheaper on Pay As You Go.

Four points decide it: how the price is built, who can find your exact audience, who checks participants, and how you start.

Is the price one line or three?

On User Interviews you assemble the total yourself from the fee, the incentives and the 3%, as in the cost sheet above. With us, you send a brief and receive one tailored commercial proposal that sets out the scope, so you compare one document rather than three lines.

Can the recruiter find people in your city and language?

A country total says little about a niche. Whatever route you choose, ask for the number of people who match your screener in your city and language. We recruit India only, by city, and can run sessions in languages other than English. Our research screener template shows how to write the screener that count depends on.

Who checks that participants are real?

We run identity checks before anyone is invited, and we process participant incentives only after the stated requirements are completed and validated. User Interviews verifies professionals through LinkedIn or work email.

How quickly can you start, and who answers?

With us, you share a brief covering objective, method, audience, geography, sample size and timelines. We assess feasibility, send a proposal, and begin recruitment once scope and timelines are agreed. Email or WhatsApp reaches our team Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 18:00 IST, and we aim to reply within one business day. User Interviews' Pay As You Go plan includes a project coordinator and live chat support. A clear market research brief speeds up either route.

Run these six checks on every quote. Each has a clear pass and fail.

Decide the number of interviews first. Our guide to sample size in qualitative research and our in-depth interview method page cover that.

Qualfacto is a qualitative research participant panel in India, and we quote each project individually.