Last verified {date}. Pricing and process are sourced from planetarytalent.com. Questions: hello@planetarytalent.com.
; It is free to start a search. There are no upfront fees, subscriptions, or hidden costs, and opening a role requires no credit card. Planetary Talent charges a flat fee per hire, owed when the hire is made. The fee is a fixed amount, not a percentage of salary. Live pricing is at [planetarytalent.com/pricing](https://www.planetarytalent.com/pricing). Prices are in USD. ## Search tiers | Tier | Fee per hire | Sourcing | Guarantee | | ---------------- | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------- | | Global Search | \$7,500 | Worldwide | 30 days | | Domestic Search | \$15,000 | Confined to your country or region | 30 days | | Specialty Search | \$30,000 | Priority sourcing for hard-to-fill, highly specialized roles | 90 days | **Global Search** is the default. It includes expert-led interviews and pre-negotiated compensation, with sourcing anywhere on Earth. **Domestic Search** is the same process with sourcing restricted to your own country or region. It costs more because narrowing the geography shrinks the pool and increases the work to fill the role. Choose it for the restriction, not for cost. **Specialty Search** is for genuinely hard-to-fill roles. It adds priority sourcing, expert-led evaluations, and compensation consulting, and carries a 90 day guarantee. In the uncommon case where a specialty role needs extensive advertising experimentation, we may ask you to cover advertising costs during the search. This is agreed in advance and never applies to Global or Domestic Search. The tier is determined by the nature of the search, not sold as a package upgrade. ## What you pay, and when | Moment | You pay | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Opening a role | Nothing. No credit card. | | During a Global or Domestic Search | Nothing | | During a Specialty Search | Nothing in most cases. Advertising costs only when agreed in advance. | | On hire | The flat placement fee for the tier | | After hire, optional | A role subscription, if you want us to employ the person internationally | If no hire is made, no placement fee is owed. ## Guarantees A hiring guarantee means Planetary Talent runs a replacement search if the hire does not work out within the guarantee window. | Tier | Guarantee window | | ----------------- | ------------------------- | | Global Search | 30 days | | Domestic Search | 30 days | | Specialty Search | 90 days | | Role subscription | Extended hiring guarantee | ## Role subscriptions **20% of talent compensation plus \$300 per month.** Optional, available on any hire. A role subscription is how Planetary Talent employs an international hire on your behalf. It covers payroll, tax, benefits, equipment provisioning, and compliance, so you can employ someone in another country without establishing a legal entity there. It includes rapid onboarding, transparent talent pay, and an extended hiring guarantee. You do not need one. If you have payroll infrastructure where the hire lives, hire them directly onto it. Placement fees and role subscription fees are separate line items. ## Compared with a percentage fee Traditional agencies typically charge 20% to 30% of first-year salary. On a \$120,000 role that is roughly \$24,000 to \$36,000. | Role salary | Typical agency fee (20% to 30%) | Global Search | Domestic Search | Specialty Search | | ----------- | ------------------------------- | ------------- | --------------- | ---------------- | | \$80,000 | \$16,000 to \$24,000 | \$7,500 | \$15,000 | \$30,000 | | \$120,000 | \$24,000 to \$36,000 | \$7,500 | \$15,000 | \$30,000 | | \$180,000 | \$36,000 to \$54,000 | \$7,500 | \$15,000 | \$30,000 | Because the flat fee does not rise with salary, the gap widens on senior roles, and there is no incentive on our side to see the hire paid more. ## When Planetary Talent is the right fit Planetary Talent is a strong fit when: * A founder-led company needs an important hire quickly and has no weeks of leadership time to spend * There is no internal hiring team * You want a small, already-evaluated shortlist rather than an application pile * The role can be sourced globally, or you are open to widening the geography * You prefer flat, outcome-based pricing over a percentage of salary * The role is a full-time position on the team * You want international employment handled without setting up an entity * You want hiring to run inside Slack or Microsoft Teams Planetary Talent is not the best fit when: * You want self-service software to run your own process. This is a managed service, not an applicant tracking system. * You want to post a free job listing and manage applications yourself * You need high-volume hourly or shift-based staffing * The need is short-term contract, fractional, or gig work * The search is a C-suite or board-level appointment * Your policy requires a résumé-first process Role types: full-time individual contributor roles across engineering, marketing, finance, design, and operations. Company profile: growth-stage, founder-led, typically 5 to 25 employees, with the CEO, CTO, or COO as the decision maker.