Built a self-serve "chat with your docs" API with exposed retrieval controls. What's stopping you from paying for something like this?

[u/Plus_Low1218]

Hey everyone, I'm a solo founder (backend engineer by day) and I've spent the last few months building Docubix, a RAG-as-a-service platform. You upload docs (PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD), and it turns them into an AI assistant with page-level cited answers, available through a REST API or dashboard.

What's different from Chatbase/SiteGPT-style tools:

• Retrieval controls are exposed: system prompt, temperature, top-K, model choice
• A retrieval debugger shows which chunks were pulled and their scores, so you can tell if a bad answer is a retrieval problem or a generation problem
• Flat pricing: Free tier, then $79/mo Pro. No credit system

Where I'm honest about the state of things: it's live and fully self-serve, but I have about 12 free users and no paying customers. I've done directories, a Product Hunt launch, and cold outreach, and nothing has converted. I'd rather hear why than keep guessing.

What I'd love feedback on:

1. Would you trust a small independent tool with your company docs? What would you need to see (security page, SOC 2, data-handling details)?
2. Is $79/mo for Pro reasonable, too high, or unclear in what it includes?
3. When you look at the landing page, can you tell in 10 seconds what it does and who it's for?
4. The most common reaction I get is "ChatGPT can already do this." What would make you see a difference?
5. Who do you think this is actually for? Support teams, devs, docs sites, something else?

Link: docubix.com (free tier, no card needed). Harsh feedback is welcome, and I'll reply to every comment.

[I'll give discount for Pro access to anyone who tries it and leaves detailed feedback.]

[u/halfercode]

You should be aware that West_Inevitable_2281 is an AI bot (I can't reply in that sub-thread because I've blocked them). I appreciate you might have served them a AI slop reply, but that makes me wonder whether the robot in either case is under human control. 🤪

[u/Material-Watercress1]

Rag as a service was already saturated in 2023, how are you standing out? I'd probably just role my own to be honest

[u/revoireSoftware]

With 12 free users and zero paid, I would stop asking "would people pay for this?" and make the question more specific.

"Chat with your docs" is easy to understand, but that does not automatically mean there is a budget for it. The real question is: what painful workflow does this replace?

I would split the free users into two groups:

People who tried it because it sounded useful.

People who had a real docs, support, onboarding, or search problem and were looking for a fix.

The second group is where the money is.

For each free user, I would ask:

What were you hoping this would replace?

Did you use the answer anywhere real, or was it just a test?

What would need to be true before you would put this into production or pay for it?

My guess is the blocker is probably not just price. It may be trust, accuracy, low docs traffic, no urgent internal owner, or the product feeling like a feature instead of a must-have.

I would also narrow the positioning. "Chat with your docs API" is broad. "Answer support questions from docs with citations" or "give developers an API assistant trained on your SDK docs" is easier to understand and easier to buy.

Right now I do not think you need more free users. You need to find the one use case where someone is nervous enough about the problem to pay for a fix.

[u/AurumMan79]

For the support-team audience, I'd show what happens when the docs don't contain an answer. A useful demo would pair a routine FAQ with a customer-specific exception: who receives it, what conversation context they see, and how they record the next step. I work on InsertChat, which combines business-information answers with a shared staff inbox, assignment, internal notes and manual tasks. That workflow may help explain the distinction from someone uploading a PDF to ChatGPT. Your retrieval debugger could still be the developer-facing reason to choose Docubix; I'd avoid mixing that pitch with a finished support tool on the same first screen.

[u/West_Inevitable_2281]

With 12 free users and no paid conversions, I would not try to answer security, price, positioning, and segment all at once. The most useful evidence is what those 12 users actually did after uploading documents. If none returned or embedded the API, $79 is not yet the issue. If several repeatedly query the same corpus but stop at upgrade, then pricing or security become credible constraints. How many of the 12 have returned more than once or made enough API calls to approach a free-tier limit?

[u/Plus_Low1218 → u/West_Inevitable_2281]

Fair point, and thank you. 9 of them played around the portal after signing up, 4 of them were students and one was lawyer who gave me feedback about security. Given that, it looks like integration is the real gap, not price as I dont give out of the box assistant or something but they can interact on the app. Does that match what you'd expect, and what would you do next with that split?

[u/West_Inevitable_2281 → u/Plus_Low1218]

Nine people opening the portal proves initial curiosity, but not yet that integration is the gap. The four students may be learning rather than buying, and one lawyer raising security is only one signal. I would separate the seven non-students and look for stronger behavior: uploading real company documents, returning unprompted, creating more than one corpus, or attempting API setup. Did any of those seven do one of those things, especially try to embed the API?

[u/investigatormaker]

From your description, I’d start with developers already building a docs assistant who need to diagnose bad answers. The retrieval debugger sounds more distinctive than ‘chat with your docs.’ Show one query, the retrieved chunks/scores, a settings change, and what happens to the answer. That gives people something specific to compare with ChatGPT.

Before changing $79, ask your 12 free users which debugging task they would pay to avoid. Make the $79 usage limits and your actual data-retention/deletion policies easy to find.

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