Per-Acre Pricing Reset: Deere, CNH and Planet Shift to Usage-Based AgriTech With 20–35% Savings
AgriTech leaders are rewiring pricing and deployment to cut farm technology bills now. In November, Deere, CNH Industrial and Planet Labs rolled out usage-based and bundled programs aiming to shave 20–35% from per‑acre costs while robotics-as-a-service spreads to row crops.
Cost Pressure Forces a Pricing Overhaul
AgriTech suppliers moved aggressively this month to lower the cost of digital tools and autonomy, responding to tight margins and volatile input prices. On November 10, 2025, CNH Industrial introduced "Precision Plus," a bundled telematics and agronomy package for its Case IH and New Holland lines with per‑acre pricing that the company says cuts software and connectivity outlays by 22% for mixed fleets. On November 18, John Deere updated its Operations Center subscriptions, adding a multi‑year usage tier and discounts for cross‑platform integrations that dealers estimate will reduce annual data platform spend by 18% for growers using variable-rate prescriptions.
The shift is happening against a backdrop of rising operating costs and uneven commodity pricing, with farm budgets requiring measurable ROI from technology investments. For more on related health tech developments. Analysts note that moving to usage-based contracts and cross‑vendor bundles reduces stranded licenses and improves feature uptake without locking growers into monolithic stacks, a dynamic supported by November research on edge analytics and federated models that limit cloud egress and central processing overhead according to recent research.
Usage-Based Data and Telemetry Lower the Bill
Satellite imagery and device connectivity costs are also falling. On November 12, Planet Labs launched a pay‑as‑you‑grow tier for PlanetScope and SkySat agricultural basemaps, cutting imagery bills up to 30% for large operations by aligning fees to actual monitored acres and seasonal cadence. The program adds API credits for in‑season NDVI/NDRE analytics and pairs with partner discounts through AGCO and Trimble integrations to reduce duplicate data pipelines.
Telematics bundles are converging. CNH Industrial’s Precision Plus and Deere’s updated Operations Center now support multi‑OEM devices, easing the integration burden across mixed fleets. Industry consultants say these changes reflect a broader pivot to interoperable platforms that lower vendor switching costs and cut redundant connectivity fees, with the economics amplified by recent margin analysis in agriculture platforms from McKinsey and updated farm input cost commentary from USDA ERS.