Alpine IQ pricing, what AIQ costs per store and per text message, and where the $70,000 a year figure comes from

Alpine IQ does not publish a current price. It quotes custom contracts built on store count, list size, modules, onboarding and messaging volume. The best public guide is AIQ's own earlier charge policy: $399 a month per store plus about a penny per text once carrier fees are added. On that card a single store usually lands between $650 and $1,200 a month, and a ten store chain between $7,500 and $12,000.

Those ranges line up with the two independent figures that exist. A cannabis agency puts AIQ at about $1,000 a month per location, and Vendr's contract data, $69,466 a year on average, works out to $5,789 a month, which is what the old card produces for roughly eight to ten stores. So the numbers agree. What they do not do is describe a single shop, which is who most searchers are.

Take a single store with 5,000 customers who have opted in to texts, four campaigns a month and a 20,000 address email list. That is 20,000 SMS segments if every text fits in 153 characters. At $0.0085 plus about $0.0033 in carrier fees, messaging costs about $236. Add the $399 license and roughly $26 of email and the month comes to about $660, or close to $8,000 a year.

Now make the texts realistic. A promo with a product name, a price, a link and "Reply STOP to opt out" usually runs to two segments, which takes messaging to about $472. Add AIQ's $299 premium support tier and the same store pays about $1,200 a month. The license barely matters in that range. Your template length and your list size do, which is why the first thing to send the rep is a real campaign text.

Neither vendor publishes a current price, and both bill a platform fee plus messaging. springbig is reported from about $600 a month with texts sold in bundles, and its own SEC filings describe extra revenue when a client's messages exceed the amount in its subscription package. AIQ's structure was a per store license with every message metered. In practice the two land in a similar band for a single store, and the difference is how the bill grows.

The ownership picture differs too. In July 2026 springbig's listed parent transferred the operating company to a lender, so a multi-year springbig contract is now with a new owner. AIQ is private and has been acquiring, including Dispense in March 2024. Our springbig pricing page covers its price points and filings, and the best dispensary SMS software puts springbig, AIQ and Sprout side by side.

If you want a number before a sales call, Blackleaf publishes one: $25, $75 or $125 a month on monthly billing, 20% less on annual, with texts at $0.05, $0.04 or $0.03 a segment carrier fees included, plus a 10% compliance fee on usage. It is cheaper than AIQ's old card at low volume and dearer per text at high volume, and the crossover sits around 13,000 segments a month for one store.

We work through that crossover, and compare springbig, Sticky, Dutchie's module and the POS-native options, in Alpine IQ alternatives for dispensaries. For the loyalty side on its own, dispensary loyalty program software sets out what a points program should cost per member.