Updated Pricing
- Effective September 1, 2025, COTAP pricing will change from $15.00 to $22.50 per tonne, with projects still receiving 90%, or US$20.25 per tonne.
- For online donations and checks received before September 1, 2025 – existing pricing, margins, monthly/€/£ options, and project allocations will remain in effect until. If, after September 1, out-of-date portions of our website result in funds received at our old pricing, your acknowledgement will reflect the new pricing. If that is not acceptable to you, email us at donate at cotap dot org and your donation will be refunded.
- This new pricing is effective for funds received by COTAP on or after September 1. For indirect channels where COTAP receives donations from an intermediary in the month following the month in which the donation was actually made, this price change is effective August 1, 2025. For Benevity, our largest indirect channel, COTAP generally receives donations 3 weeks after the end of the month during which donations are made. This means that COTAP’s updated pricing will be applied to donations made via Benevity beginning August 1.
- For recurring monthly plans, existing plans will be discontinued and monthly Cotappers will need to sign up for the new plan on or after September 1.
- There will continue to be minimum offsetting levels for both one-time and monthly donations.
- Updated pricing in € and £ is to be determined. As before, €/£ pricing is subject to change and is more “padded” in terms of margins to allow for fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Projects will still receive US$20.50 per tonne.
What’s NOT Changing
- COTAP is still 100% tax-deductible for U.S. residents.
- Cotappers are still creating the world’s highest percentage of community income per dollar. Specifically, that’s 54.67%+. This is the $20.50 projects will receive from COTAP multiplied by Plan Vivo’s 60%+ carbon revenue sharing requirement, divided by COTAP’s overall price of $22.50. $20.50 x 60% = $12.30 per tonne in community income. $12.30/$22.50 = 54.67%.
- 100% of employer matching funds still goes towards COTAP’s operations and expansion.
- COTAP’s margin still covers PayPal and Stripe processing fees.
- Donations which are 1) anonymous and 2) have no explicit offsetting designation also go towards COTAP’s operations and expansion.
Rationale for Updated Pricing
- This pricing increase is primarily due to supply-side competition, or what COTAP pays projects compared to our partners’ other buyers. In 2023, two partner projects (Nicaragua and Mexico) noted that they were receiving higher prices, even at significant volumes. But, in addition to general economic uncertainty, we felt that carbon markets were at a precarious moment, as eloquently explained by Charlotte Streck at the time.
- COTAP’s previous pricing change occurred in early 2020, and was the first increase since we launched in 2011. The old increase was about 5.33% per year from 2011-2020, and this one is about 7% per year since 2020.
- All of our partner projects also have other buyers, and they have become increasingly able to command more than COTAP’s $15.00 per tonne, or higher. Our partners have finite supply and they choose whom they do business with. So, COTAP needs to increase its pricing in order to be a competitive source of funding. If we offer less, then we are creating opportunity costs for our partners, and in turn we are basically reducing their potential to alleviate poverty.
- In terms of how COTAP now compares cost-wise with other offset providers, we took a look at 7 U.S.-based carbon offset providers and 3 European-based providers. We refer to this as demand-side competition. As of this week, there was an overall average of $21.61 and range of $12.50-$31.56, and for the U.S. providers an average of $18.10 and range of $12.50-$25.00. Specifically, we looked at Stand for Trees, TerraPass, Cool Effect, Wren, Native Energy, ClimeCo, Sustainable Travel International, MyClimate, C Level, and Atmosfair.
- None of these other providers have COTAP’s unique combination of 501(c)3 status/tax deductibility, 10% margins (if they disclose them at all), and exclusive focus on Plan Vivo-certified projects.
- Even after the increase, COTAP still has “middle of the road” pricing. We’ve never sought to be the cheapest option out there, nor the most expensive. Our goal is superior income creation for the poorest through substantial and direct sharing of carbon revenues. We continue to strive to be the best option worldwide for those who are interested in maximizing poverty alleviation per tonne and/or poverty alleviation per dollar.
- Cotappers will technically be offsetting fewer tonnes for the same dollar amount… but they’ll also be creating more income and alleviating more poverty for every tonne that they offset!
