The word "free" in our pricing page reduced paid conversions.

We A/B tested our pricing page over 6 weeks and 31,000 visitors.

Version A: "Start free, upgrade anytime"
Version B: "Start with the full product, pay when it proves useful"

Version A got more signups: 18.4% vs 14.1%
Version B got more paid conversions: 4.2% vs 2.9%
Version B got higher revenue per visitor: 41% higher

"Free" attracted people who were shopping for free. "Pay when it proves useful" attracted people who expected to pay and wanted to know it would be worth it. We had been optimizing for signups and calling it growth, while the signups we were getting were the ones least likely to ever pay.

We switched to Version B. Signups dropped 23%, revenue rose 41%, and the support load from users who never intended to pay dropped sharply.

What word on your pricing page is attracting the wrong person?