The short answer
Pax AI is an AI-native, contingency-priced duty recovery company that runs its own ABI-certified brokerage and is building toward a full trade control tower (drawback, IEEPA recovery, FTZ, reconciliation, post-entry). Stable pursues a similar module direction under the opposite business model: a flat-license platform that powers your brokerage, filed on your POA, instead of a service that files under its own. Choose Pax AI to outsource recovery on contingency; choose Stable to own the drawback relationship in-house and keep the margin.
Key takeaways
- Pax AI is contingency and runs its own brokerage; Stable is flat-license and powers yours.
- Similar expanding scope, opposite go-to-market: Pax files under its own POA, Stable files under yours.
- With a contingency filer, the recovery relationship and the importer sit with the provider; with Stable they stay with your brokerage.
- A flat license keeps the recovery margin with you instead of paying a percentage of every claim.
Stable vs Pax AI at a glance
| Feature | Stable | Pax AI |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | Flat license | Contingency (percentage of recovery) |
| Who files | Your brokerage, under your POA | Pax AI, its own ABI brokerage |
| Channel | Powers brokers (white-label) | Direct, outsourced filer |
| Recovery margin | You keep it | Shared via contingency |
| Scope | Drawback plus connected trade modules | Drawback, IEEPA recovery, FTZ, reconciliation, post-entry |
| Matching | Global optimization | AI-native contingency service |
| Relationship owner | Your brokerage | Pax AI |
| Best-fit customer | Brokers and importers running recovery in-house | Importers outsourcing recovery |
Choose Stable if
You are a broker or importer who wants to run duty recovery in-house, keep the client relationship and the margin, and file under your own POA.
Choose Pax AI if
You want to fully outsource recovery to a licensed filer and are comfortable paying contingency and having that provider hold the relationship.
How do the business models differ?
This is the whole comparison. Pax AI prices on contingency and files through its own ABI-certified brokerage. Stable is flat-license software your brokerage runs under its own POA. One takes a percentage of every recovery and holds the relationship; the other is a tool you operate and keep the margin from. Pax's module roadmap (drawback, IEEPA recovery, FTZ, reconciliation, post-entry) reads a lot like the direction Stable is building, executed under the opposite model.
Who owns the importer relationship?
With a contingency provider that operates its own brokerage, the recovery work, and often the importer relationship, sits with that provider. For a broker, that is the risk: the outside filer can become the importer's broker. Stable is designed so that never happens. It is your software, filed under your POA, so the client stays yours.
How does pricing affect economics at volume?
Contingency scales your cost directly with recovery: the more you recover, the more you pay. A flat license caps that cost. At low volume the difference is small, but as drawback volume grows, flat-license economics retain materially more of the recovered duty. Contingency drawback arrangements commonly run in the range of 15% to 30% of recovery, which is margin a flat license keeps in-house.
Do the scopes really overlap?
Stable ships drawback, reconciliation, entry audit, classification, screening, and filing as modules you run, and its roadmap direction tracks the same post-entry and recovery surface Pax is expanding into. The difference is not the destination so much as the model: software you operate versus a service that files for you.
Which should you choose?
Choose Pax AI if you want to hand recovery to an outside licensed filer and pay on contingency. Choose Stable if you are a broker or in-house team that wants to run drawback yourself, on a flat license, keeping the relationship and the margin. See the DutyCalc alternatives guide for how the whole field lines up.
Related
Platform modules
Glossary
Comparisons
Alternatives
Frequently asked questions
Pax AI operates its own ABI-certified brokerage and prices on contingency; it files recoveries itself. Stable is licensed software your brokerage runs under its own POA.