The executive summary is that a free extension with ~70,000 users had a conversion rate to paid users of about 0.1%. Of course, this situation is different than yours, as you're not starting with users who already associate your extension with being free.
I'd go paid from the get-go. In my experience, once users associate something with "free," it's much harder to get them to pay anything for a similar product.
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You may find my experience with developing a freemium browser extension helpful:
http://www.chrisfinke.com/2010/09/13/my-experience-with-deve...
The executive summary is that a free extension with ~70,000 users had a conversion rate to paid users of about 0.1%. Of course, this situation is different than yours, as you're not starting with users who already associate your extension with being free.
Thanks that is informative. Do you think having a free version is a bad idea, if you ultimately aim for revenue through a paid version?
I'd go paid from the get-go. In my experience, once users associate something with "free," it's much harder to get them to pay anything for a similar product.