# Plans & Billing

Alfred Scholar offers a one-time 3-day Pro trial for ₹48, which continues as Pro unless you cancel, alongside Pro and Lab plans for researchers at different stages. This page covers plan features, pricing, upgrades, cancellations, and usage tracking.

## Available plans

### 3-day Pro trial

Three days of full Pro access for a one-time ₹48. You can take it once, and it applies to the workspace you start it in.

When the three days are up, it continues as Pro at ₹899 a month, so your work does not stop mid-sentence. Cancel any time before then and nothing further is charged. The ₹48 itself is not refunded, since the three days were used.

- Unlimited documents
- 50 AI messages per day
- Advanced AI model
- Unlimited citations and manuscripts
- 1 plagiarism check per month
- 3 Telescope analyses per month
- Zotero & Mendeley sync
- 3 peer reviewers

### Pro

For serious researchers who need more. Removes document limits, raises the daily AI message allowance, and provides access to the Advanced AI model for more accurate and detailed responses.

- Unlimited documents
- 50 AI messages per day
- Advanced AI model
- Unlimited citations and manuscripts
- 1 plagiarism check per month
- 3 Telescope analyses per month
- All citation styles
- 3 peer reviewers
- 3 Alfred review rounds per month
- Zotero & Mendeley sync
- Email support

### Lab

One plan for your entire research lab. Includes everything in Pro plus shared workspaces, 20 plagiarism checks a month, and the Frontier AI model.

- Everything in Pro
- 150 AI messages per day
- 1 PI + 4 researchers (5 seats total)
- Unlimited peer reviewers
- 20 plagiarism checks per month
- 10 Telescope analyses per month
- 10 Alfred review rounds per month
- Frontier AI model
- Shared workspaces
- Role-based access control
- Supervisor review workflow
- WhatsApp priority support

### Founding Scholar (closed)

The Founding Scholar lifetime edition was a numbered run of 100 seats granting permanent Pro access for a single payment. All 100 seats were claimed and the edition is closed, so it can no longer be bought.

If you hold a seat, nothing changes. Your Pro access is permanent, there is no renewal to miss, and your seat number stays on your billing page.

## Pricing

Alfred Scholar is sold worldwide. In India, everything is priced in Indian Rupees (INR). Outside India, Pro and Lab are priced in US dollars, and a new account starts with 7 days of full Pro with no card, settling onto a free plan when the week is up. Institutions anywhere can be set up directly on Campus by writing to hello@alfredscholar.com.

### India (INR)

| Plan      | One-time | Monthly      | Annual       |
| --------- | -------- | ------------ | ------------ |
| **Trial** | ₹48      | -            | -            |
| **Pro**   | -        | ₹899/month   | ₹8,999/year  |
| **Lab**   | -        | ₹4,499/month | ₹44,999/year |

### Outside India (USD)

| Plan      | Trial            | Monthly    | Annual     |
| --------- | ---------------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| **Pro**   | 7 days, no card  | $19/month  | $190/year  |
| **Lab**   | 7 days, no card  | $99/month  | $990/year  |

> **Tip:** Annual billing gives you 2 months free (roughly 17% off) compared to paying monthly. You can switch from monthly to annual billing at any time.

INR prices are the full amount charged.

## Usage limits and fair use

Alfred Scholar tracks five usage metrics against your plan's limits:

- **Documents** - Total documents uploaded in your workspace.
- **AI messages** - Counted against a daily allowance, described below.
- **Plagiarism checks** - Reports generated each calendar month.
- **Telescope analyses** - Cross-paper analyses started each calendar month (3 on Pro, 10 on Lab).
- **Alfred review rounds** - Reviews Alfred runs on your manuscripts each calendar month (3 on Pro, 10 on Lab).

Citations and manuscripts are unlimited on all plans.

### Daily AI message allowance

AI messages are counted against a daily allowance, not a monthly one:

| Plan    | Daily allowance      |
| ------- | -------------------- |
| **Pro** | 50 messages per day  |
| **Lab** | 150 messages per day |

The allowance is **shared** across the three places Alfred does the heavy thinking: chatting in Ask Alfred, voice dictation, and rewriting or humanising text in a manuscript. A long session on any one of them draws down the same budget.

It resets at the start of each day, so reaching it means waiting until tomorrow rather than for an hour. Most research days sit well under it. If you regularly need more, connect your own AI key and the allowance is lifted.

## Bring your own key

If you would rather run AI on your own provider account, the workspace owner can connect an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, or Amazon Bedrock under **Settings** > **AI keys**. This is available on paid plans and during the 3-day trial.

While a key is active, it powers all of your AI (chat, Telescope, and the writing assists), and the daily message allowance above stops applying. Two things always stay on Alfred Scholar's shared engine, key or no key: **embeddings** (document search and grounding) and **originality checks** (plagiarism detection). See [Bring Your Own Key](/docs/v1.x/bring-your-own-key) for the full setup.

## Gift codes

A gift code grants a stretch of plan time that you can redeem into your workspace.

1. Go to **Settings** > **Billing**.
2. Enter your **gift code** in the redemption field.
3. Confirm. The plan time is added to your workspace.

If you received a code from us or from a colleague, redeeming it is all it takes to activate the access it carries.

## Upgrading your plan

You can upgrade your plan at any time:

1. Go to **Settings** > **Billing**.
2. Review your current plan and available upgrades.
3. Click **Upgrade** on the plan you want.
4. Complete the payment (UPI, cards, and net banking accepted).

When upgrading, you are charged the new plan at its normal price. Your new plan activates immediately after payment with instant access to the higher plan's features and limits.

Available options:

- Trial to Pro
- Trial to Lab
- Pro to Lab
- Monthly to annual billing (same plan)

## Downgrading or cancelling

To cancel your subscription:

1. Go to **Settings** > **Billing**.
2. Click **Cancel Subscription**.
3. Confirm the cancellation.

After cancelling:

- Your paid plan **stays active until the end of your current billing cycle**. You keep full access until the expiration date shown on your billing page.
- After the cycle ends, your workspace has no active plan until you resubscribe.
- **Your data is never deleted.** All your documents, manuscripts, citations, and chat history remain in your workspace.
- Without an active plan, you can keep your workspace data, but plan-limited actions such as uploading documents, sending AI messages, and running plagiarism checks require an active subscription.

> **Note:** There is no direct downgrade from Lab to Pro. To switch, cancel your Lab subscription and subscribe to Pro after it expires.

You can resubscribe to any paid plan at any time from the billing settings page.

## Billing cycles

Alfred Scholar offers two billing cycles:

- **Monthly** - Charged every month on the date you subscribed.
- **Annual** - Charged once per year on the date you subscribed.

Switching from monthly to annual billing on the same plan is treated as an upgrade and takes effect immediately.

## Checking your usage

To see how much of your plan you have used:

1. Go to **Settings** > **Billing**.
2. The **Usage** section shows your current consumption:
    - **Documents** - How many documents you have out of your plan's limit.
    - **AI messages today** - Messages counted against today's allowance.
    - **Plagiarism checks this month** - Reports generated this calendar month.
    - **Telescope analyses this month** - Cross-paper analyses started this calendar month.
    - **AI model** - The model tier available on your plan (Standard, Advanced, or Frontier).

## Frequently asked questions

**Can I get a refund?**

We offer a full refund within the first 7 days of any paid plan. No questions asked. After that, you can cancel any time and your plan stays active until the end of the billing cycle.

**What payment methods are accepted?**

We accept UPI, credit cards, debit cards, and net banking. Because the trial continues as a monthly plan, starting it sets up a recurring mandate with your bank or UPI app, which cancelling ends.

**Do I get a receipt or an invoice?**

Yes. Every payment sends an email receipt with the amount, date, and plan, which is what most institutions need for reimbursement. If your finance office needs something in a particular format, write to hello@alfredscholar.com and we will sort it out.

**What happens to my data if I cancel?**

Nothing. Your documents, manuscripts, citations, and chat history are never deleted. Without an active plan, existing content remains available in your workspace, but plan-limited actions require an active subscription.

**Can I switch plans mid-cycle?**

Upgrades happen immediately, and you are charged the new plan at its normal price going forward. Cancellations take effect at the end of your current billing cycle.

**Who owns my data?**

You do. Your documents, citations, manuscripts, and all research data belong to you. We never use your data to train AI models. You can export everything at any time.

**What is the difference between AI models?**

- **Standard** - Fast and handles everyday questions well.
- **Advanced** - More capable for nuanced research queries and complex citations.
- **Frontier** - The most powerful model, ideal for systematic reviews and multi-paper analysis.

Model names are generic because we regularly evaluate and switch to the best available provider.

## Next steps

- **[View pricing](/pricing)** - Compare plans side by side on the pricing page.
- **[Manage your workspace](/docs/v1.x/workspaces)** - Understand workspace settings and team management.
- **[Invite team members](/docs/v1.x/team-members)** - Add colleagues to your Lab workspace.