Plans and Limits
Scholarly offers Free, Premium, and Laureate, with Premium Lite available in selected regions. Prices below are USD reference prices for new subscriptions; checkout shows your billing currency, term, and tax. Existing subscribers keep their current price.
Free has lifetime AI allowances. It gives you one AI Creation Credit, one upload, and three chat messages to try your own material. These allowances follow your account and never reset. You can still view your saved work and create blank pages and decks after using them.
Premium unlocks the paid experience with 15 AI Creation Credits each week, unlimited uploads, Auto chat, autocomplete, quizzes, and exams, and editable exports. It also includes separate weekly premium chat usage. Laureate provides 80 AI Creation Credits each week and 4× the premium chat usage of Premium.
Plans at a Glance
| Free | Premium | Laureate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $30 / month or $180 / year | $99 / month |
| AI Creation Credits | 1 total, lifetime (does not reset) | 15 / week | 80 / week |
| Credit packs | Not included | 10, 35, 120, 500, or 2,200 credits | 10, 35, 120, 500, or 2,200 credits |
| Sources per creation | 1 | Up to 10 | Up to 20 |
| File uploads | 1 total, lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| File size | 8 MB | 300 MB | 1 GB |
| PDF pages read | 32 | 1,000 | 3,000 |
| Auto and unlimited-model Chat | 3 messages total, lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Premium chat usage | Not included | Weekly allowance for Best and premium models | 4× Premium's weekly allowance |
| Voice mode | 15 minutes total, lifetime | 2 hours / day | 12 hours / day |
| Autocomplete | 500 words total, lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Quiz questions | 5 total, lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Practice exam attempts | 1 completed attempt, lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Video lecture length | 2 minutes | Up to 45 minutes | Up to 45 minutes |
| Video lecture quality | 720p, watermarked | 720p / 1080p, watermark-free | 720p / 1080p, watermark-free |
| Podcast length | 2 minutes | Up to 60 minutes | Up to 60 minutes |
| AI Meeting Notes | 3 meetings total (no reset), up to 60 minutes each, notes included, no AI Creation Credit | 20 meetings / week, up to 10 hours each, notes included, no AI Creation Credit | 100 meetings / week, up to 10 hours each, notes included, no AI Creation Credit |
| Choose your AI model | Browse only | Full creation catalogue | Full creation catalogue |
| Editable exports (Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Google Slides) | Not included | Included | Included |
| PDF, MP3, and MP4 downloads, printing | Not included | Included | Included |
| View-link sharing | Included | Included | Included |
| Flashcard exports (Anki, PDF, print) | Not included | Included | Included |
| Priority generation | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Support | Standard | Priority | Direct from the team |
The prose below covers the caveats behind those numbers, what counts as a creation, what does not, and how allowances are returned.
Premium Lite in selected regions
Where it is offered, Premium Lite costs $12/month or $72/year before tax and local pricing. It includes 5 AI Creation Credits a week, unlimited Auto chat, a weekly premium chat usage allowance, 100 MB files, 300 PDF pages, 3 sources per creation, 7 meetings a week, up to 3 hours 20 minutes each, and 40 minutes of voice mode per day. Downloads and editable exports are included. Premium provides 3× the premium chat usage of Lite. Availability is shown on the plan screen; it is not a team plan.
Free
The free plan includes:
- AI chat: 3 messages total. This is a lifetime allowance and does not reset.
- Voice mode: 15 minutes total. This is a lifetime allowance and does not reset.
- Autocomplete: 500 words total. This is a lifetime allowance and does not reset.
- AI Creation Credits: 1 total free AI Creation Credit, shared across every AI creation type: new flashcard decks, podcasts, video lectures, slides, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, and Deep Research. This is a lifetime free credit and does not reset.
- Sources per creation: Combine 1 source in each AI creation.
- Flashcard fixes: Repairing a card, refining an existing deck, or asking deck chat to add, rewrite, or remove cards does not use an AI Creation Credit. Chat edits follow the Chat allowance, including premium usage when using Best or a premium model.
- Image creation · Beta: Free includes 2 lifetime images with no reset, Premium 40 per week, and Laureate 80 per week, shared across Image Studio and AI Chat, separate from AI Creation Credits. One image or edit uses one image; each selected Studio model counts separately. Failed images return their allowance. Paid allowances reset Monday at 00:00 UTC with no rollover. Limits may change during beta. Normal Chat message limits still apply. Images inside other agent-created artifacts remain included in those artifacts.
- Manual flashcards: Build decks card by card in the Build Manually tab, no daily limit, no AI required.
- Studying flashcards: Unlimited.
- PDF → flashcards: AI generates a deck from up to 32 pages of a PDF on free, long enough for a full lecture chapter without needing to upgrade.
- Pages and notes: Unlimited note-taking.
- Quizzes: 5 practice questions total. This is a lifetime allowance and does not reset.
- Practice exams: 1 completed exam attempt total. This is a lifetime allowance and does not reset; starting and abandoning an attempt before completion does not spend it.
- File uploads: 1 total free upload. This is a lifetime free upload credit and does not reset. Each file can be up to 8 MB.
- Recording: A meeting does not use an AI Creation Credit. Transcript and notes are included. Free includes 3 meetings total (no reset), each up to 60 minutes. Premium includes 20 meetings a week and Laureate 100, each up to 10 hours. Paid meeting allowances reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC. A started meeting keeps its slot if it fails or is deleted, except that a meeting with no detected speech returns its slot. Recording does not use a file-upload slot. The separate Transcribe tool uses one AI Creation Credit per source. Creating an artifact from a transcript uses AI Creation Credits according to the selected model.
- Deep Research: Uses the shared AI Creation Credit allowance on Free. Extended research and Go deeper are paid-plan only.
- AI Video Lectures: Every Video Mode (Standard, Illustrated, Short, Manim Math Animation, Freestyle) is available on every plan. Free lectures with a length control target about 2 minutes, and the finished length may vary; a completed lecture's Make Longer banner can upgrade and replace it at about 10 minutes in the same spot without another AI Creation Credit. Short uses its own short video format. You can render at 720p on every plan; 1080p Full HD, watermark-free output, and MP4 downloads are paid upgrades.
- AI Podcasts: Free episodes target about 2 minutes, and the finished length may vary. A completed episode's Make this podcast longer? banner can upgrade and replace it in the same spot at about 15 minutes without using another AI Creation Credit; choosing a different target before generation is also a paid feature.
- Mind Maps, Study Guides, and Infographics: Each generates a downloadable PDF from your material or a typed prompt. Every plan can create them; they count toward your shared lifetime AI Creation Credit on Free.
- PDF document design: Typeset PDF documents (study guides, worksheets, lesson plans, outlines, SOPs, timelines) render in a clean, professional design on every plan.
- AI Slides deck settings: Both starting presets (Full Deck and Exam Prep), dark mode, and Look are available on every plan. The slide count is fixed at 10 on Free and runs from 5 to 30 on paid plans.
- Captions: Captions on AI Podcasts and AI Video Lectures are included on every plan.
- Connections: Link Google Drive at no extra cost. One Drive connection includes only the Docs, Slides, and other files you choose through Google's Picker. See Connections.
Exporting and printing flashcard decks (Anki .apkg, PDF, or print) requires a paid plan.
Premium
Premium unlocks paid features, refreshes the AI Creation Credit allowance weekly, and removes the upload cap:
- Unlimited Auto chat: Auto uses GPT 6 Luna with medium reasoning, with no daily message cap.
- Weekly premium chat usage: Best uses GPT 6.1 Terra at medium reasoning and is the default while usage remains, unless you saved another model. GPT 6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, and Claude Opus 5.5 share this allowance. When it runs out, chat continues on Auto.
- AI Creation Credits: 15 each week, shared across every AI creation type: new flashcard decks, podcasts, video lectures, slides, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, and Deep Research. Most models cost 1 AI Creation Credit, Kimi K3 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 2, GPT 6.1 Sol costs 3, and Frontier models cost 2, 3, or 4. A video lecture or podcast over 15 minutes uses 1 extra AI Creation Credit, or 2 extra credits over 30 minutes. The allowance resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Failed creations are refunded automatically. Fixing an existing flashcard deck does not use this allowance.
- Sources per creation: Combine up to 10 sources in one AI creation.
- Voice mode: 2 hours of voice chat per day.
- Unlimited quizzes and practice exams: No daily question or exam cap.
- Unlimited uploads: Up to 300 MB per file.
- PDF → flashcards up to 1,000 pages: Generate decks from full textbooks, not just a chapter.
- 1080p video lectures: Render AI Video Lectures in 1080p Full HD (720p is available on every plan).
- Custom video length: Use the length slider to set a target from 1 to 45 minutes in one-minute steps. Paid lectures start on 15 minutes, and a lecture over 15 minutes uses 1 extra AI Creation Credit, or 2 extra credits over 30 minutes. Free lectures with a length control target about 2 minutes.
- Custom podcast length: Use the length slider to set a target from 5 to 60 minutes in five-minute steps. Paid episodes start on 15 minutes, and an episode over 15 minutes uses 1 extra AI Creation Credit, or 2 extra credits over 30 minutes. Free episodes target about 2 minutes and can be remade longer in place after upgrading.
- Watermark-free videos: Remove the Scholarly logo from AI Video Lectures.
- Choose your AI model: Pick any model in the creation catalogue, including the Frontier models, from any create tool. Free users can browse the model picker; choosing a model is a paid feature, and paid users otherwise get the recommended model automatically.
- Research reports: Use your shared AI Creation Credits for Standard or Extended research. There is no separate daily research allowance.
- Flashcard exports: Export any deck to Anki
.apkg, PDF, or print. - Editable exports: Save finished pages, generated documents, research reports, videos, and podcasts in their supported Word or PowerPoint format, or straight to Google Docs or Google Slides with Google Drive connected. PDF export and printing also require a paid plan. View-link sharing is available on every plan. See Exporting Your Work.
- Priority support: Get help with billing and product questions. Laureate also includes direct support and early Frontier access.
Laureate
Laureate is $99/month. It includes everything in Premium, plus:
- 80 AI Creation Credits each week: A higher allowance for the same creation tools included with Premium.
- Sources per creation: Combine up to 20 sources in one AI creation.
- Unlimited Auto Chat and 4× premium usage: The weekly premium chat allowance is four times Premium's. Chat does not draw on your AI Creation Credits.
- Automatic model routing: Standard Auto uses GPT 6 Luna: high reasoning for paid video and most other creation tools, and medium for paid flashcards and Chat. Auto (Best) or Use best model selects Claude Opus 5.5 for supported creation tools at 2 base credits. The Create button includes any extra length credits.
- Priority generation: Laureate creations are processed ahead of other work, and more of them can run at once.
- Larger uploads: Up to 1 GB per file, versus 300 MB on Premium.
- Larger PDF imports: PDF → flashcards works on up to 3,000 pages, versus 1,000 on Premium.
- More voice mode: 12 hours of voice chat per day, versus 2 hours on Premium.
- Priority support and early Frontier access: Get direct billing and product help from the Scholarly team plus early access to newly launched Frontier models.
The weekly allowance resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Unused creations do not roll over, and purchased credits are untouched by the reset, a fresh week is always spent before them. Failed work is refunded automatically. See Choosing an AI Model for the model and reasoning defaults for every feature.
Laureate chat and the Frontier models
Auto and the unlimited chat models have no message cap on Laureate. Best, GPT 6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, and Claude Opus 5.5 draw on a separate weekly premium chat allowance, not your 80 AI Creation Credits. Laureate includes 4× Premium's premium usage.
The Frontier model Claude Opus 5.5 is available in premium Chat as well as creation tools. GPT 6 Astra, Gemini 4 Argon, and Muse Wonder remain creation-only for customers. A model's creation multiplier applies when you use it in a creation tool; the chat picker instead shows its premium usage rate.
A completed flashcard deck with fewer than 15 cards costs nothing. The deck is still saved and Scholarly shows a message confirming the AI Creation Credit was returned.
If Laureate is more than you need, Settings → Plan & usage offers Switch to Premium. The change is scheduled for your next renewal rather than applied straight away: the review step shows the date, the new price, and the new limits before you confirm, and an Undo downgrade button stays available until it starts. Your content and any purchased credits stay in your account either way.
What a Creation Costs
Every paid plan draws on one weekly AI Creation Credit allowance, and every model in the creation catalogue is available on every paid plan.
- Most models cost 1 AI Creation Credit. Standard Auto has a 1-credit base cost; Auto (Best) has a 2-credit base cost. Long video and podcast settings can add length credits.
- Kimi K3 costs 2 AI Creation Credits. Creation pickers mark it 2×.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 2 AI Creation Credits; GPT 6.1 Sol costs 3. Creation pickers show their 2× and 3× badges.
- A Frontier model costs 2, 3, or 4 AI Creation Credits. Claude Opus 5.5 costs 2 and GPT 6 Astra costs 3. The model picker marks each Frontier model 2×, 3×, or 4× so you can see the cost before you create.
- A video lecture or podcast over 15 minutes costs 1 extra AI Creation Credit; over 30 minutes costs 2 extra credits. This applies on paid plans, on top of the model's cost: a 45-minute lecture on a 1× model reserves 3, and on Claude Opus 5.5 it reserves 4. If the finished video is 30 minutes or less, 1 credit is returned; if it is 15 minutes or less, 2 are returned. The model’s base price is retained, and a longer result never adds a charge. The Create button shows the total before you start.
- The chat picker and creation catalogue use different allowances. Auto and unlimited chat models are unlimited on paid plans; Best, GPT 6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, and Claude Opus 5.5 use premium chat usage. On personal and self-serve Teams plans, chat never spends AI Creation Credits. Creation-only models include GPT 6 Astra, Gemini 4 Argon, Muse Wonder, Kimi K3, Grok 4.7, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, and Mistral Medium 3.5. Custom Enterprise workspaces can have separate metered terms.
A failed creation returns everything it reserved, including every AI Creation Credit for a Frontier model or a long video lecture or podcast.
Premium Chat Usage
Best and the premium chat models share a weekly allowance, separate from AI Creation Credits, images, and Voice Mode. The Premium usage meter in the chat model menu shows the percentage left and the reset day.
Usage follows the work performed rather than a message count. Long threads, large sources, complex work, and more expensive models can use it faster. Background chat helpers use the same allowance when running on a premium model; work already done can count even if a helper is stopped, fails, or times out.
The allowance resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC, with no rollover. If it runs out, the next premium request uses Auto, and paid chat remains available. The default returns to Best after the reset unless you saved a different choice. Laureate includes 4× Premium's allowance; Premium includes 3× Premium Lite's where Lite is available. Self-serve Teams members receive their own allowance, not a shared team balance.
AI Creation Credit packs do not refill premium chat usage. You can keep chatting on Auto, wait for the reset, or use the upgrade offered in the meter when your plan has one.
Credit Packs
If you run out before the week resets, any paid plan can buy a one-time credit pack:
- 10 credits for $10
- 35 credits for $30
- 120 credits for $90
- 500 credits for $225
- 2,200 credits for $999
Prices are in USD, excluding tax. Previously purchased credits remain available.
AI Creation Credits never expire, and they are used automatically once your weekly creation allowance runs out, so there is nothing to switch on. They do not refill premium chat usage. Buy a pack from Settings → Plan & usage, or with Buy credits on the notice you see when you reach the weekly limit. See AI Credit Packs for more.
Lifetime Free Allowances
Every metered Free allowance is account-wide and does not reset. Meeting usage already counted under the previous weekly allowance carries forward; the change does not grant another three meetings. Other lifetime allowances began accumulating when their respective policies launched.
| What | Free | Premium | Laureate |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Creation Credits | 1 total lifetime allowance | 15 / week | 80 / week |
| Sources per creation | 1 | Up to 10 | Up to 20 |
| Cost per creation | 1 | Model cost shown before creating, plus 1 for video or podcast over 15 minutes or 2 over 30 minutes | Model cost shown before creating, plus 1 for video or podcast over 15 minutes or 2 over 30 minutes |
| Credit packs | Not included | 10, 35, 120, 500, or 2,200 AI Creation Credits | 10, 35, 120, 500, or 2,200 AI Creation Credits |
| File uploads | 1 total lifetime upload, 8 MB max | Unlimited, 300 MB max | Unlimited, 1 GB max |
| Auto and unlimited-model Chat | 3 total messages | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Premium chat usage | Not included | Weekly allowance | 4× Premium's weekly allowance |
| Autocomplete | 500 total words | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Quiz practice | 5 total questions | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Practice exams | 1 completed attempt | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Voice mode | 15 total minutes | 2 hours / day | 12 hours / day |
| AI Meeting Notes | 3 total, no reset, up to 60 minutes, no credit | 20 / week, up to 10 hours, no credit | 100 / week, up to 10 hours, no credit |
A standard Deep Research run costs 1 AI Creation Credit. Extended research and Go deeper cost 2, take about 10–20 minutes, and ask you to confirm before they start. See Extended Research and Go Deeper.
Creating an AI Podcast accepts every source your plan allows, 1 on Free, up to 10 on Premium, up to 20 on Laureate: matching the other creation tools.
Blank starts cost nothing. A blank flashcard deck, quiz, table, page, PDF, or folder uses no AI Creation Credit on any plan, including Free. See Starting from Blank.
The shared AI Creation Credit covers every new AI artifact, flashcard decks, podcasts, video lectures, slides, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, and Deep Research. You can spend the free AI Creation Credit on any one of these. Repairing a card, refining an existing flashcard deck, or asking deck chat to change cards does not use an AI Creation Credit; the Chat allowance still applies to chat edits, including premium usage for Best or a premium model. Direct images in Studio and AI Chat use the separate weekly beta image allowance. Images inside other agent-created artifacts remain included in those artifacts. Recording a meeting does not use an AI Creation Credit. Transcript and notes are included, within the meeting allowance (3 total on Free, 20 per week on Premium, 100 per week on Laureate). The separate Transcribe tool uses one AI Creation Credit per source. New artifacts made from either transcript use AI Creation Credits according to the selected model.
Errors and Returned Usage
Scholarly reserves the cost shown on Create when a request starts: the model cost plus 1 credit for a video or podcast over 15 minutes, or 2 over 30 minutes. It settles the reservation when the request finishes:
- A successful creation normally counts once. Internal AI retries are part of that same request and do not use additional AI Creation Credits.
- A request that reaches a final failed state returns everything it reserved automatically. This includes a failure where Scholarly cannot produce the requested artifact after its built-in retry attempts, and it returns the full reservation, whatever the model or length.
- A newly generated flashcard deck with fewer than 15 cards does not use an AI Creation Credit. The finished deck is still saved, and Scholarly shows a message confirming that the AI Creation Credit was returned. This quality exception applies to new flashcard decks, not quizzes. Existing-deck flashcard fixes never reserve an AI Creation Credit in the first place.
- Trying again after a failed request starts a new creation. The new request reserves usage separately, and it is returned too if that request also ends in failure.
If a request is still processing or retrying, its AI Creation Credits may appear reserved until it reaches a completed or failed state. Refresh Settings → Plan & usage after the request settles to see the current allowance.
Recurring and Per-Item Limits
Paid voice allowances reset daily at midnight UTC. Paid AI Creation Credit and premium chat allowances reset weekly, every Monday at 00:00 UTC. File-size, PDF-page, media-length, and video-quality limits apply to each item rather than accumulating over time.
| What | Free | Premium | Laureate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto and unlimited-model Chat | 3 total lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Premium chat usage | Not included | Weekly allowance | 4× Premium's weekly allowance |
| Voice mode | 15 minutes total lifetime | 2 hours / day | 12 hours / day |
| Manual flashcard decks | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Practice questions (quizzes) | 5 total lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Practice exam attempts | 1 completed attempt lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Autocomplete | 500 words total lifetime | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Sources per creation | 1 | Up to 10 | Up to 20 |
| PDF → flashcards | up to 32 pages per deck | up to 1,000 pages per deck | up to 3,000 pages per deck |
| AI Video Lecture quality | 720p | 720p / 1080p Full HD | 720p / 1080p Full HD |
| AI Podcast length | 2 minutes | up to 60 minutes | up to 60 minutes |
| AI Video Lecture length | 2 minutes | up to 45 minutes | up to 45 minutes |
When you hit a limit, you'll see a clear message explaining exactly what happened: whether you used a lifetime free allowance, a recurring creation allowance, or a paid daily limit. Reaching the weekly creation limit on Premium shows a notice written for your plan: it names the limit you reached, tells you when your AI Creation Credits renew, and offers a credit pack alongside the upgrade. Free members can see lifetime usage in Settings → Plan & usage; paid members can see recurring usage and reset timing there.
Upgrading
Click Upgrade from any limit prompt, or open the Pricing page from the sidebar. The Pricing page opens with a Personal and a Business tab. Premium offers Yearly and Monthly billing, while personal Laureate is monthly. The Premium term you pick carries into checkout.
Yearly pricing varies by region, in some countries the yearly plan is shown and charged as a full yearly price rather than a monthly-equivalent rate, so the Pricing page always shows the current terms for your account. Existing subscriptions keep the price they were bought at.
What the Upgrade Screen Shows You
The upgrade screen compares Free, Premium, and Laureate side by side so you can see exactly what you unlock:
- A feature-by-feature comparison.
- Yearly and Monthly inside the Premium card; personal Laureate is monthly. Depending on your region, the yearly plan is shown either at a monthly-equivalent rate or as a full yearly price.
- A clear call-to-action labelled for the action you were trying to take, for example, "Unlock and keep studying" when you hit a study limit.
Managing Your Subscription
Access billing and subscription management from Settings → Plan & usage. You can view your current plan, update payment methods, move a monthly Premium subscription to yearly billing, buy AI Creation Credits, or cancel your subscription. Cancellation and scheduled downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing period. Upgrades take effect after payment succeeds; review the confirmation screen for the charge and renewal term.
Laureate subscribers can also Switch to Premium. That schedules the change for the next renewal rather than applying it immediately, and an Undo downgrade button stays available until it starts.
See Billing and Subscriptions for a step-by-step.
Related
- Billing and Subscriptions, upgrades, payment methods, invoices, downgrades, and cancellation.
- AI Credit Packs, top up when the week's creations run out.
- Choosing an AI Model, which model each feature defaults to, and what each one costs.
- Exporting Your Work, which formats each content type offers, and which need a paid plan.
- When a Creation Fails, why a run failed and how your credit comes back.