Plans and Limits

Scholarly offers three plans: Free, Premium, and Laureate.

Free is a trial, not a free tier. It gives you one AI Creation Credit, one upload, and three chat messages — enough to see what Scholarly does with your material. Those are lifetime allowances: they follow your account and never reset.

Premium unlocks the paid experience with 10 AI Creation Credits each week, unlimited uploads, chat, autocomplete, quizzes, and exams, and editable exports. Laureate provides 80 AI Creation Credits each week for your highest-stakes work.

Plans at a Glance

The prose below covers the caveats behind those numbers — what counts as a creation, what does not, and how allowances are returned.

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, AI Image Playground images, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, Study Packs, and Deep Research. Each Playground image or edit costs one AI Creation Credit per selected model. 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 still follow the normal Chat message allowance.
• Images in AI Chat -- Generating or editing an image inside a regular Chat conversation does not use an AI Creation Credit. The Chat message still uses the normal Chat allowance.
• 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, up to 8 MB. This is a lifetime free upload credit and does not reset.
• Recording -- Free keeps one meeting in the library at a time, with up to 30 minutes of transcription and AI notes included; delete it to record another. Paid plans keep unlimited meetings with up to 5 hours of transcription each. Transcription is always included; on paid plans Generate notes uses 1 AI Creation Credit per meeting, whatever its length. 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.
• AI Video Lectures -- Every Video Mode (Standard, Illustrated, Short, Manim Math Animation, Freestyle) is available on every plan. Free lectures with a length control are fixed at 2 minutes; 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 are fixed at 2 minutes. 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 themes -- Every visual theme (Editorial, Vibrant, Freestyle) is available on every plan.
• 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 AI chat -- No daily message cap. Auto uses GPT 6 Luna with high reasoning.
• AI Creation Credits -- 10 each week, shared across every AI creation type: new flashcard decks, podcasts, video lectures, slides, AI Image Playground images, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, Study Packs, and Deep Research. Each Playground image or edit costs one AI Creation Credit per selected model. Most models cost 1 AI Creation Credit, Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 cost 2, and Frontier models cost 3. 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 -- Set a target lecture length up to 45 minutes with the length slider. Free lectures with a length control are fixed at 2 minutes.
• Custom podcast length -- Set a target episode length (up to 60 minutes). Free episodes are fixed at 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.
• Unlimited research reports -- No daily research limit.
• 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, printing, and link sharing are available on every plan. See Exporting Your Work.
• Early access and priority support -- Get the highest support tier and earlier access to new features.

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 AI Chat -- Chat messages never draw on your creation allowance.
• Automatic model routing -- Video Lecture Auto uses GPT 6 Luna at extra-high reasoning, flashcard Auto uses Gemini 3.8 Flash at medium reasoning, and other Auto surfaces use GPT 6 Luna at high reasoning. A creation you leave on Auto costs 1 AI Creation Credit.
• 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

AI Chat is unlimited on Laureate. There is no message count, and nothing you send in chat comes out of your 80 weekly creations — chat never spends an AI Creation Credit on any plan.

The Frontier models are creation-only. GPT 6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 are not offered in unlimited chat at all. You pick them from the model selector when you generate a video lecture, podcast, slide deck, document, or research report, where their 3× cost applies. Several other models in the creation catalogue are likewise not offered in chat; a conversation that was set to one of them switches to your plan's default chat model on the next message, and nothing in the conversation is lost.

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 → Billing 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. Auto always picks a 1× model, so a creation you do not change costs 1 AI Creation Credit.
• Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 cost 2 AI Creation Credits. Creation pickers mark them 2×.
• A Frontier model costs 3 AI Creation Credits. GPT 6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 are the Frontier models. The model picker marks them 3× so you can see the cost before you create.
• The chat picker and the creation catalogue are not the same list. Chat offers a focused, fast roster that is unlimited on every paid plan, and chat never spends an AI Creation Credit. Several models — GPT 6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5, Kimi K3, GPT 6 Sol, Grok 4.7, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, and Mistral Medium 3.5 — are available for AI creations only, where their credit cost applies. A conversation set to one of them switches to your plan's default chat model on the next message.

A failed creation returns everything it reserved, including all three AI Creation Credits for a Frontier model.

Credit Packs

If you run out before the week resets, any paid plan can buy a one-time credit pack:

• 5 creations for $15
• 15 creations for $30
• 40 creations for $60

Credits never expire, and they are used automatically once your weekly allowance runs out, so there is nothing to switch on. Buy a pack from Settings → Billing, 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. Existing accounts receive a fresh allowance when this policy launches; usage begins accumulating in the lifetime ledger from that point forward.

The shared AI Creation Credit covers every new AI artifact — flashcard decks, podcasts, video lectures, slides, AI Image Playground images, mind maps, study guides, infographics, worksheets, timelines, SOPs, flowcharts, lesson plans, outlines, spreadsheets, story books, Study Packs, and Deep Research. Each image or edit queued in the Playground uses one AI Creation Credit per selected model. 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 message allowance still applies to chat edits. Images generated or edited inside regular AI Chat also do not use an AI Creation Credit. Recording a meeting includes its transcript; on paid plans, Generate notes uses 1 AI Creation Credit per meeting, while Free includes notes for its one saved meeting. 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 what a creation costs when a request starts -- 1, 2, or 3 depending on the model -- then settles it 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 1×, 2×, or 3× reservation.
• 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 → Billing 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 allowances reset weekly. File-size, PDF-page, media-length, and video-quality limits apply to each item rather than accumulating over time.

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 → Billing; 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 labeled 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 → Billing. 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. Changes take effect at the end of the current billing period -- you keep access to your paid features until then.

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.