Chapter 54 · Account, Plans, and Privacy
Plans and Allowances
Storskarvia has three plans, and they differ in one thing: how much work the staff will do for you each month. The editor, your projects, and your files are the same on all three. This chapter covers what each plan includes, how to move between them, and what happens to the allowance when money changes hands or fails to.
The three plans
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Fact-checks per month | Lookbook image credits per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | n/a | 20 | 3 |
| Pro | $14 | $140 | 1,000 | 25 |
| Studio | $29 | $290 | 5,000 | 100 |
A yearly plan costs ten months' price for twelve months, which is what the pricing page means by two months free.
"Fact-checks" is the name for the whole pool. A continuity pass and Populate from draft spend from it too, at one check per 10,000 words, and a research question costs one check however long it is. What a Check Costs has the full arithmetic. Image credits are a separate pool, spent only on Lookbook portraits (see The Lookbook).
What every plan includes
Free is a working plan. Every account, whatever it pays, gets:
- The full editor in every format, and as many projects and documents as you care to make.
- Saving to Dropbox, Google Drive, or a folder on your computer, with autosave and versions.
- Share links, suggestion mode, and comments.
- Every import and export format.
- The findings punch list, with a source on every finding.
Two checks can run at the same time on every plan. A third waits until one of them finishes, and paying more does not raise that number.
How the allowance behaves
The allowance renews every 30 days, counted from the day your account was created. That holds on a yearly plan as well: yearly Pro gives you 1,000 checks every 30 days, and it does not hand over a year's worth on the first day. Unused checks do not roll over.
Your Studio page shows the count as PRO PLAN · 212/1000 fact-checks used this month, and the Account page carries the same figure. Prepaid checks, if you have bought any, appear beside it and are spent only after the monthly allowance runs out.
Changing plan never clears what you have used and never moves your renewal date. Moving up raises the ceiling at once: 18 used out of 20 becomes 18 used out of 1,000. Moving down lowers it the same way, so a writer who has used 300 checks on Pro and then drops to Free has nothing left until the next renewal, apart from any prepaid checks.
Upgrading
- Open Pricing from the top of any page, or follow the upgrade link beside your count on the Studio or Account page.
- Under the plan you want, press Upgrade to Pro or Upgrade to Studio to pay monthly, or the button beneath it, $140/year · two months free (or $290/year for Studio), to pay yearly.
- Stripe's checkout page opens. Storskarvia never sees or stores your card number. If someone gave you a partner code, enter it in Stripe's promotion code field.
- When the payment goes through, Stripe returns you to your Studio page and the new plan takes effect as soon as Stripe confirms it, usually within seconds. A receipt follows by email.
Upgrading needs a verified email address. If you have not used the link we sent at sign-up, the upgrade is refused with "Please verify your email first"; use the link in your inbox, or resend it from your Studio page.
Founder pricing
If you hold one of the founding seats, the pricing page shows your price with the normal one struck through: $7.00 for Pro and $14.50 for Studio. The discount is half, on whichever plan you choose, for as long as you keep it. It is applied automatically at checkout, on the yearly plans as well, even though the yearly button prints the full price. There is no code to type, and the promotion code field does not appear for founders, because the two discounts do not stack.
A founder's checkout checks that the discount is in place before it takes any money. If it is not, you see "Your founder discount isn't set up yet, and we're not going to charge you full price by accident" and nothing is charged. Tell us through ✎ Feedback and we will put it right.
Changing plan, card, or cancelling
Once you pay, the Account page gains a Billing section.
Manage billing opens Stripe's billing portal, where you update your card and see or download your invoices, then return to Account.
To move between Pro and Studio, or between monthly and yearly, do not start a second checkout from the pricing page. Storskarvia refuses it, with "You already have a Storskarvia subscription. Use Manage billing to change your plan.", because a second checkout would create a second subscription and bill you for both. Open Manage billing; if the portal does not offer the change you want, send it through ✎ Feedback and we will make it for you.
To cancel, open Cancel plan under Billing, pick the main reason from the list, add a note if you like, and press Cancel my subscription. The reason is required; the note is optional. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you have paid for, then does not renew, and the account moves to Free with its 20-check allowance. Nothing you have written moves anywhere.
When a payment fails
If a renewal charge is declined, your account keeps its plan name, its projects, and its editor, but the staff drops to Free limits: 20 checks and 3 image credits for the period. The Studio and Account pages both say "We couldn't take your last payment" and link to Update your card. Stripe retries the charge over the following days and we email you as it does.
Open Manage billing and change the card. Full limits return when the next payment succeeds. Your count carries on from where it was, so the checks you used while held at Free still count toward the period.
A pack or a plan?
If you are short for one month and would rather not subscribe, the pricing page sells one-off packs: 50 checks for $5 and 200 checks for $15. They are sold on every plan, they are never discounted, they are spent only after the monthly allowance, and they do not expire. Your Studio page offers them at the moment your allowance runs out. As the pricing page puts it, Pro works out cheaper above about 150 checks a month.
Refunded packs are taken back in proportion to the refund, up to whatever you have not yet spent. Checks already used are never clawed back.
When something goes wrong
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| You paid, but the Account page still says FREE PLAN | Wait a minute and reload. The plan changes when Stripe confirms the payment, and that confirmation can arrive a moment after you land back on Storskarvia. If it has not changed after a few minutes, tell us through Feedback. |
| "You already have a Storskarvia subscription." | You are already subscribed. Use Manage billing to change plan, as described above. |
| "Your account is comped, so there is no billing to set up." | Your account is complimentary: the Account page says COMPED and the pricing page marks your plan ✓ Included in your account. There is nothing to pay and no billing to manage. |
| "We couldn't reach Stripe just now." when cancelling | Nothing was cancelled. Try again, or cancel from inside Manage billing. |
| "We didn't find an active subscription to cancel." | The subscription has already ended or was never completed. Manage billing shows its full history. |
| Your checks ran out after you cancelled or dropped plan | The used count carried over and is now above the lower limit. Checks return at the next 30-day renewal; a pack covers you in the meantime. |
For how each staff action spends the allowance, read What a Check Costs. For what the staff does with it, start at Part VI with Running a Fact-Check.
Updated 2026-09-30 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?