Why did Storskarvia refuse to run a check when I still had checks left?

A check has to fit whole. A document is charged one check per 10,000 words, rounded up, and the full amount must fit in what is left of your monthly allowance plus any prepaid checks. With two checks left, a 25,000-word document needs three, so it does not run, and nothing is charged. Run the check on the chapter you changed instead of the whole draft, wait for the allowance to renew, or add prepaid checks.

When does my Storskarvia allowance reset?

Every 30 days, counted from the day your account was created, not on the first of the month. The counter on your Studio page updates the next time you run something that uses the allowance, so after a renewal it can show last period's total until then. Prepaid checks are not touched by the reset and do not expire.

Does a failed fact-check use up my allowance?

No. The checks are taken when a fact-check or continuity pass starts, and given back if it ends as Check failed. A research question or a Populate from draft run that fails says You weren't charged. A check that finishes with no findings is a completed check and costs the same as one with forty.

Chapter 41 · The Staff

What a Check Costs

Every piece of work the staff does for you is paid for out of one monthly allowance, and it is priced by how much it reads. This chapter is the arithmetic: how a document becomes a number of checks, why a check that does not fit is refused rather than trimmed, and when the allowance comes back.

The unit: 10,000 words

One check reads up to 10,000 words. A longer document costs one check for every 10,000 words or part of them, so the count always rounds up:

Document length	Cost
A single sentence	1 check
6,000 words	1 check
10,000 words exactly	1 check
10,001 words	2 checks
25,000 words	3 checks
100,000 words	10 checks

Nothing costs less than one check. The charge is taken when the work starts, before any finding exists, because the reading is the expensive part and it happens whatever the result turns out to be.

What each action costs

Four things draw on the allowance, and they share one pool. Your Studio page calls the total fact-checks used this month, but a continuity pass or a research question moves the same number.

Action	Where you start it	Cost
Fact-check	Check Facts in the editor	1 check per 10,000 words
Continuity pass	Continuity in the editor	1 check per 10,000 words
Research question	Research in the editor	1 check per question, however long
Filling the Story Bible	Populate from draft	1 check per 10,000 words

Lookbook portraits are paid for separately, in image credits, and never touch this pool. The Skeptic and the Period Expert are part of a fact-check and add nothing to its price.

The allowance is 20 a month on Free, 1,000 on Pro and 5,000 on Studio. Part IX covers the plans themselves; this chapter covers how the pool is spent.

Which words are counted

The meter counts the text the staff is sent, which is the document as it reads with pending suggestions resolved away. A sentence struck through in Suggest mode is still on your screen, and the status bar still counts it, as Word Counts, Page Counts, and Daily Goals explains. The meter leaves it out, because nobody checks words that are on their way out. A draft carrying a heavy round of suggested cuts can therefore cost less than the status bar suggests.

Words are counted by the spaces between them, so a hyphenated compound is one word and a dash set between spaces is one as well. On an ordinary manuscript the difference is a handful of words. It matters only when a document sits right on a boundary: at 10,004 words, cutting five of them saves a check.

A check that will not fit

A check runs whole or not at all. Before it starts, Storskarvia asks whether the entire cost fits in what you have left. If it does not, the check is refused, nothing is charged, and the findings rail says why.

The common case: you are on Free, you have used 18 of your 20, and you press Check Facts on a 25,000-word draft. That draft needs three checks and you have two, so it does not run. The message reads "You've used all 20 fact-checks on the free plan this month. Upgrade for more. This document is long, so it counts as 3 checks." The first sentence is blunter than the truth: you have two left, and a shorter document would still run.

There is no partial run, deliberately. A check that read the first 20,000 words and stopped would hand back a findings list that looked complete and was silent about the last third of the book. Your options:

Check the part you changed. A 6,000-word chapter costs one check. If your draft lives in one long document, this is a good reason to split it by chapter in the binder (see Your First Project and Your First Document).
Wait for the renewal, described below.
Add prepaid checks. Once your allowance is spent, your Studio page offers packs of 50 checks for $5 and 200 for $15. The pricing page lists them too.

Allowance first, prepaid second

Prepaid checks are spent only after the monthly allowance runs out. A pack bought in a quiet month is still there in a busy one: the reset does not clear it, and it does not expire.

One document can be paid for from both. With one check of your allowance left and a pack of 50, a three-check document takes the last allowance check and two from the pack, leaving 48. Your Studio page then shows the monthly figure running past the limit, with the prepaid balance beside it: PRO PLAN · 1002/1000 fact-checks used this month · 48 prepaid after that.

When the allowance comes back

The allowance renews every 30 days, counted from the day your account was created. It does not follow the calendar month, and it does not restart from whenever you next happen to run a check: come back after 45 days away and your period still ends on its usual day. Storskarvia does not print the date anywhere, so count 30 days from your sign-up.

The counter is brought up to date when something next spends from it. After a renewal, your Studio page and your Account page can go on showing last period's total, and even the offer to buy more checks, until you run your first check of the new period. That check then runs against a full allowance.

Changing plan does not move the renewal date or clear what you have used. Moving up to Pro raises the ceiling straight away: 18 used out of 20 becomes 18 used out of 1,000.

If a subscription payment fails, your account keeps its plan and its writing, but the staff runs at Free limits until the payment goes through. The refusal message still names your plan, so a Pro writer can read "You've used all 20 fact-checks on the pro plan". The Account page explains the cause and links to Update your card.

What costs nothing

A check that fails. A fact-check or continuity pass that ends as "Check failed" gives back what it took. A research question or a Populate from draft run that breaks says "You weren't charged."
A check that is refused for any reason: nothing to read, email not yet verified, two checks already running, or not enough allowance.
Sync from script on a screenplay's Story Bible, which reads cues and scene headings without calling a model.
A check run by your own AI agent, which uses that agent's model and is marked Checked by your own AI agent on its findings.
Your collaborators. The staff buttons are hidden for anyone you share a document with, so nobody else can spend your allowance.

Two things do cost, and surprise people. A check that finds nothing is a completed check, and running the same document again is a new check at full price, even if you have changed one word.

Messages, and what to do

You see	What it means
"You've used all N fact-checks on the plan* plan this month."*	A fact-check did not fit. If it adds "counts as 3 checks", you may have some left; try a shorter document. Nothing was charged.
"You've used all N checks on the plan* plan this month."*	The same refusal for a continuity pass.
"You've used all N AI actions on the plan* plan this month."*	The same refusal for a research question or Populate from draft.
N is 20, but you pay for Pro or Studio	Your last payment did not go through. Open Account and update your card.
The Studio page says you are out, but a new period has begun	The counter has not caught up. Run your check; it will go through against the renewed allowance.
"Please verify your email first"	Use the link in your inbox, or Resend link on your Studio page. Nothing was charged.

For what a check does with those words once it has paid for them, read Running a Fact-Check and Running a Continuity Check.

Updated 2026-09-17 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?

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