Billing & Plans

StudioBrain offers four tiers to match different team sizes and workflows. This guide covers plan comparison, BrainBits credits, upgrading and downgrading, and managing your subscription.

Plan Comparison

Annual Pricing

Annual subscriptions save approximately two months compared to monthly billing:

Feature Availability by Tier

Core Features

AI Features

Storage

Collaboration

Support

BrainBits

BrainBits are StudioBrain’s credit system for managed AI operations. They provide a simple, predictable way to use AI features without managing individual API provider billing.

How BrainBits Work

• Each AI operation (generation, analysis, fix) consumes a number of BrainBits based on token usage and complexity.
• Your monthly allocation refills at the start of each billing cycle.
• Unused BrainBits do not roll over to the next month.
• All tiers can purchase additional BrainBits blocks at any time.

BYO Keys and BrainBits

When you use your own API keys (BYO), no BrainBits are consumed. The request goes directly to the provider using your key and billing account. BrainBits are only consumed when using StudioBrain’s managed AI orchestration service.

This means Free tier users with their own API keys can use AI features extensively — the 100 BrainBits/month allocation is for trying the managed StudioBrain AI service.

Purchasing Additional BrainBits

If you exhaust your monthly allocation, you can buy additional BrainBits:

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Click Buy BrainBits.
3. Select a block size.
4. Complete checkout via Stripe.

Purchased BrainBits are added to your balance immediately and do not expire at the end of the month.

Team BrainBits Pooling

On the Team tier, BrainBits are pooled across all team members (750 per user per month). Team administrators can:

• View the pool balance and usage by member
• Set per-group allocations to prevent any single member from exhausting the pool
• Purchase additional blocks for the team pool

Managing Your Subscription

Subscribing

1. Visit studio.braindead.games/settings/billing or open Settings > Billing in the desktop app.
2. Select a plan (Indie, Team, or Enterprise).
3. Choose monthly or annual billing.
4. Complete checkout via Stripe.
5. Your subscription activates immediately.

Upgrading

To upgrade from a lower tier to a higher one:

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Click Change Plan.
3. Select the new tier.
4. Stripe prorates the difference — you pay only the difference for the remaining billing period.

When you upgrade:

• New features (cloud sync, web access, etc.) activate immediately.
• Your BrainBits allocation increases to the new tier’s level.
• Existing data is preserved — nothing is lost.

Downgrading

To downgrade to a lower tier:

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Click Change Plan.
3. Select the lower tier.
4. The downgrade takes effect at the end of your current billing period.

When you downgrade:

• Features from the higher tier remain available until the end of the current period.
• Cloud-synced data remains accessible during the transition.
• After the downgrade takes effect, features exclusive to the higher tier become unavailable (e.g., web access, mobile access, real-time presence).
• Your local data is never affected — all entities, templates, and assets remain on your machine.

Data Retention on Downgrade

Cancellation

To cancel your subscription:

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Click Cancel Subscription.
3. Your plan remains active until the end of the current billing period.
4. After cancellation, your account reverts to the Free tier.

Before cancelling:

• Export your data from Settings > Data Export. This creates a ZIP archive of all your entity Markdown files, templates, and rules.
• Your local files are unaffected by cancellation.
• Cloud data is retained for 30 days after cancellation, then archived.

Stripe Customer Portal

StudioBrain uses Stripe for all billing. The Stripe customer portal lets you:

• View invoices — Download PDF invoices for all past payments
• Update payment method — Change your credit card or payment method
• View billing history — See all charges, refunds, and credits
• Download receipts — Get receipts for tax and expense reporting
• Update billing address — Change your billing address for invoices

Access the portal from Settings > Billing > Manage Subscription, which opens the Stripe portal in a new browser tab.

Enterprise Pricing

Enterprise plans are custom-priced based on team size, usage requirements, and deployment preferences. Contact sales@studiobrain.ai for:

• Volume discounts for large teams
• Dedicated infrastructure (isolated deployment)
• Custom AI models fine-tuned on your studio’s content
• On-premise / air-gapped deployment options
• Custom integrations (Perforce, Shotgrid, Jira)
• SLA guarantees (99.9% uptime)
• Security review and compliance (SOC2, custom requirements)

Team: Contractor Temporary Licenses

Team tier subscribers can add contractor licenses at $20/month per contractor. These provide:

• Limited read/write access to the project
• No BrainBits allocation (but can be allocated credits from the team pool)
• Access to entity editing and web app
• Easily added and removed as project needs change

Next Steps

• Getting Started — Start using StudioBrain
• AI Workshop — Understanding BrainBits usage in AI generation
• Sync & Collaboration — Cloud sync features by tier
• Settings & Configuration — Managing your subscription settings