Files are free, forever. Paid plans buy AI: an assistant that reads and writes your workspace, and a full shell it can run commands in. This page explains what each plan includes, how credits work, and where to watch your spend.

## What each plan includes

| | Free | Pro | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files, folders, uploads | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| The editor, canvas boards, drawings, themes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Versions, checkpoints, changesets | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sharing, publishing, community, forking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| The API, the CLI, MCP, agent keys | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Semantic search over your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| The AI assistant | No | Yes | Yes |
| The full shell (pipes, `sed`, `git`, `python`) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shared workspace for a team | No | No | Yes |
| Billed | Nothing | Monthly, per account | Monthly, per seat |

Where the boundaries fall:

- **The free tier is a complete filesystem.** You can build a whole workspace, publish it, hand an agent a key and have it read and write your files over the API. The one thing it excludes is Monofile's own assistant, because running models costs money.
- **Agents do not need a plan to use the API.** An agent writing files through the API or the CLI is free. An agent spending tokens through Monofile's own model access is billed.
- **The read-only shell is free.** Commands like `ls`, `cat`, `grep`, `find` and `tree` run at no cost. A command that needs a real shell (a pipe, `sed`, `git`, `python`) runs in a sandbox, and that needs Pro or Team plus credits.

Current prices are on the [pricing page](/pricing), which reads them live from the billing catalogue. Pro is **$10 per month** or **$108 per year**. Team is **$15 per seat per month**. One-time AI usage top-ups of $5, $10 or $25 add to the prepaid balance without changing the plan. Enterprise is a contact tier with SSO, invoicing and custom credit pools.

## Credits, in user terms

AI usage is metered. Every plan that includes AI comes with a monthly allowance of credits, and each model call spends against it in proportion to the work it did.

| | Pro | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly AI allowance | **$10** of credits | **$10 per seat**, in one shared pool |
| Who draws on it | You, in your personal workspace | Every member and every org-keyed agent |
| Roll over | No. The meter resets each billing cycle | No |

Three consequences:

1. **A personal subscription does not pay for an organization's work.** Pro funds your personal workspace only. Work inside an org draws on that org's pool, and an org with no Team plan has no AI. See [[Personal and Team]].
2. **Seats and credits move together.** The pool is the seat count times ten dollars, recomputed when the period resets and topped up when the organization grows mid-period.
3. **Credits are billed at cost.** They meter real model usage, so a one-line question costs close to nothing and a twenty-file refactor costs its full model usage.

## How a run spends

Every message you send starts one run, and a run reserves a budget before it begins.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[You send a message] --> B[Budget reserved]
  B --> C[Run works, step by step]
  C --> D[Real cost settled]
  D --> E[Unused credits returned]
```

If a run reaches its ceiling, it stops at the end of the current step and tells you so. If you have no credits, the run does not start. It closes immediately and the composer points you at your balance.

The **effort preset** on the composer is the main control. A higher setting picks a stronger model, lets it think longer, and costs more per step. Use the fastest preset for routine work to stretch a month. See [[AI Credits and Usage]].

## Where to see usage

The credits button sits next to the chat composer, wherever the assistant appears.

- On a personal plan it shows your remaining balance, the date the period resets, and **Manage Plan**. On the free tier it shows **Upgrade to Pro** instead.
- In an organization it shows the pool, the seat count behind it, and a breakdown by member and by agent, so you can see which person or which key is spending.
- While a run is in flight it also shows a meter for that run against its reserved budget, turning amber and then red as it fills.

You manage subscriptions from the same popover or from the pricing page. To switch an organization to Team, make that organization active first.

## Next steps

:::cards
- [[AI Credits and Usage]] — How AI usage is metered, the effort presets, and where to see spend.
- [[Personal and Team]] — How the two workspace types differ, and how switching works.
- [[The AI Assistant]] — What the built-in assistant is, what it can touch, and the two modes.
- [[Running Commands]] — Run shell commands in your workspace from the terminal.
:::