Pricing and billing
ProteinIQ plans combine workspace-scoped credits, license rights, seat limits, and monthly or annual billing periods.
Pricing in ProteinIQ is workspace-based. A workspace has one active plan, one credit balance, one member list, and one billing state.
Plans
ProteinIQ currently offers five plans.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Credits | Seats | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | $0/mo | 100 promotional credits | 1 | Academic |
| Lite | $9/mo | $7/mo, billed annually | 500 per month | 1 | Academic |
| Plus | $29/mo | $23/mo, billed annually | 2,000 per month | 1 | Academic |
| Pro | $99/mo | $79/mo, billed annually | 8,000 per month | 1 | Commercial |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Contact sales | Custom | Custom | Commercial |
Free, Lite, and Plus are Academic plans. Pro and Enterprise include Commercial license rights for commercial work.
Choosing a plan
The plan choice depends on license needs, credit volume, and whether the workspace needs shared billing.
- Free: Trial and occasional jobs with the free-plan daily submission limit; on the free plan, that cap is 3 jobs per day.
- Lite: Individual academic use with more credits and no daily job cap
- Plus: Higher-volume academic use with a larger monthly credit allowance
- Pro: Commercial work or higher-volume paid compute for an individual workspace
- Enterprise: Shared seats, shared credits, invoice billing, purchase orders, vendor setup, custom workflows, integrations, or security review
Commercial-use results require Pro or Enterprise plan rights. If you are unsure whether a project is academic or commercial, check the license terms before choosing a plan.
Workspace billing model
Plans apply to a workspace, not to a personal account globally. When you change workspaces, you also change the active plan, credit balance, seats, and billing permissions.
This model keeps research groups, labs, and organizations separate. It also means that upgrading one workspace does not upgrade every workspace you belong to.
Billing periods
Paid plans can use monthly or annual billing.
- Monthly billing: Charges monthly and grants the monthly credit allowance for that billing period
- Annual billing: Charges the year up front and grants the annualized credit allowance at the start of the annual term
- Free workspaces: Receive one promotional credit grant instead of recurring subscription credits
Annual plan prices are displayed as monthly equivalents, but the annual term is billed up front.
For annual billing, ProteinIQ grants the annualized credit allowance at the start of the yearly term. For example, Plus includes 2,000 credits per month, so annual Plus grants 24,000 credits for the annual period.
Plan changes
ProteinIQ classifies subscription changes by comparing the current plan amount, billing interval, and seat quantity with the target plan.
- Upgrades: Higher-priced changes apply immediately
- Downgrades: Lower-priced changes are scheduled for the end of the current billing period
- No-change updates: Equivalent changes do not create a new billing transition
Switching from monthly to annual billing usually applies immediately. Switching from annual to monthly is treated as a downgrade-style change when the annual plan value is higher.
If the selected plan and billing period already match the current subscription, the plan action is disabled as Current plan.
Plan changes start from Settings > Billing.
- Click Upgrade for an active subscription, or View plans when the workspace does not have a paid subscription
- Choose the plan and billing period
- Choose the seat count when the selected plan supports seats
- Review Total due today
- Confirm the change
New paid subscriptions use Stripe Checkout. Existing subscriptions show a prorated preview before confirmation. Immediate changes settle the prorated difference that day using the payment method on file.
Downgrades and cancellations do not retroactively refund the current term.
Running out of credits
Paid jobs do not start unless the workspace has enough credits for that run. Tools that cost 0 credits can still run on a workspace with no paid credits remaining.
If you need more paid compute, move to a higher plan or a larger seat count.
If a job ends in Failed or Timeout, credits are refunded automatically.
Seats
A seat is one occupied member slot in a workspace. Active members and pending invitations both count against the seat limit.
Most self-serve plans include 1 seat. Enterprise workspaces can use custom seat allocations. Some older workspaces may still use per-seat plans where credits and capacity scale with purchased seats.
Seat reductions are blocked when the requested limit would be lower than current occupied seats.
When a seat reduction is blocked, remove members or cancel pending invitations first, then retry the plan change.
Enterprise billing
Enterprise is the right choice for shared workspace billing, shared credits, invoice billing, procurement support, custom commercial agreements, and security review.
Enterprise differs from self-serve billing in three ways:
- Checkout path: Enterprise uses the sales contact flow instead of self-serve Stripe checkout
- Workspace model: Enterprise can cover shared workspace seats and shared credits
- Billing process: Enterprise can support invoice billing, purchase orders, vendor setup, and custom terms
Use Contact sales from the Enterprise plan card or the contact page when you need Enterprise billing.
Billing surfaces
Use these app areas to understand billing state:
- Pricing page: Plan comparison and signup path
- Usage: Current credit balance and job-level usage history
- Billing settings: In-app plan selection
- Settings > Billing: Active plan, billing interval, payment method, invoices, cancellation state, and scheduled changes
Only owners and admins can manage billing.