Pricing and billing

ProteinIQ pricing combines a plan ladder, workspace-scoped credits, and billing-period rules that determine when credits are granted, when they expire, and how subscription changes are applied. This page explains the pricing model itself. For the operational "how do I change my plan?" flow, see Pricing and plans.

Public plan lineup

ProteinIQ currently presents five public plan options: Free, Lite, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise.

Enterprise is a contact-sales plan rather than a self-serve checkout plan. In the public pricing system, it is the only listed plan with custom pricing and custom seat allocation.

Licenses and commercial use

Plan type controls both credit allowance and license rights.

• Academic plans: Free, Lite, and Plus are for academic or other non-commercial use.
• Commercial plans: Pro and Enterprise grant commercial rights.
• Workspace-scoped enforcement: Billing and access are tied to the workspace subscription, not to an individual member's personal account.

The public policy label in the code is explicit: commercial use requires Pro or Enterprise.

Credits by billing period

Credits are granted per billing term and consumed from the workspace balance when paid jobs start.

• Monthly billing: Credits are granted for the month and expire at the end of that monthly billing period.
• Annual billing: Credits are granted up front for the full year and expire at the end of that annual billing period.
• Free workspaces: The initial 100 welcome credits are promotional credits and expire one year after issuance.

Paid plans remove the daily submission cap; on the free plan, that cap is 3 jobs per day.

Annual billing multiplies the monthly allowance by 12 and grants the full amount at the beginning of the yearly term. Plus, for example, grants 2,000 credits per month, so annual Plus grants 24,000 credits at the start of the annual period.

How plan changes are applied

ProteinIQ distinguishes between immediate changes and scheduled changes.

• Immediate changes: Moving to a higher-priced plan, switching from monthly to annual billing, or increasing seat count applies immediately.
• Scheduled changes: Moving to a lower-priced plan, switching from annual to monthly billing, or reducing seats is scheduled for the end of the current billing period.
• No immediate seat downgrade below occupancy: A seat reduction is blocked when the requested seat limit would fall below the count of active members plus pending invites.

The subscription-change path uses Stripe subscription updates for immediate changes and a scheduled future phase for downgrades. Downgrade scheduling keeps the current subscription active until the current period ends.

Proration and billing impact

Immediate subscription changes settle the prorated difference during the current term.

• Immediate upgrades: The current cycle amount is compared with the new cycle amount and the prorated difference is charged right away.
• Scheduled downgrades: Downgrades use proration_behavior: none and take effect on the next renewal boundary.
• Credit expansion on larger plans: Higher allowances increase the credit schedule for the current term.

This is why upgrading a plan can change both the amount due today and the available credit allowance before the next renewal.

Billing surfaces in the app

ProteinIQ exposes pricing and billing state in two main workspace settings surfaces.

• Settings > Usage: Current balance and usage history
• Settings > Billing: Current plan, billing interval, credit summary, payment method, invoice history, cancellation state, and any scheduled change

If a workspace has no active subscription yet, Billing shows View plans instead of subscription management actions.

Related docs

• Pricing and plans: Support-style answers for choosing a plan and changing a subscription
• Credits: How charges, refunds, and balance tracking work
• Billing and invoices: Payment methods, invoice history, and billing permissions
• Cancellation and renewals: End-of-period cancellation and resume behavior