# Tiers, billing & usage Your plan decides how much you can record and which extras you get. You cannot buy a plan inside the dashboard. You tell dembrane what you need, have a call, and sign an offer. This page has no prices: [ask dembrane](#move-to-a-paid-plan) for those. A plan belongs to a billing account, not to a single workspace. The workspaces your organisation uses itself share one plan. A workspace made for an external organisation has its own plan and starts on Free. While your organisation is on Free too, that workspace shares your free allowance. ## The plans There are four plans, in this order: Free, Innovator, Changemaker and Guardian. A higher plan includes everything a lower one has. | What you want | Plan you need | |---|---| | More than 5 hours of recording a month, or conversations longer than 1 hour | Any paid plan | | Recording in more than one project | Any paid plan | | More than one project | Any paid plan | | More than two chats a month, or more than 20 questions in a chat | Any paid plan | | More than one report or one map a month | Any paid plan | | More than 12 popcorn analyses a month | Any paid plan | | The microphone in chat | Any paid plan | | A second workspace on your organisation's plan | Any paid plan | | Hide the dembrane event invitation in the portal | Any paid plan | | Private projects, and sharing them with chosen people | Innovator or higher | | An "Invite only" or "Private" workspace | Innovator or higher | | A public page for a presentation | Innovator or higher | | Your own workspace logo | Changemaker or higher | | "Automation" (webhooks) | Changemaker or higher | | The room screen without the "made with dembrane" mark | Changemaker or higher | No plan caps the number of seats, and paid plans have no cap on recording hours. ## The free plan | Limit | Free plan | |---|---| | Recording | 5 hours a month, and at most 1 hour per conversation. Deleted conversations still count. | | Projects | 1. Sample projects do not count. Deleting the project frees the slot. | | Recording project | One project takes recordings and uploads. "Use this project for recordings" switches it. | | Chats | 2 new chats a month, 20 questions in each. Deleting a chat does not free the slot. | | Reports | 1 a month. A deleted report still counts. | | Maps | 1 a month. | | Popcorn | 12 analyses a month. | | Organisations | 1. You cannot create a second free organisation. | | Workspaces | 1 on your organisation's plan. | | People | No limit. | | Agent (MCP) tool calls | 1,000 per calendar month per organisation. | The limits cover all the workspaces of your billing account together. They start again on the 1st of each month (UTC). A chat from an earlier month stays readable, but takes no new questions. Workspace "Settings", "Usage and billing" shows "Free plan allowance", with what you used and "Resets on {date}". When the month's hours are used up: - A recording that is going on stops. The participant reads "Recording has stopped for now. Everything you recorded is saved." - The portal shows "This project isn't taking recordings right now." Uploads pause too. - Nothing is locked. Every transcript and summary stays readable. - Owners and admins get a notice and the email "{name} has used this month's recording hours". > [!TIP] > Planning a session longer than an hour, or more hours than you have left? Sort out your plan > before the event. The way to a > paid plan includes a call and an offer to sign, so it is not something to start during a > recording. ## Seats A seat is one person who holds the "Admin", "Member", "Billing" or "External" role in any workspace of the billing account. Observers are free. - A person is one seat per billing account, however many of its workspaces they are in. - A workspace with its own plan counts its seats separately. The same person can hold a seat there and one on your organisation's plan. - An invite is never refused because of a seat count. The one exception: while a plan is cancelled or past due, invites to paid roles are refused. - A pending invite is not billed. It counts once it is accepted. Add and remove people on each workspace's "Members" page. See [managing your workspace](./managing-your-workspace.md). ## See your usage | Where | What it shows | Who sees it | |---|---|---| | Workspace "Settings", "Usage and billing" | On the free plan, "Free plan allowance". Then this month's "Audio", "Seats", "Members", "Externals", "Observers (free)", "Pending invites" and "Projects" | "Admin", "Member", "Billing" | | Organisation "Settings", "Usage" | "Organisation usage": one row per workspace with "Tier", "Hours", "Seats" and "Status" | Organisation admins and billing | | A project's "Manage" menu, "Usage" | "Audio" and "Conversations" for the project, with a breakdown per conversation | People who can open the project | Usage is counted per calendar month, and you can look back up to 12 months. ## What the billing page shows Billing sits under workspace "Settings", "Usage and billing", and under organisation "Settings", "Billing". What you see depends on how your plan is paid. - On the free plan: "You are on the free plan. There is no payment to manage yet." and the button "Tell us what you need". - A workspace on its organisation's plan: "Billing is managed by your organisation", with "Manage organisation billing". - A paid plan with no payment set up in the dashboard: the badge "Arranged with dembrane". - A plan that dembrane manages for you: the badge "Managed by dembrane", your seats, your account manager and your billing details. To change it, contact your account manager. - A plan paid by card or SEPA Direct Debit: "Current plan", "Seats", "Next invoice", "Payment method", "Invoices", "Billing details" and "Cancel plan". Invoices that follow a signed offer are not on this page. They are under your organisation's "Documents". If you pay by card or direct debit: - Adding a person in the middle of a period adds a charge for the rest of that period. Removing a person gives no refund, but the seat stays paid until renewal and you can fill it again at no charge. - When a charge fails, the plan stays active. The page shows "We couldn't charge your payment method" with "Try again" and "Change payment method". - "Cancel plan" stops the renewal. You keep the plan until the period ends, then the account moves to Free. Until then "Resume plan" turns it back on. Invoices and payment are for "Admin" and "Billing". A "Member" sees usage only. ## Move to a paid plan There is no checkout, no plan picker and no upgrade request in the dashboard. This is the way: 1. Press "Tell us what you need". The button is on the billing page of a free account. The same link is in the popover that opens when you press a control your plan does not include. 2. Answer the form "Can you tell us more?". It asks what you want to use dembrane for, when, how many recordings you expect, how many will run at once, and what else you need. Nothing is required, and you can speak the written answers instead of typing them. 3. Press "Pick a time" and book a call with the dembrane team. They read your answers before the call and bring a draft offer. 4. The offer arrives by email and under your organisation's "Documents" and "Tasks". It is valid for 14 days. An organisation admin or billing member signs it on screen, or sends it to someone else to sign. The data processing agreement comes with it as its own document. 5. Fill in your billing details. The invoice follows. Signing the offer does not switch your plan by itself. The dembrane team sets the plan on your account. You can also write to support@dembrane.com to talk about what you need. For offers, signing and invoices, see [offers and invoices](../../features/offers-and-invoices.md). ## If your plan goes down When a plan moves down, the workspace shows a banner for 7 days and its admins and billing members get a notice and an email. - What you already made stays. Private projects, shares and private workspaces keep working, and existing webhooks keep firing. You cannot make new ones. - A custom logo is removed. ## Related - [Tiers and billing](../../features/tiers-and-billing.md): the full reference on plans. - [Offers and invoices](../../features/offers-and-invoices.md): signing an offer, billing details, paying an invoice. - [Managing your workspace](./managing-your-workspace.md): adding people, and what a seat is. - [Roles and permissions](../../features/roles-and-permissions.md): who can see usage and invoices. - [Getting help](./getting-help.md): how to reach the team.