License and billing

How the trial, the key and the license check work, what read-only means, and how to cancel or delete your account. The Terms are the agreement; this page explains it in practice.

The trial

Thirty days on one machine, with no card. They start when you first activate the Studio on a machine, not when you create the account; until then, your account shows the trial as not started.

One trial per account, and one per machine: a machine that already ran a trial cannot start another under a different account.
Subscribe during the trial and nothing changes on your machine: the key stays the same. The paid period starts the day you pay, and unused trial days are not added to it.
The trial ends exactly 30 days after the first activation, by itself: there is no card and nothing to cancel. Without a plan, the Studio then turns read-only. We email you 3 days before it ends, and when it ends.

Your license key

Your account shows it once: right after you start the trial, or when you choose Get license key under License & machines on a paid plan. Copy it then: we keep only a hash of it and cannot show it again.
It starts with nxs_live_ and is 61 characters long. Paste it on the Studio's License screen; the Studio sends it once, to activate, and does not keep it.
Lost it, or think someone else has it? Choose Regenerate; if you signed in more than 10 minutes ago, it asks you to sign in again first, and we email you that the key changed. The old key stops working at once, and every machine activated with it is deactivated. Activate each one again with the new key, on the License screen under Activate with another key. Until then, each keeps working on the confirmation it holds, 11 days at most.
Keep it to yourself: the Terms do not allow sharing it.

Plans and machines

Every plan has every feature, and users and test runs are not counted. What a plan sets is how many machines can be active at once:

Trial: 1 machine. Individual: 1. Team: 3. Business: 10. Enterprise: as agreed in your order form. Prices are on the Pricing page.
Your account lists each machine under License & machines, with when it was activated and when it last checked in. Activating one more than your plan allows is refused (what to do).
Reinstalling the Studio, or another Windows user on the same machine, uses the same seat. The machine is recognized by its machine hash, not by the installation.
To move a machine's seat, open License & machines, choose Deactivate on the old machine, then activate the new one. The seat is free at once. The old machine keeps working until its current confirmation runs out, 11 days at most, then turns read-only.
Changing plans is done in Plan & billing. On a plan with fewer machines, the machines you activated first keep renewing; the rest stop renewing until you deactivate enough to fit.
Reinstalling Windows gives the machine a new identity, so it counts as a new machine: deactivate the old entry first.
A Linux server that the Studio runs suites on over SSH runs the engine itself, and the engine checks its own license there: that server needs a seat of its own.

The license check, and working offline

An activated Studio confirms its license with our server when it starts and every 24 hours while it runs. You do nothing, and the check carries no test data (what it sends).

Each successful check is good for 7 days. After 7 days without one, a banner in the Studio counts the days left. Four days later, 11 in all, the Studio turns read-only until a check succeeds.
Once a check is overdue, the Studio tries every hour, so a machine that is back online recovers on its own, with no restart. Renew now, on the License screen, checks at once.
A check never reaches past what is paid: near the end of a trial or of a paid period, its 7 plus 4 days stop at that date.
While a check fails, for any reason, nothing changes: the confirmation the machine holds stays valid until it runs out.

Read-only mode

Read-only means the Studio shows everything you already have and starts nothing new.

Still works: opening your tests, evidence, reports and history. A run that was already going when the license lapsed finishes.
Stopping always works: stopping a run, canceling an AI writer job, stopping a Docker operation, closing the recorder.
Waits for a valid license: new runs, recordings, writing tests and every other change.

Your tests and evidence stay on your disk, readable, whatever the state of the license. To leave read-only, let a check succeed, fix a failed payment, subscribe, or fix the clock.

Renewal

A subscription renews on its own, monthly or yearly, at the price of your plan, until you cancel. Your account shows the next renewal date under Plan & billing.
On a yearly plan, we email you about 30 days before it renews, so you can cancel first if you want to. If a price changes, we email you before it applies, from your next renewal.
The license runs until 3 days after the end of each paid period. Stripe charges the renewal shortly after the period ends, and those 3 days keep a paying machine out of read-only while the charge clears.

A failed payment

When a renewal charge fails, Stripe retries it, and the license keeps working until 7 days after the end of the paid period.
Your account shows the failed payment, that date, and an Update payment method button that opens Stripe.
Once the payment goes through, the license is active again. The next check picks it up; Renew now on the License screen does it at once.
Still unpaid after those 7 days, the Studio turns read-only until the payment goes through.

Canceling

In your account, open Plan & billing and choose Cancel subscription.
Stripe's page confirms it, and may ask why. Back in your account, the plan shows the date it ends.

Canceling takes effect at the end of the current paid period: it stops the next renewal and does not end the period you paid for. The license keeps working through that period, and 3 days at most beyond it, then the Studio turns read-only.
Changed your mind before the end? Manage billing opens Stripe's portal, where you can renew the plan.
Invoices, your card and your billing address are in Manage billing too.
A trial has no card and ends by itself: there is nothing to cancel.

Refunds

The Terms decide. In short:

Monthly plans are not refundable. Cancel whenever you like and keep the product until the end of the month you paid for.
Yearly plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee on the first yearly payment: ask within 14 days of it for a full refund. The license is revoked when the refund is made. Later yearly renewals are not covered.
Our billing mistakes, such as a duplicate charge, a charge after you canceled or a wrong amount, are refunded in full and you keep your license. A second subscription bought by mistake is refunded automatically, and we email you when it is.
Your rights as a consumer under your local law, such as a right to withdraw from an online purchase, apply as well. The Terms name the ones we know about.
An order under a signed agreement follows that agreement.

To ask for one, write to [email protected] from the email of your account. The refund goes back to the card that paid. A payment dispute filed with your bank instead revokes the license and cancels the subscription (what that means).

Deleting your account

If you want a copy of your data, download it first.
In your account, open Privacy and choose Delete account. If you signed in more than 10 minutes ago, it asks you to sign in again. Then type your account email to confirm.

What happens next, in this order:

A live subscription is canceled at once, with no prorated refund; refunds follow the Terms. Stripe removes your saved cards.
Your license key stops working. Each machine stops renewing and turns read-only when its current confirmation runs out, 11 days at most.
The account's personal data is erased. A few records are kept for 24 months and invoices stay at Stripe: what we keep.
Your tests and evidence stay on your machines, untouched.

It cannot be undone, and there is no grace period to restore the account. You can sign up again later with the same email, but a machine that already ran a trial cannot start another. If you can no longer sign in, neither with your email nor with Google, write to [email protected] and we will check that it is you by hand.