Account, plans & AI credits
Plans & AI credits
Every plan in Popcorn Editor is built around one thing: AI credits, the monthly fuel that powers the Assistant. This page walks you through the Pricing page so you can pick the plan that fits how much you lean on AI.
The Pricing page
Open the Pricing page and you'll see every plan laid out side by side under the eyebrow Pricing and the heading Choose your plan. The subtitle sets expectations up front:
AI credits power the design assistant — heavier models use more per request.
In other words, a plan isn't just "more of the app" — it's a monthly allowance of AI credits, and how far that allowance stretches depends on which model you ask the Assistant to use.
Your credit balance
When you're signed in, a pill at the top of the Pricing page shows your live balance: {remaining} of {total} credits left, next to a small lightning icon. That's how many credits you have left this billing period out of your plan's monthly grant.
If you're already on a paid plan, the pill also carries a Manage billing link. It opens the secure Stripe billing portal in a new tab, where you can update your card, switch plans, or cancel. (Billing itself is covered in Upgrading & managing billing.)
Reading a plan card
Each plan is a card, and they all share the same anatomy:
- Name — the plan's title.
- Description — a one-line summary of who it's for.
- Price — shown as
$Xwith /month, or simply Free for the free plan. - Credits — the monthly-allowance line, reading {credits} AI credits / month.
- Features — a checkmarked list of what the plan includes.
Your active plan's card is highlighted and badged Current plan, so you can always see at a glance where you stand.
Which button to press
The call-to-action button at the bottom of each card changes depending on your situation. Here's what each label means:
| Button | When you see it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Current plan | On your active plan | Disabled — you're already on it |
| Included | On the default Free plan | This plan comes with every account, no purchase needed |
| Get started | When you're signed out | Sends you to create an account first |
| Choose plan | Signed in, on a paid plan | Starts Stripe checkout for that plan |
So if the page shows Get started, you're not signed in yet — head to Creating an account & signing in first, then come back and the buttons switch to Choose plan.
What AI credits actually are
Credits are a monthly allowance that refills at the start of each billing period. They power two things:
- The AI Assistant — every turn you ask it to design or edit spends credits.
- AI image generation — each image you generate costs credits.
The one thing to remember: credits come only with a plan. There's no à-la-carte credit pack to buy on its own — the way to get more credits is to be on a plan that grants more. Exactly how fast credits are spent (model multipliers, per-image cost, running out) is detailed in How credits are used.
Free vs paid
The default Free plan is marked Included and is genuinely useful on its own: you can design, edit by hand, and export — including print-ready PDFs — without ever paying. Manual work never costs credits.
A paid plan does two things: it raises your monthly AI credits so the Assistant can do more for you, and it unlocks the paid-only features like premium templates and using AI on designs shared with you. Those gated features are listed in Premium & gated features.
Choosing the right plan
There's no wrong answer — you can change plans any time from the Stripe billing portal — but here's a rough guide:
- Light or occasional AI use — a smaller plan (or Free, if you mostly design by hand) is plenty.
- Heavy AI use, premium templates, or AI on shared links — step up to a higher plan for the bigger monthly credit grant.
Because plans are month-to-month through Stripe, it's easy to start small and move up once you know how much AI you actually use.
Where to go next
Ready to see what those credits unlock? Meet the tool they power in Meet the Assistant, or set up your account first in Creating an account & signing in.