A plan should fit your work. Not the other way around.
Prices are published so you can plan, but accounts are not open yet, see below.
What Acadex will cost
Explore
Get to know Acadex — and keep using it afterward.
Explore is the free base plan of Acadex. You can use it to work with bibliographic data, explore research profiles, and use the visualizations and other features included in Explore.
When you first create an account, you also receive a one-time credit allowance to try the AI-powered parts of Acadex. Those starter credits do not currently renew automatically.
Once they are used, your account stays active. Your saved content and watchlists stay with you, and you can continue using the parts of Acadex available in Explore.
Researcher
For regular research work with Acadex.
Researcher is designed for people who use Acadex as part of their ongoing research workflow. It includes a monthly credit allowance for AI-powered analyses, working with documents, and more demanding research tasks.
Your credits renew with each billing cycle, and Researcher gives you access to the functions included in the plan for as long as the subscription remains active.
You can cancel monthly. If you cancel, your account returns to Explore at the end of the paid period, and your account, saved content and watchlists remain.
Institution
For universities, institutes, and research groups.
Institutional use often needs more than additional seats. Depending on the organisation, that can include:
- personal accounts for multiple users,
- shared or individual usage allowances,
- invoicing,
- a data processing agreement,
- restrictions on permitted model providers,
- requirements for where content may be processed,
- security and procurement documentation.
Acadex can be configured around those requirements. Institutional accounts use personal seats rather than shared logins, and the permitted provider configuration can be enforced technically.
The principle is already clear: the main difference between plans is how intensively you can use Acadex — and, for institutions, what technical and organisational framework you need. Core ideas like traceability should not become premium features.
Questions about plans and credits
How do credits work?
Not every task requires the same amount of work from Acadex. A simple bibliographic query may require far less processing than a broad analysis across many publications, documents, and multiple reasoning steps.
That is why Acadex does not simply count the number of questions you ask. Credits represent these different levels of processing effort in one common usage unit. You can always see how many credits you have left in your account.
Why not just count messages?
Two questions can look equally short and require very different amounts of work. Asking for a publication detail may require a single lookup. Comparing several researchers across years of publications and citations can involve many data queries, calculations, and model steps behind the scenes.
A flat message limit would treat those tasks as if they cost the same. They do not. Credits give us a way to reflect that difference without exposing the underlying technical complexity every time you use Acadex.
What happens when my Explore starter credits are gone?
Your Explore account does not expire. You can continue using the parts of Acadex available in Explore, and your saved content, profiles, and watchlists remain.
AI-powered functions that require credits may become limited once your starter allowance has been used. If you want to use those functions regularly, you can move to Researcher.
Do Explore credits renew?
Not currently. The credits you receive when you first create an Explore account are a one-time allowance intended to let you try the AI-powered parts of Acadex.
Because Acadex is still in Early Access, we may refine this model as we learn more about real-world usage and cost. Any change that affects your account will be communicated clearly.
What happens if I cancel Researcher?
Your Researcher subscription remains active until the end of the period you have already paid for. After that, your account returns to Explore.
Your account is not deleted. Your saved content and watchlists remain available. Your monthly Researcher credit allowance and functions tied specifically to Researcher will no longer be available to the same extent.
Cancel contracts hereDo unused monthly Researcher credits roll over?
Not currently. Researcher credits refresh with each billing cycle and unused monthly credits expire at the end of that period. This keeps the plan tied to ongoing usage rather than building up an indefinitely growing balance.
If this policy changes, the current terms will always be shown before purchase and in your account.
Can I buy additional credits?
We may offer additional credit packages for users who temporarily need more capacity than their monthly Researcher allowance provides. If available, the price and amount will be shown directly in Acadex before purchase.
We do not want extra credits to become a substitute for a plan that matches normal usage.
Why can the same task use different amounts of credits?
Acadex can use different models, tools, data sources, and numbers of processing steps depending on the task. A short question can sometimes require substantial work behind the scenes. Conversely, a longer-looking question may be straightforward to answer.
Credit usage is therefore based on the processing required for the task rather than the length of your message.
Does paying more unlock more trustworthy answers?
No. Source traceability and the ability to inspect the basis of an answer are not features we want to reserve for higher-priced plans.
The main difference between Explore and Researcher is how intensively you can use the resource-intensive parts of Acadex. Paying more does not turn an unverifiable answer into a verifiable one.
Which AI models are included?
Acadex can work with different model providers. Which models are available can depend on your plan, technical availability, cost, and — for institutional accounts — the organisation's provider and data-processing requirements.
We do not position plans simply as “pay more to get a smarter model”. Different models can be useful for different kinds of work.
External Services & Sub-processorsAre institutional plans just Researcher with more seats?
No. Institutions often need a different framework around the product. That can include invoicing, personal seat management, provider restrictions, regional processing requirements, data processing agreements, and security documentation.
That is why institutional plans are handled separately rather than as a larger Researcher bundle.
Learn more about Acadex for institutionsStill not seeing a plan that fits?
Tell us. Especially during Early Access, it is useful to know when our plan structure does not match a real research workflow.
That does not necessarily mean we need another pricing tier. It may mean we have overlooked something.
Talk to us