$0. $12. $24.
We don't sell you. You pay us.
Free to try — actually free, not a feature-gated trial. Twelve dollars a month to give your AI a real memory. No ads. No data sale. No training on your work. The only thing we ask for is the cost of one bad lunch.
Same product, three ceilings.
- Free includes the real product. 40 AI credits per month. 10 source imports. Notebook, Genie, Journal, Surveys, and Export. Same code path the paid plans use — not a feature-gated trial.
- Pro at $12/month: 250 AI credits, 50 source imports, real daily headroom. The plan most users land on.
- Premium at $24/month: 800 AI credits, 200 source imports, the heaviest-week ceiling. Includes the higher-reasoning chat path for when ChatGPT-style answers aren't enough.
- Annual billing is the same product at a ~20% discount. Cancel anytime, end-of-period — no surprise lockout, no retention dark patterns.
Every difference, in one table.
Same product across all three plans. The ceilings change — not the features. Numbers match the server-enforced quotas in src/lib/billing/plans.ts — no marketing-side rounding.
| Feature | Free | Pro | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI credits per month | 40 | 250 | 800 |
| Source imports per month | 10 | 50 | 200 |
| Maximum stored sources | 20 | 100 | 250 |
| Notebooks | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Notebook + Genie chat | Included | Included | Included |
| Journal + Surveys + Export | Included | Included | Included |
| Studio artifacts | Included | Included | Included |
| Higher-reasoning chat (Deep Research) | — | — | Included (2 credits/msg) |
| Stripe customer-portal billing | — | Included | Included |
| Annual discount (~20%) | — | $115/year | $230/year |
No surprises. No dark patterns.
- Stripe handles payments end-to-end. We never see your card.
- Annual billing saves ~20% — pay $115 for Pro/year or $230 for Premium/year (one bad lunch less per month).
- Cancellation is end-of-period, not immediate lockout. Your work doesn't disappear the day you cancel.
- Export remains yours, forever, across every plan.
- Refunds: 7-day window on first-time paid subscriptions. See the Refund Policy for full terms.
The questions our skeptics ask first.
We'd rather answer the hard questions here than be asked them in public. Seventeen of them — and a longer help-center FAQ at /help.
How is Journal Genie different from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini?
Personal Context Intelligence. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are general-purpose assistants with no durable memory of you. Every conversation starts cold. Journal Genie is built around your sources, your journals, your surveys — your AI catches up and stays caught up. We layer personal context on top of the AI APIs Big Tech wraps — that's the moat.
How is Journal Genie different from Google's NotebookLM?
NotebookLM is an excellent source-grounded notebook — the closest comparison to our workspace. The difference: Journal Genie adds a private journal and Surveys that compound your personal context over time, full-fidelity markdown export of your whole account, and no Google account required. We're funded by your subscription — no ads, no data sale, no training on your work. The full side-by-side comparison is on the home page.
Do you train AI on my journals, notes, or chats?
No. We do not opt into training with our model providers. Your journal entries, your sources, your chats — none of it becomes anyone's training data. We do not sell your data. We do not run ads against your reading habits. The architecture (row-level isolation, encrypted at rest and in transit, no-training opt-out with providers) is the privacy claim.
Do I need a crypto wallet?
No. The app works completely without a wallet. You earn "points" for eligible Quick Polls and Deep Surveys; those points stay in your account. If you ever want to claim them as GENIE tokens on-chain, you connect a wallet — optional, after-the-fact. Wallet is never required to use Journal Genie.
Is this safe for sensitive personal writing?
Journal entries are private by default. Inclusion in Genie context requires explicit opt-in. Row-level security means the database physically cannot return another user's data. Encrypted at rest. Encrypted in transit. Daily backups. Hash-chained audit log. Three things we're still building: a publicly published incident-response runbook (counsel review in flight), a published refund policy, and a public-facing crisis-redirect affordance for sensitive moments (queued — separate run).
What's an "AI credit" and how many do I actually use?
A credit is one unit of AI work. Standard chat = 1 credit per message. Higher-reasoning chat (Premium only) = 2 credits. Surveys-question generation = 2 credits. Studio artifact = 5 credits. Most users on Free hit the 40-credit ceiling in light weekly use; Pro's 250 covers daily use; Premium's 800 covers heavy weeks with reasoning enabled.
What happens when I hit my monthly ceiling?
Credits reset on the first of each month. If you hit the ceiling mid-month, paid features pause until reset OR you can upgrade in-product and continue. No surprise overage charge. No silent feature gating.
Which AI model is doing the work?
Standard chat runs on OpenAI's GPT-4o-mini-class models — fast, accurate, cost-efficient. Premium's higher-reasoning path uses a stronger reasoning-class model. The model choice may evolve as the providers ship new models; we don't make model-specific marketing claims because the underlying API is not the moat (Personal Context Intelligence is).
Can I cancel anytime? What happens to my work?
Yes. End-of-period cancellation in your billing dashboard. Your work stays in your account. You can export everything in plain markdown the day you cancel. You can re-subscribe later and your data is still there. If you want full deletion (DSAR), email privacy@journal-genie.com.
What's the export format?
Plain markdown. Notebook contents, journal entries, source citations, completed surveys, Studio artifacts — all included. Human-readable, version-controlled, future-proof. We earn your trust by making leaving easy.
Does it work on mobile?
The web app is responsive and works on modern mobile browsers. Native iOS and Android apps are on the roadmap, not shipped. We do not currently claim mobile-first; we are responsive-web for now and honest about it.
How do I delete my account?
Email privacy@journal-genie.com with "delete my account" — we acknowledge within five business days, complete the deletion within seven business days, and send you proof. Or, in-product: Settings → Account → Delete (one-click, with a confirmation dialog because account deletion is irreversible).
Will pricing change?
Maybe. If we change pricing for new sign-ups, existing subscribers stay grandfathered at their current price for at least 12 months. If we change pricing for existing subscribers, we give 30 days notice and you can cancel without penalty before the change.
What about a free trial of Pro or Premium?
No traditional free trial. Free is the trial — same product, lower ceiling. If you hit the Free ceiling and want to keep going, you upgrade at that moment. We avoid the "free trial → forgotten subscription" dark pattern.
How do refunds work?
Seven-day window on first-time paid subscriptions, for any reason. After 7 days, monthly cancellations take effect end-of-period (no pro-rata refund); annual cancellations are full-refund within the window and end-of-term after. See the Refund Policy at /refund-policy for the full terms — including the five disqualifiers, the Stripe processing-fee disclosure, and the Section 7 exceptions for material outage / feature regression.
Are you a real company?
Journal Genie is operated by Yotta-Byte Labs — a US (Alabama) company. Real legal entity. Real domain ownership. Real email infrastructure. Stripe-verified for payments. The contact addresses on every page route to a real human (currently: the founder). See /about for the founder story.
I have another question.
Email support@journal-genie.com (general), privacy@journal-genie.com (data/privacy), or security@journal-genie.com (security findings). Or use /contact for the full address book.