The boundary, in plain language
The free daemon is a vow, not a trial. This page states exactly where the line sits and why, and links the signed price list so you can check any number you were quoted offline.
R1
Your memory, receipts, retrieval, passports, custody and export run on your machine and are never degraded to push you towards a paid tier. The line between free and paid is architectural: a hosted-only capability is simply absent from the local build. It is never a licence key.
R2
Anything you can compute on your own machine (local BM25, graph and dense retrieval, local signing and verification) is free and uncapped. Only compute we run on our servers for you (managed embeddings, reranking, extraction) is metered in credits.
R3
Pro adds continuity conveniences (sync, multi-device, hosted RCX, alerting). Governance adds accountability guarantees (incident reconstruction, mediated evidence, certified packs, retention SLA, fleet aggregation). Compute is not tier-locked: any wallet can buy metered compute. A few accountability operations, such as the certified audit pack, are Governance-gated, as the table below marks.
R4
Demos, diagnostics, benchmarks, self-audits and the provenance checker on this site are free. If a tool exists to let you feel a problem or verify a claim we make, paywalling it would only starve the thing it exists to prove.
R5
Where we sell a packaged product (for example a one-command installer), the underlying capability still lands free in the source-available repo at the same time, and we say so on the product page. Revenue comes from software and automated delivery, never from booked human hours. Every paid delivery carries a receipt and an AI-involvement notice.
| Plan | Price | Monthly credit grant | Pack bonus | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 forever | none | none | The full local daemon: memory, receipts, retrieval, passports, custody, export. Never degraded. |
| Pro | £19 /user · mo | 1,000 Cr | +20% on packs | Continuity conveniences: sync, multi-device passport, hosted RCX, alerting, dashboards. |
| Governance | £49 /user · mo | 5,000 Cr | +40% on packs | Accountability guarantees: incident reconstruction, mediated evidence, certified packs, retention SLA, fleet aggregation. |
Billed per user, GBP, via Paddle as merchant of record. Prices are 30-day-revisit hypotheses, not lifetime locks.
One credit (Cr) is worth about £0.01. Credits pay for CueCrux-hosted compute only. The local dense lane on your own machine is never metered. Buy them in packs, or draw on your subscription grant.
1,000 Cr
£10
5,000 Cr
£45
25,000 Cr
£200
| Operation | Unit | Rate | Available to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managed embedding | per 1,000 chunks | 25 Cr | any wallet |
| Verified retrieval | per query | 1 Cr | any wallet |
| Audit query | per query | 5 Cr | any wallet |
| Extraction | per document | 5 Cr | any wallet |
| Attestation | per attestation | 10 Cr | any wallet |
| Signed report | per report | 25 Cr | any wallet |
| C2PA sign | per signature | 20 Cr | any wallet |
| Certified audit pack | per bundle | 50 Cr | Governance |
| Hosted retention | per 10 MB · month | 1 Cr | opt-in |
These numbers are published as a date-pinned, signed artifact. A hosted token hash-locks the price-list version it was issued under, so a price you were quoted stays a verifiable record you can check later, with Node alone, no CueCrux code required. Published at:
https://static.cuecrux.com/prices/2026-07-13/crux-price-list.json
Informational, not legal or financial advice. "Source-available" refers to the CueCrux Community Licence: the source is published under that licence, which is not an OSI-approved licence.