Cloud services and plans

Free local work

ResearchOS is open source under the AGPLv3. Your local notebook lives in a folder you control, with no ResearchOS storage allowance limiting that folder. You can use your own cloud provider to sync a shared folder. That is separate from ResearchOS live collaboration and hosted services.

What paid plans cover

Solo and Lab plans cover cloud services with a base fee and metered usage. Department arrangements are contact-led. Storage is charged separately at roughly cost. This is not a ladder of notebook storage limits. Current prices, availability, and trial terms are on the pricing page.

• Free. Use the local notebook, maintain a network presence, and receive shared work. Sending through the relay and other cloud production features require an eligible paid plan.
• Solo. Cloud services for one researcher, including sending, live co-editing, and companion pairing.
• Lab. The lab pays for its members' covered cloud services. Eligible lab members receive Premium access through the lab; they do not need a separate Solo plan for those features. The lab base fee is separate from usage, which can increase as members use services.
• Department. Contact-led arrangements for multiple labs. The department portal provides lab-head roster and invitation controls. Confirm the required governance and billing features when discussing a department plan.

BeakerBot is optional and metered separately

You do not need AI to use the notebook or scientific tools. Hosted BeakerBot requests consume tokens, with the balance and applicable charges shown in the account and pricing interfaces. A cloud service plan does not mean unlimited AI. See the BeakerBot guide for its capabilities and limitations.

Understand what uploads

One-time encrypted sends, live co-editing, companion capture, and public publishing have different data flows. AI can also send selected notebook context to an inference provider. A local original does not mean every online copy is end-to-end encrypted. Read the privacy policy before enabling a service for sensitive research. Automatic notebook backup is planned and is not yet available. Existing key-backup flows protect identity keys, not a complete notebook.

Related guides

Accounts and tiers, sharing and permissions, and security and data flows explain the account, access, and storage distinctions.