What a Credit Buys: How BrainTube Pricing Works

Pricing pages for AI tools are hard to read because the unit keeps changing: summaries, messages, minutes, seats. BrainTube uses one unit for everything that costs money to run, and it charges nothing for the part you do most, which is saving. This post lays out the whole model in one place, so you can work out what you would actually pay.

I build BrainTube and set these prices, so read it as the seller explaining the menu.

The rule: saving is free, asking costs credits

Saving, transcripts and automatic summaries are free and unlimited on every plan, including saves made by an AI over MCP. Chat with your library is free up to a daily allowance (50 chats a day on Free) and MCP searches up to a monthly one (1,000 a month on Free); past those, and for AI actions such as quizzes and deep research, you spend credits.

That split is deliberate. Building a library shouldn't feel metered, because the value of a library comes from having the sources in it before you know which ones you will need. The cost shows up when you ask the library to do work for you. It also means an assistant saving into your library over MCP doesn't run up a bill while it works.

BrainTube's currency is called "credits" in all public copy.

What a credit buys

The cost of an action doesn't change with your plan. Higher tiers buy more credits, not different rates.

Two everyday actions come with a free allowance before credits apply. Chatting with your library, in the app or over MCP, is free up to 50 chats a day on Free, 200 on Starter and 1,000 on Pro, then costs 2 credits a chat. Searching over MCP or the API is free up to 1,000 searches a month on Free, 5,000 on Starter and 20,000 on Pro, then costs 1 credit each. The generated media further down the table are the ones to budget for.

The three plans

BrainTube Free costs $0 forever: 30 credits a month plus credits earned for daily logins, saves, reviews and streaks, unlimited saves, and MCP and API keys included. No card needed.

BrainTube Starter costs $9 a month or $84 a year (22% off) and includes 300 credits a month, import integrations (Readwise, ingest sources), bulk YouTube import of up to 50 at a time, and a 14-day free trial without a card.

BrainTube Pro costs $19 a month or $190 a year (17% off) and includes 1,000 credits a month, Proactive AI Insights, bulk YouTube import of up to 150 at a time, priority email support, and a 14-day free trial without a card.

To put the Starter allowance in perspective: a month of Starter credits covers a hundred and fifty quizzes, or thirty deep research reports, or any mix in between, on top of 200 free library chats a day.

What every plan includes

Some things don't depend on the plan. MCP access and bt_ API keys are included on every BrainTube plan, including Free; none of the 38 tools has a paid gate.

That matters if you mainly use BrainTube from Claude or another assistant. The Free plan can connect, search and save over MCP. What changes as you move up is how many credits you have for the AI actions behind those searches.

The plan does change the size of a single bulk import. Bulk YouTube import is capped per import, not by library size: 10 videos at a time on Free, 50 on Starter, 150 on Pro, and at most 3 bulk imports an hour.

The trial and annual billing

The 14-day cardless trial is for new users; a returning user who already had a trial checks out with a card and no trial.

Annual billing is cheaper on both paid plans, and the discount differs. Starter annual is 22% off. Pro annual is 17% off. So the honest headline is that you save up to 22% with annual billing, and the bigger saving is on the cheaper plan.

Picking a plan

Here is how I would choose, as the person who set the prices. Start on Free and save for a couple of weeks without thinking about credits, because saving doesn't touch them. Then look at what you actually asked. If most of it was search and the occasional question, Free plus the credits you earn for logins, saves, reviews and streaks may well be enough.

Move to Starter when you find yourself rationing questions, or when you want the import integrations and bigger bulk imports. Pro makes sense for people who run deep research or generate podcasts and infographics from their library regularly, because those are the expensive rows in the table, and for anyone who wants Proactive AI Insights.

Whichever plan you are on, the credit cost of an action is the same, so a plan change doesn't change what a single search or question costs you. What changes is how many of them fit in a month, and whether you hit the ceiling before the month ends.

How this compares

BrainTube's $9 Starter and $19 Pro sit at market: consumer tiers cluster at $8 to $13 a month (Recall $10, Readwise $9.99, Glasp $12.50, Heptabase $8.99, Capacities $9.99) and pro tiers at $16 to $20 (Supermemory $19, Rescroll $20, Gemini AI Pro $19.99).

Price alone won't decide it, so compare what you would actually use. If you mostly save and occasionally search, Free covers a lot. If you ask your library questions daily, look at the free daily chat allowance on each plan (50 on Free, 200 on Starter, 1,000 on Pro) rather than the monthly price.

FAQ

Is BrainTube free?

Yes. BrainTube Free costs $0 forever: 30 credits a month plus credits earned for daily logins, saves, reviews and streaks, unlimited saves, and MCP and API keys included.

Does saving cost credits?

No. Saving, transcripts and automatic summaries are free on every plan, including saves made by an AI over MCP.

Do higher plans make actions cheaper?

No. An action costs the same number of credits on Free, Starter and Pro. Higher plans include more credits each month.

Do I need a card for the trial?

No. Starter and Pro come with a 14-day free trial without a card for new users.