Why we are introducing Pro+

Today we're introducing Capacities Pro+ and Believer+.

Plus is for heavier AI use. You get a much larger monthly AI budget, and if that's not enough, you can top up in the app (including with auto top-up). You can find the current Plus and top-up prices on the pricing page.

This is a choice, not a requirement. AI will become more capable over time, but Capacities still works fully without it, and we will always keep improving every part of the app. We made Plus a separate subscription so you can decide based on how much AI you need and want to use.

Here's our thinking: why Plus exists, why we're discontinuing Bring Your Own Key, and why MCP is the better path for using your own AI stack with Capacities.

A clean split between two kinds of users

Pro+ creates a clean split between people who use a lot of AI and people who use little or none.

Both groups matter, and they have different needs. If you rarely touch AI, you shouldn't pay for someone else's heavy usage. If you use AI heavily, or for professional work, you shouldn't feel held back. We didn't want AI costs to create tension inside the normal Pro plan. A separate add-on lets both be true: Capacities Pro stays a full product that accounts for simple AI usage, and power users can scale AI without pulling everyone else along for the cost. We care about every Capacities user having the best experience possible, with or without AI. Pro+ makes this possible.

Why a single subscription couldn't carry this

Some AI features are genuinely expensive to run. Transcribing audio, analyzing PDFs, understanding images, and asking complex questions about your notes all cost real money. We couldn't sustain this cost inside one flat subscription without raising the price for everyone or watering down the experience. Neither felt right to us.

We also didn't want to compromise the experience for Pro users who do want AI. If you need to transcribe a long recording or make sense of a stack of documents, that should simply work. Pro+ makes that possible without putting the cost on people who will never use it.

For the AI credits included in Pro, we keep making usage more efficient: cheaper models where they're good enough, and smart routing so the included budget goes further. That's right for everyday AI. For serious work (running AI daily, supporting several workflows, having it research for you), there's no way around substantially higher token usage. Efficiency alone can't cover that. Plus is the optional path for heavier use.

Capacities Pro and Believer fund us as a small independent team, and make it possible to keep growing Capacities. Plus finances AI usage within Capacities.

The vision for Capacities AI

We believe AI can be a valuable companion in knowledge work: extract information, look up facts, check your work, automate repetitive tasks, find blind spots, and more.

Capacities AI already includes semantic search, related content, autofill, image analysis and OCR, a context-aware assistant over your notes, and models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more. This is still the beginning. Pro+ helps us keep going.

Ultimately, we are working towards a future where Capacities AI will be able to replace your existing AI subscriptions entirely. Imagine the power of AI, built on top of your set of notes and knowledge.

What Plus adds

All AI workflows and all models in the picker stay available on Pro and Believer. You can try them within the included monthly budget. More expensive models simply use budget faster.

Pro is sized for light daily use and occasional media. If you analyze media or chat heavily most days, expect to need Plus. Plus adds:

• A much larger monthly AI budget (what you pay becomes AI budget, minus transaction fees)
• Top-ups when you need more, including auto top-up (Plus required)

You don't need Plus until the included budget isn't enough for how you work. We deliberately didn't lock AI workflows or models behind an extra tier, because we want everyone to be able to use the AI features they need.

For concrete examples of what a Plus budget typically covers, see What a Plus budget covers in practice.

Pro+ funds AI, not our margins

Plus is not an add-on for us to earn more money on AI. It keeps running AI in Capacities sustainable. What you pay for Pro+ becomes AI budget, minus transaction fees. Exact costs for Pro+, Believer+, and top-ups are on the pricing page.

Why we're discontinuing Bring Your Own Key

With this release, bring your own API key (BYOK) is discontinued. The setting is removed. If you relied on it, here's why, and what replaces it.

BYOK couldn't keep up with Capacities AI

BYOK meant: paste a provider API key into Capacities, and the in-app assistant routes chat through that key. That worked for a narrow class of text chat. It doesn't work for Capacities AI today.

Media is the clearest example. Image analysis, weblink analysis, audio transcription, PDF understanding, and related pipelines aren't a single "call the model with your key" path. Providers differ in file handling, modalities, pricing, rate limits, preprocessing, and outputs. Behind BYOK we can't own a shared media pipeline, pick the right model per step, or guarantee the same feature works the same way for every key. Either media ships only on Capacities AI, or we maintain a weaker BYOK mode. The second option isn't acceptable to us.

Capacities AI is more than a proxy to one LLM. Much of what makes the assistant useful lives around the model call: retrieval over your space, routing between models, tool use in the app, structured extraction, and other algorithms a customer key doesn't cover. A key gives access to a provider's chat API. It isn't a substitute for the systems that make Capacities AI coherent.

We're not building DIY AI. Capacities AI is one product experience: same features, same pipelines, same behaviour for everyone. Supporting BYOK meant forever carrying a parallel mode that couldn't share the pipelines the rest of Capacities AI depends on. If you want to bring your own models and tooling, that belongs outside Capacities with the MCP.

So discontinuing BYOK was necessary. Keeping it would have blocked media features and around-the-model algorithms, while forcing two unequally capable product modes.

MCP is the better replacement

If what you wanted from BYOK was "use my own models and tooling with Capacities," that path is AI Chat Connectors (MCP).

The architecture is flipped in a useful way. BYOK pulled your key into Capacities so our UI could call your provider. MCP connects Capacities into the AI setup you already use: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, other MCP clients, and local models. Capacities becomes a tool in the environment where you already work with other systems, not a second place that needs its own key setup.

In practice you can search and read your space, create and update objects, append content, work with media through the connector, and keep the model choice and agent setup of your preferred client. BYOK only substituted the model bill for in-app chat. MCP lets an external agent operate on your knowledge base with a proper tool interface.

You can still use Capacities AI from the inside through your AI budget. Or simply use both: Capacities AI in-app, MCP for the setup you use across other tools.

If you used BYOK, set up an AI Chat Connector now to use Capacities through your preferred client or local models.

We're actively investing in MCP

MCP isn't a consolation prize for BYOK. It's how we want Capacities to sit in a modern AI stack, and we're actively making it more powerful: stronger retrieval, better editing, broader media and object tools, and more ways for an agent to operate inside your space.

What this means for you

If you're on Pro or Believer, your plan price and AI feature set stay the same. You also get the larger monthly AI budget (monthly instead of daily). You don't need to do anything for Plus unless you want more budget.

If you used BYOK, set up an AI Chat Connector now. That's the supported path going forward.

Pro+ enters the picture when you need more Capacities AI budget. You can add or remove it anytime in Settings > Subscription & Billing. With Plus, you can also buy one-time top-ups or enable auto top-up.

Looking ahead

As a small independent team, we can't subsidize unlimited AI usage. Capacities Pro+ lets us offer a strong AI experience while staying sustainable. That's good for the product and for you. Thank you for being part of the journey and making Capacities possible.