What the Free Covenant actually means

A promise, written down on purpose

Most "free" software is free the way a free puppy is free. The real cost arrives later — in ads, in your data being sold, in a counter that ticks down until you pay, or in a cancellation flow designed to wear you out.

The Free Covenant is our promise that none of that is coming. We wrote it down publicly so you can hold us to it.

The six promises

• Free stays free. Not a trial. Not free "during beta." The free tier is a permanent part of the product.
• No ads. Ever. We will never sell your attention to a third party.
• No credit counters. You won't watch a balance drain and feel pressured to top up mid-task.
• No surprise paywalls. A feature that's free today won't quietly move behind a wall tomorrow.
• No selling your data. Your prompts and your business are not a product we resell.
• No dark-pattern cancellation. Leaving is one click, the same as joining.

What "free" actually includes

Concretely, the free tier gives every user a generous daily allowance — enough to run the everyday jobs of a small business or a busy household without thinking about it. For example: drafting the day's emails, posting to social, tidying a spreadsheet, and answering customer questions all sit comfortably inside it.

When someone needs more — heavier use, or a specialist plugin — they pay only for that specific plugin. There's no subscription tier gating the basics. You buy a tool, not a membership.

Why we tie our own hands

Here's the part that matters most. Once you promise these six things in public, every later decision has to pass through them.

A tempting growth tactic comes up — say, an ad slot, or a credit meter that nudges people to upgrade. Normally a company weighs the extra revenue against the annoyance. We can't. The Covenant already settled it. That constraint is uncomfortable, and that's exactly why it works: it protects you from the version of us that's having a bad quarter.

The next post explains how we make this affordable — by owning the machines instead of renting them.