What it costs
Free on your own computers. afk is seventy dollars a machine a month, for one person; Business is three hundred for a workspace, where the people are free.
One thing is counted: connected machines. Not people, not messages, not
projects, not what an agent spent.
The numbers
| Monthly | Yearly |
|---|
| Local | free | free |
| afk | $70 a machine a month | $35 a machine a month, taken as $420 a machine once a year |
| Business | $300 a month | $225 a month, taken as $2,700 once a year |
On a monthly plan the first three months are half price — $35 a machine a
month on afk, $150 a month on Business — and then it is the full price. It
applies once, to the monthly plan, and it is on the screen before you press
anything.
What each plan includes before anything is added to it, and what one more
costs:
| In the base | One more machine | One more person |
|---|
| Local | your own computers | — | — |
| afk | one machine, one person | the same price again | — |
| Business | one machine, and the people in your workspace | $70 a month, or $35 on the yearly plan | free |
$300 is not a price a machine. It is the price of the workspace, and one
machine comes with it. The second machine on Business costs what a machine
costs on afk — $70 monthly, $35 on the yearly plan — so a workspace on three
machines pays a base and two machines, not three bases.
Your own computers are free, however many there are. They are not a line
on this bill. A second laptop on the same workspace is still Local. What a
seat buys, and what still works without one, is Local.
afk is a plan for one person. There is no price for a second one, because
there is no second one: the plan with people in it is Business. See
inviting people.
On Business the people are free. Invite the whole company: nobody is a line
on the bill, no invitation is quoted at you, and the bill does not move when
somebody accepts. What you pay for is the workspace and the machines under it.
A machine is what a seat is. Connecting one buys a seat, disconnecting
frees it at once, and there is no ceiling on how many you connect. A seat is
not welded to a machine: put it on another computer whenever you like, and
the next one takes it at no charge.
The figure on the button when you connect a machine is the one your card is
charged: worked out by the payment processor, prorated, tax included. You are
never shown a price after the fact.
What you are not charged for
The models. Every message goes on the subscription that agent is signed in
with. Anthropic, OpenAI, Moonshot and xAI bill you; we never see it and take
nothing from it.
The server. You own it. Your provider bills you directly. A small VPS is
usually a few dollars a month, and nothing in beafk can stop, resize or delete
it.
The people, on Business. Roles,
per-machine grants and the
access log come with that plan rather than with a
headcount — the second person and the two hundredth are the same money.
Building on your own Mac. Local is free and stays free —
the repository, the agents and the crew, on the AI accounts you already have.
The pages for your site and the week of posts are not on it; those are afk,
the writing as well as the sending.
The seven days
Your first machine is free for a week, with no card. The week is a week of afk.
The clock starts when the machine actually connects — not when you sign up — so
getting the code and running the install tomorrow costs you nothing today.
The trial covers one machine. That is what the week is for: whether an agent
you left running overnight is still working in the morning. A second machine
during the week is an ordinary paid seat, quoted on the screen before you press
anything.
If you need longer to decide, ask us:
hi@beafk.app.
Adding a machine
If a seat is free, nothing. Seats free the moment a machine is disconnected, so
swapping a dead server is not a purchase.
If every seat is taken, one more seat, prorated to the days left in your period.
The screen quotes the exact figure before you press anything. On Business that
figure is afk's machine price, not the base again.
Adding a person
On Business, nothing. An invitation is not quoted and does not touch the
card, on any number.
On afk there is nothing to add. The invite dialog offers Business instead of
a checkout, because no payment fixes it — and nobody already in the workspace is
put out by the plan being afk. See inviting people.
Inside a period, a machine is the only thing that moves the bill: a seat you
stop using comes off at the renewal rather than the same day — see
changing your plan.
One worked example
Four people sharing two machines. That is Business, and on the yearly plan
it is $260 a month: $225 for the workspace with its machine, and $35 for the
second machine — the afk price, not a second base. The four people are free, and
so are the fifth and the fiftieth.
That is the whole shape of the price list. A machine is the unit, it is the
same unit on both paid plans, and a person is not sold at any price — on afk
because the plan is one person, and on Business because they are free.
Seeing the figure for yourself
The connect screen quotes what your card will be charged before it gives you
anything to run — and for a first machine there is nothing to quote, because
there is no card.
Connect a machine
On your own Mac there is no figure and no screen that quotes one:
get beafk for Mac.
Changing it later — machines, plans, monthly to yearly, stopping — is
changing your plan.