Pricing & Payment
Nephele uses a hybrid model: a one-time purchase for the local features plus a yearly cloud-AI license. One payment gets you perpetual use of the local features plus one year of cloud AI (including 50,000 cloud credits for the year). After it expires the local features keep working — only cloud AI needs renewal.
Software pricing
One-time · 1 Year Cloud
≈ $4/mo · same to renew the cloud
- Free trial — no purchase needed to download
- Buy once — local features are yours to keep
- Includes 50,000 cloud credits for the year
- Manual renewal — no auto-charge
Beta promotional price; returns to $60 at full release.
One-time · 1 Year Cloud
≈ $5/mo · same to renew the cloud
- Free trial — no purchase needed to download
- Buy once — local features are yours to keep
- Includes 50,000 cloud credits for the year
- Manual renewal — no auto-charge
Standard pricing once features stabilize.
Cloud Credit Top-ups
Top up on demand once the year's included credits run out — topped-up credits never expire.
Topped-up credits never expire. Exact amounts as shown in-app.
The allowance system: stamina + cloud credits
Nephele has two separate allowances — don't mix them up:
Stamina — the free daily allowance
During the beta, every logged-in user automatically gets a certain amount of stamina each day. It's a free pool that resets at midnight (Beijing time).
When you call cloud AI, the system spends stamina first. As long as you have stamina left, your cloud credits aren't touched.
Cloud credits (Nepheline) — the paid currency
Each cloud-AI call deducts credits based on the tokens actually consumed, with a minimum of 1 credit per call.
Included yearly allowance
The annual license includes 50,000 cloud credits, tied to the license period. The beta and full release include the same amount.
Spending order
- Daily stamina first (beta only)
- Once stamina is gone, the yearly cloud credits
- Once the yearly allowance is gone, your topped-up balance
- When everything is used up → a top-up prompt; local features are unaffected
Typical consumption reference
| Operation | Per call | Covered by 50,000 credits |
|---|---|---|
| Short chat | ~3 | ~16,000 calls |
| Visual analysis (image) | ~8 | ~6,000 calls |
| Cloud MAX simple task | ~8 | ~6,000 calls |
| Cloud MAX complex/multi-turn | ~14 | ~3,500 calls |
提示
Exact credit amounts and top-up prices are as shown in the app, and may be adjusted to track cloud model costs.
Cloud-credit top-ups
When the yearly allowance runs low, you can top up on demand. The tiers:
| Price | Cloud credits |
|---|---|
| $5 | 3,500 |
| $10 | 8,000 |
| $25 | 20,000 |
| $50 | 50,000 |
Topped-up credits are permanent and never expire.
Currently supports international credit/debit cards and PayPal.
Which features don't consume cloud credits
The following are completely free and unlimited once licensed:
- Library indexing (local tag recognition + semantic search, fully local inference)
- Watermark & invisible watermark
- Image cropping & format conversion
- Digital certification (timestamp + PDF report)
- Eagle asset management (import, tag, search, organize)
- File operations & Python scripts
- Browser automation (image search, fetching)
- Publish & pack
- Pipeline batch processing
Your rights
14-day no-questions refund
Within 14 days of your first purchase you can request a full refund at any time, no approval needed. One refund per account, per device, and per payer, for lifetime.
2-device binding
A single license can be used on up to 2 devices at once. To sign in on a third device, sign out on one of the existing ones first.
3-day offline grace period
If your connection drops, a paid user can keep using all features (including cloud AI) for up to 3 days. After 3 days it falls back to a degraded mode with local features only.
Version updates
All updates within the license period (minor and major) are included. When it expires, cloud AI access stops and local tools stay at the last version you upgraded to; renewing restores access.
FAQ
Q: What does One-time · 1 Year Cloud mean?
You can download and try it first, no payment required. Once you buy the annual license, the local features are fully licensed and stay usable; for one year you get cloud AI access plus 50,000 cloud credits included for the year (top-ups stack on top, with no cap on the total). After it expires you renew manually at the then-current price — no auto-charge.
Q: Do I have to keep paying to use the local features?
No. Nephele's local features are a one-time purchase and stay usable forever — digital certification, invisible watermark, rights evidence, Eagle integration, library indexing (local AI tagging and semantic search), Pipeline, publish & pack, image processing, and more are all local. Even if you don't renew, they keep working, and an installed version is never downgraded or locked when the license lapses.
Expiry only affects cloud AI: Agent conversation (Cloud MAX), Style DNA, Creation Review, and other features that rely on cloud inference. Local library indexing, reverse image search, tagging, and semantic search all run on your machine and aren't affected by license status.
Q: If Nephele shuts down, can I still use my certifications and watermarks?
Yes. Digital certification's RFC 3161 timestamps are issued by a third-party TSA; verification only needs the public timestamp protocol and CA certificates, not Nephele's servers. The .nep evidence package contains the full verification data (screenshots, source, certificate chain, network logs). Invisible-watermark extraction is pure local computation.
Q: What's the difference between stamina and cloud credits?
Stamina is a free daily allowance during the beta — it resets every day and doesn't accumulate. Cloud credits are the paid currency: 50,000 included for the year, top-ups never expire, and there's no cap on the total. The system always spends stamina first and only touches cloud credits once it's gone.
Q: Do cloud credits expire?
The yearly credits that come with the license are valid for the license period and freeze when it expires (renewing restores them). Topped-up credits are permanent and never expire.
Q: What's the difference between beta and full-release pricing?
The beta license is $48; the full-release standard price is $60. The price is fixed within your current period, and renewals are charged at whatever tier is on sale at that time.
Q: Will the price go up later?
For existing users, the price is fixed within the current period. After it expires, you renew manually at the then-current price.