---
title: 'Free and paid: what Free Forge runs, what a run costs, the caps'
description: 'What Free Forge includes, the daily brief cap and what still works past it, the caps on lint_draft and check_idea, what a paid research run adds, and how a wall reads.'
slug: free-and-paid
group: getting-started
order: 4
keywords:
  [free forge, pricing, research runs, research credits, brief cap, lint_draft cap, check_idea, entitlement wall]
related: [what-varynforge-is, connect-your-agent, mcp-tools, entitlement-walls]
updated: '2026-10-26'
---

Free Forge needs no card, and your agent gets the full MCP tool surface on it. A paid plan buys research runs, one credit each. This page covers what runs on Free, the caps, and what your agent sees when it reaches one.

## What Free Forge includes

On Free Forge you can:

- Hold 3 projects, enough to model your own site and two clients.
- Run a niche analysis and a reverse brief from a URL or a sentence.
- Read your sitemap into an asset map of what you already cover.
- Build a competitor set and seed a market radar for your niche.
- Pull a Client Snapshot, a client-ready summary of all of the above. The docs call it [the starting-point report](/docs/client-reports).
- Connect your agent to every MCP tool. Access is gated by account, not by price.
- Turn your own article ideas into writer-ready briefs, up to 10 a day.

## The daily brief cap

On Free Forge, forging a brief spends one of 10 slots in a 24-hour window that starts with the first brief. A brief forges on its own when your agent creates a suggestion, so the agent never has to ask for it separately. Once the slots run out, new briefs queue and forge automatically when the window resets. Your agent reads the state from `get_article_brief`, which reports `queued` with a `queuedUntil` time, or `forging`.

An empty brief cap holds back only briefs: a new article brief queues and forges at the reset, while a regeneration or a brief for a second channel is refused until then. Your agent can still download finished briefs with `download_brief_markdown`, draft from any suggestion that is already `brief_ready`, and check drafts with `lint_draft`. Paid plans carry no daily brief cap.

## The other caps

Two more drafting tools are capped on every plan, including the paid ones; [Entitlement walls](/docs/entitlement-walls) lists every cap.

`lint_draft` grades a draft against its brief. It allows 10 checks on Free Forge and 50 on a paid plan, counted in a 24-hour window that starts at the first check. Re-reading a verdict you already have with `get_draft_status` is free and has no cap, so a lost result never costs a check.

`check_idea` runs one live Google search per target keyword on a suggestion and attaches volume bands and the pages ranking now. It spends no credits and has a daily and a monthly cap. The daily cap resets at midnight UTC and the monthly cap on the 1st.

| Plan          | `check_idea` per day | `check_idea` per month |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------- |
| Free Forge    | 2                    | 10                     |
| Forge Starter | 5                    | 15                     |
| Forge Pro     | 8                    | 45                     |
| Forge Master  | 15                   | 120                    |

`get_account_status` reports what is left on each cap.

## What a paid plan adds

A paid plan runs research. `start_research_run` maps your niche into ranked keyword opportunities and the competitor pages behind them, from real search and keyword data. Each run spends one credit and takes about an hour, so your agent tells you the wait and checks back rather than polling. It asks you before it spends a credit.

| Plan          | Price      | Research runs per month | Listed project allowance |
| ------------- | ---------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------ |
| Forge Starter | $75/month  | 1                       | Up to 5                  |
| Forge Pro     | $297/month | 5                       | Up to 10                 |
| Forge Master  | $797/month | 25                      | No project cap           |
| Enterprise    | Custom     | Custom                  | Custom                   |

The project allowance is what each plan lists. Today the app enforces only the free cap of three projects when a project is created.

Enterprise adds invoice billing, a custom contract and a dedicated point of contact.

## No feature is gated by plan

Every paid plan gets the full engine. The plans differ in how many research runs you get, the project allowance each plan lists and the support around them. Nothing in the tool surface is reserved for a higher plan.

## What a wall looks like

[Entitlement walls](/docs/entitlement-walls) lists every wall the server returns and what each field means.

When a tool is blocked, it returns an `entitlement` payload instead of a result:

```json
{
  "error_code": "PAYMENT_REQUIRED" | "RATE_LIMITED" | "FEATURE_LOCKED",
  "tool": "<tool name>",
  "reason": "<human-readable explanation>",
  "remaining": <integer or null>,
  "reset_at": "<ISO timestamp or null>",
  "upgrade_url": "<where to upgrade>",
  "upgrade_rationale": "<why the upgrade is worth it>",
  "what_unlocks": "<what each plan gives>",
  "alternative_free_actions": ["<free tools to use instead>"]
}
```

Your agent reads `upgrade_rationale` to you as written, offers the free alternatives and asks whether you want the upgrade link. It does not retry, because the wall is the answer.

## Where your plan and credits live

The plan, the research credits and the usage limits belong to the organization that holds the project, and every member of it shares them. Every account has a personal organization, and you can create more. [What VarynForge is](/docs/what-varynforge-is) explains how organizations and projects fit together.

The full plan comparison is on [the pricing page](/pricing). To start on Free Forge, [connect your agent](/docs/connect-your-agent).