Cannot proceed past "Start your 7-day free trial" screen without entering a credit card — no skip/decline option

[AstroLabs-UK]

Checked for Existing Issues?

• Yes, I have checked existing issues and cannot find one related to this.

Software

Desktop Application

Operating System / Platform

Windows

Your Pieces OS Version

12.6.2

Early Access Program

• Yes, this is related to an Early Access Program feature.

Kindly describe the bug and include as much detail as possible on what you were doing so we can reproduce the bug.

After installing the Pieces Desktop App and signing in, I'm presented with a screen titled "Start your 7-day free trial" that lists trial features and has a single button: "Start Free Trial." The text below states a credit card is required and that the card will be billed automatically on the 7th day unless cancelled.

There is no visible option to decline, skip, or continue with a free/basic tier. Closing the window and reopening the app returns to the same screen.

Steps to reproduce:

Install Pieces Desktop App (Windows)
Sign in with account
Reach the "Start your 7-day free trial" screen
Look for a way to decline/skip and continue without starting the trial — none is available

The only actionable button is "Start Free Trial," which requires a credit card. There's no visible "skip," "not now," or "continue with free plan" option.

Install Method: Microsoft Store

[dljz-bot]

Dude, there is no free plan anymore. They ditched all free plans once they went past beta, which was about 2 weeks ago. That's why you can only go with the trial or pay for it. There is no more free version.

edit: despite my name, i am human, not a bot. also a little pissed that they went this way, but it is what it is. I'm currently "trialing" it in the 7 days, then I'll decide if I want to continue. It is honestly quite a useful tool if used in the right use cases....

[mack-at-pieces]

Hi @AstroLabs-UK, and thanks @dljz-bot for jumping in. You're right on the facts, and I appreciate the fair-minded take even while you're frustrated with the change.

To confirm directly: as of August 16 there is no free plan. Pieces came out of beta and became a paid product, so what you're seeing on that screen is working as intended, not a bug or a Microsoft Store quirk. There isn't a skip or "continue with free plan" option because there's no free plan behind it.

Why we made the change: the core of Pieces is the Long-Term Memory engine, which is continuously organizing your work context so it's there when you need it. Doing that well has a real per-user infrastructure cost, and offering it free to everyone wasn't sustainable. We'd rather charge for it and keep the product alive and improving than keep a free tier that we can't support.

Here's how the trial actually works, since the screen doesn't make all of this clear:

• The 7-day trial gives you full Pro access from day one.
• A card is required to start, but you won't be charged if you cancel before the trial ends. You can cancel from your account settings at any time.
• If you do convert and decide it's not for you, every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee.
• Pro is $18.99/month, with a discount on yearly. Full details: https://pieces.app/pricing

Your feedback on the screen itself is fair. It reads as if you're being upsold past a free option that still exists, and it doesn't explain that the product is now paid-only or why. I'm taking that back to the team; at minimum we should say plainly on that screen that Pieces is a paid product and what the trial terms are, so nobody feels cornered.

@dljz-bot, glad it's proving useful in your trial. If you hit anything during the seven days that would swing your decision, open an issue or reply here and we'll get on it.

If you'd rather not trial with a card on file, I understand, and you can uninstall without anything being charged. If you do try it, I'd genuinely like to hear whether it earns the price.

[AstroLabs-UK]

Thanks guys, sorry I just assumed because it still says on the portal I can get a free account. The product looks great but I'm going to go for a BYOK opensource alternative. Thanks!

[mack-at-pieces]

Thanks @AstroLabs-UK - We'll tighten that up. Out of curiosity, which opensource alternative are you thinking?

[AstroLabs-UK]

I was moving onto RooCode. I can Bring My Own key and create multiple agents in my VS code instance and its completely free with no plans due to it being exclusively BYOK. https://github.com/RooCodeInc/Roo-Code Thanks for your help, this product looks awesome but I dont want to pay for something i can get for free with locally hosted AI services.

[dljz-bot]

Hi @AstroLabs-UK, and thanks @dljz-bot for jumping in. You're right on the facts, and I appreciate the fair-minded take even while you're frustrated with the change.

To confirm directly: as of August 16 there is no free plan. Pieces came out of beta and became a paid product, so what you're seeing on that screen is working as intended, not a bug or a Microsoft Store quirk. There isn't a skip or "continue with free plan" option because there's no free plan behind it.

Why we made the change: the core of Pieces is the Long-Term Memory engine, which is continuously organizing your work context so it's there when you need it. Doing that well has a real per-user infrastructure cost, and offering it free to everyone wasn't sustainable. We'd rather charge for it and keep the product alive and improving than keep a free tier that we can't support.

Here's how the trial actually works, since the screen doesn't make all of this clear:

• The 7-day trial gives you full Pro access from day one.
• A card is required to start, but you won't be charged if you cancel before the trial ends. You can cancel from your account settings at any time.
• If you do convert and decide it's not for you, every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee.
• Pro is $18.99/month, with a discount on yearly. Full details: https://pieces.app/pricing

Your feedback on the screen itself is fair. It reads as if you're being upsold past a free option that still exists, and it doesn't explain that the product is now paid-only or why. I'm taking that back to the team; at minimum we should say plainly on that screen that Pieces is a paid product and what the trial terms are, so nobody feels cornered.

@dljz-bot, glad it's proving useful in your trial. If you hit anything during the seven days that would swing your decision, open an issue or reply here and we'll get on it.

If you'd rather not trial with a card on file, I understand, and you can uninstall without anything being charged. If you do try it, I'd genuinely like to hear whether it earns the price.

Hi,

Appreciate the reply.

I do find it useful, and I would like to pay and use it, but I'm too broke lol. If you offer a discount (50%?) for Education/Students, I might consider.... but as a student, the current price even for base plan is too much for me to afford. Also, since my main "job" is studying, I'm not actually using Pieces OS much. I was only thinking of using it as a way to document my side projects of building (or "no-coding") apps with AI to build my portfolio as sort of a Prompt Engineer. This is the only use case that I can think of that is worth using Pieces OS for.

That said, I have not tried to use it to do that yet, and I'm not sure if it can do that, or if it records EVERYTHING I do to that extent to be able to accomplish what I had in mind. I tried to use the chat on the Pieces Desktop app to ask if it can do that for me, and its clearly using a very old model, because its really stupid, haha. It couldn't answer my question, basically.

So yeah, again, could be useful, but for the price, I'm out. Sorry.