The short version: the free tier is a working product, not a demo. Scanning with your 10 sign-up credits, editing, replay, PGN export, your games library and Stockfish analysis of every game are free, and so are one AI explanation a day and daily practice. Pro adds five AI explanations a day, 100 credits every 30 days and the tools for studying and preparing: the full insights profile, opening repertoires, opponent scouting and event reports. Pro+ raises that to fifteen explanations a day and 500 credits, for heavy personal use and coaches.
The comparison
| Free | Pro | Pro+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $4.99/month or $29.99/year | $19.99/month or $119.99/year |
| Credits | 10 on sign-up, +5 per referral | 100 every 30 days, on top of your balance | 500 every 30 days, on top of your balance |
| Scoresheets that buys | 5 | ~50 a month | ~250 a month |
| Scanning, editing, replay, PGN export, games library | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stockfish analysis of every game | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI explanations (game coach, a position, an event report summary) | 1 free a day, shared by all three, then 1 credit each | 5 free a day, shared by all three, then 1 credit each | 15 free a day, shared by all three, then 1 credit each |
| Daily practice from your own mistakes | 15 a day | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Insights | Summary, online vs over-the-board | Full profile with filters | Full profile with filters |
| Opening repertoires with deviation alerts | — | Up to 5 | Up to 20 |
| Opponent scouting reports | — | 30 a month | 100 a month |
| Event reports | Preview; 1 a month in a club | 20 a month | 60 a month |
| Public share links for reports | — | — | Yes |
| Club player roster and student pages | Up to 10 players per club | Up to 10 players per club | Unlimited, with the club's own Pro+ |
The limits above are the ones in force when this was written; the pricing page reads them from the same table the server enforces, so it is the place to check.
There is no watermark on free exports and no cap on how many games your library holds. Past the free explanations of the day, each one costs 1 credit on every plan: Pro raises how many are free, it does not make them unlimited.
When Pro is worth it
There are three reasons to pay: explanations, volume and preparation.
Explanations. Free gets one AI explanation a day: the turning points of one game, one position or one event report summary. If you want more than one game a day explained, say after a club night or a weekend tournament, Pro gives five a day and Pro+ fifteen before any credit is spent.
Volume. Roughly: more than three scoresheets a month. Three scoresheets is 6 credits. The free 10 credits cover your first five sheets, and referrals top that up slowly, but if you are digitizing games regularly, after every club night and every weekend tournament, you will run dry within a month or two.
Some concrete cases where it pays for itself:
- A club player recording league games: two games a week is about 16 credits a month. Pro covers it six times over.
- A coach digitizing a student's tournament: a nine-round Swiss is 18 credits in one weekend. That is the free tier gone in two days.
- An archivist working through a box of old scoresheets: 100 credits a month, credits carrying over, and the yearly plan at $29.99 makes a 600-game backlog cost about the same as a chess book.
Preparation. The free tier tells you what the engine thinks of each game. Pro is for finding the pattern across them and getting ready for the next one: the full insights profile shows your accuracy over time, the phases and mistake types that cost you most and how your openings score; a repertoire flags the move where a game left your prepared line; a scouting report reads an opponent's online games before you sit down; an event report sums up a whole tournament. None of these spend credits.
If you scan one game a month and mostly want the engine's verdict, stay on free. The referral link will probably keep you topped up, and we would rather you did that than pay for something you barely use.
Pro+ for heavy use and coaches
Pro+ is for someone who scans and studies a lot, or looks after other players. Its 500 credits every 30 days cover about 250 scoresheets, it gives fifteen AI explanations a day, it raises the limits to 20 repertoires, 100 scouting reports and 60 event reports a month, and it lets you share an event report with a parent or another coach through a link you can withdraw at any time.
A personal Pro+ plan does not cover a club workspace. Buying for a club? The club's Pro+ is bought for the club on its Credits & billing page: it keeps a roster of your players with a page for each student, files a round scan's games under the players who played them in one step, and removes the roster limit. A club can start without it: a club workspace on no plan keeps up to 10 players with their student pages and makes 1 event report a month, and scans use the club's credits as usual.
Monthly or yearly
Yearly is $29.99 against $59.88 for twelve months bought one at a time, half the price. It grants credits on the same 30-day cycle, not all 1,200 up front. Pro+ follows the same ratio: $119.99/year against $239.88 paid monthly.
Pick monthly if you are still deciding, or if your scanning is seasonal and you would rather subscribe during tournament season and cancel afterward. Credits you have already banked survive cancellation, so that pattern works fine.
Things worth knowing before you pay
- It renews automatically at the same price until you cancel, monthly or yearly depending on the plan.
- Canceling is self-serve: one Cancel subscription button on the pricing page after you sign in. See how to cancel.
- Payments are final. There are no refunds, which is exactly why the 10 free credits exist. Try it properly before you subscribe. See refunds.
- Credits never expire and survive cancellation.
- Waffo appears on your statement, not ScanChess — it is our merchant of record. ScanChess billing and refunds explains what that means for receipts and charges.
- In mainland China, Pro is sold as a 365-day pass for ¥99 (about ¥8.25 a month), paid once with WeChat Pay. Pro+ is not sold in that store yet; email support@scanchess.com if you need it.
Details of how the credits themselves behave are in how ScanChess credits work. Current prices are always on the pricing page.
