Membership, credits and payment

Reading in Athena is free. What costs money is the part that consumes computing power and storage: AI, text recognition, and a larger library and storage allowance.

What the free tier covers

Importing and reading your own files, notes and highlights, vocabulary lists, local dictionaries, listening with the system speech engine, and cross-device sync. For the exact free item count and storage limit, see the pricing page — it shows the figures currently in force.

Two paid forms

- Membership (Pro): a recurring subscription that raises your allowances and unlocks some advanced capabilities.

- Credit packs: one-off purchases of AI credits or text-recognition runs; these do not expire. Storage add-ons are sold per year (storage is an ongoing cost, so you need to renew to keep the space above your free allowance). The validity of each pack is stated on its purchase page.

Checking your account

Your account page shows live membership status, AI balance, recognition balance, storage used and library count. Transactions and usage details are under "Billing and usage", split into two tabs.

Payment channels

Available channels depend on your region. Builds installed from an app store use that store's in-app purchase. Credits bought through any channel work the same on the same account.

When you run out, or membership ends

What is already in your library, plus your notes and highlights, stays. You can still edit and delete it. What stops is adding more: no new imports, no new notes. The exact allowances are on your account page.

Troubleshooting

Payment succeeded but credits have not arrived: crediting is confirmed server-side, usually within seconds. If several minutes pass, check the transaction status under Billing and usage and contact us if needed.

"Payment method not available in your region": use one of the other channels offered on the page.

How to cancel a subscription: from the subscription section of your account page. After cancelling you keep access until the end of the period you already paid for.

Refunds: see the refund policy.

Limits and notes

Cloud voice costs do not go through Athena: you connect directly to the provider with your own API key, the provider bills you, and we neither collect payment nor impose a cap — we only display the characters synthesized so you can reconcile.

All prices and allowances are served live from the backend. This manual does not restate them; your pricing page and account page are authoritative.