Pricing & Cloud
Arena uses an open-source-to-cloud model. The complete local product is free forever. Arena Cloud is a proposed managed service for customers who want hosted compute, storage, collaboration, automation, and support.
Arena OSS is not a trial
Local processing has no Arena-imposed video, duration, clip, seat, or export quota. You provide the machine, storage, and OpenAI credentials, and remain responsible for those third-party costs and limits.
Product boundary
| Capability | Arena OSS | Proposed Arena Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 4-layer editorial engine | Included | Managed |
| Clip generation, captions, formatting | Included | Included |
| Compute and model credentials | Bring your own | Managed |
| Storage | Local | Hosted |
| Accounts and teams | Not required | Included by plan |
| Automation, publishing, analytics, API | Local workflows | Managed features |
| Arena usage quota | None | Source-minute allocation |
Why source-video minutes?
Cloud usage is proposed to be measured by the duration of new source media analyzed. This is easier to understand than opaque AI credits and lets Arena estimate usage before a job starts.
| Operation | Proposed charge |
|---|---|
| Analyze a new 60-minute podcast | 60 source minutes |
| Generate clips from its saved analysis | 0 additional source minutes |
| Re-export an existing clip for another platform | 0 source minutes |
| Re-run the complete analysis | Source duration again |
| Arena-controlled failed job | Refunded |
Proposed Cloud plans
| Plan | Price | Minutes | Seats | Concurrent jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud trial | $0 once | 60 | 1 | 1 |
| Creator | $19/month | 250/month | 1 | 1 |
| Pro | $49/month | 750/month | 3 | 3 |
| Studio | $149/month | 2,500/month | 10 | 10 |
| Enterprise | From $499/month | Custom | Custom | Custom |
These are planning prices, not an offer for a generally available service. Entitlements may change before launch as infrastructure costs and customer usage are validated.
Cloud billing principles
- Cloud pricing must not degrade the editorial quality of Arena OSS.
- Failed Arena-controlled jobs should not consume customer allocation.
- Overage billing must be explicitly enabled with a spending cap.
- Usage and estimated charges should be visible before processing.
- Local artifacts and Cloud artifacts should remain version-compatible.
Follow the plan
Arena Cloud is being designed in public. Share feedback in reserve access on GitHub.