Pricing
Pay for the AI that keeps earning its keep.
The browsable manual and search are free forever. The AI docent and the insights loop are the premium tier, billed annually. Prices are per year, in USD.
One activation. One manual, one WordPress install.
- Everything in the free core
- The AI docent with cited answers
- The insights dashboard
- Multiple documents per site
- Email support
Up to 5 activations. For a business or franchisor running several of their own sites.
- Everything in Single
- Up to 5 site activations
- Priority email support
Unlimited activations, plus white-label rights to deploy for your own clients.
- Everything in Multi-site
- Unlimited site activations
- White-label / rebrand rights
- Priority support
Annual billing. If a license lapses, the free browse and search keep working; the AI docent and insights pause until you renew. Your data always stays on your site.
What the AI costs
Two charges, and one of them isn't ours.
Living Manual runs on your own Anthropic key, so the AI usage is billed to you at cost. No per-seat markup, no reselling of tokens.
A worked example, using rough estimates (current per-token prices are on Anthropic's pricing page):
- § Ingesting a full-length manual is a one-time run of AI calls, typically a few dollars.
- § Each visitor question afterward costs a fraction of that, on the order of pennies.
- § A SaaS knowledge base would charge $50 to $100 per seat per month, and keep your content in their cloud.
Questions
Answers before you ask.
Do I need an Anthropic API key?
Yes. The AI features run on your own key, which is why the AI costs pennies per question instead of a marked-up subscription. The setup wizard walks you through creating a key and pasting it in, with a test button, in about five minutes.
What happens if my license lapses?
The free browsable manual and search keep working, and your data stays exactly where it is, on your site. The AI docent and the insights dashboard pause until you renew. Nothing is deleted and nothing breaks.
Where does my content go?
Your manual lives in your WordPress database. When someone asks a question, the relevant text goes from your site straight to Anthropic to compose the answer. It never passes through or is stored on our servers.
Can I use it on client sites?
Yes, with the Agency plan, which includes unlimited activations and white-label rights so you can deploy it for clients under your own branding.
Is it really only for PDFs?
Today, yes, you upload a PDF. Support for other document types (DOCX, pasted text, and more) is on the roadmap.
Start with the free core.
Install it, see your manual as browsable pages, then turn on the docent when you're ready.