Current guide
Billing
Billing
Billing in Cognardo Workbench is built on one principle: the product is free to use forever, and paying is a choice made when the caps start to matter. There are no trials, no card for the free plan, and no payment inside the extension: money moves on the website only, processed end to end by Paddle, and the extension updates itself the moment a payment lands. This page covers the model: the plans, how a purchase flows, and what to check on the rare occasion a payment does not reflect.
Prerequisites:
- A Cognardo Workbench account: Plans attach to your account. See create an account.
- Signed in on the website, for purchases: Subscribing and top-ups run on the website for signed-in users, with the same account as the extension.
The plans#
- Free, forever: The free plan is not a trial and never expires. It needs no credit card and no Paddle subscription: create an account and work. Its caps on saved items and credits are where the paid plans begin.
- PRO and MAX: The paid plans raise or remove the caps and unlock the PRO and MAX marked features across the extension. What each plan includes, and what it costs, lives on the pricing page.
- AI credit top-ups: Credits beyond the monthly pool are bought from the same pricing page. Your monthly credits are always spent first, and a top-up only gets drawn down once that pool is empty. Unlike the monthly pool, top-up credits never expire, so a top-up carries over from one billing cycle to the next until it's used. The flow is covered in manage your plan.
Where payment happens#
All payment runs on the website through Paddle: checkout for subscribing and top-ups, and the billing portal for everything after. The extension never takes payment; it links to it, from the PRO and MAX marked controls and from the Account tab's buttons. Your card details live with Paddle end to end, and Cognardo Workbench never sees or stores them.
How a purchase flows#
- Open pricing on the website, signed in to your account.
- Select the plan.
- Complete Paddle checkout:
- Fill in your details and make the payment.
- Paddle confirms with a success page, or a failure page if the payment did not complete, in which case start again from pricing.
- Your plan updates on its own:
- The moment payment succeeds, your account's plan and entitlements update, and the extension picks the change up automatically. No action is needed.
- The update is normally quick. On a busy day, it can take a couple of minutes.
- No email is sent for the purchase or any later renewal. The account page on the website is the record to check, not your inbox.
If the plan does not reflect#
Work the ladder in order, and stop at the first step that fixes it:
- Wait a couple of minutes, then refresh the website and check your plan on workbench.cognardo.com/account.
- If the website shows the new plan but the extension does not, give the extension a little longer.
- Close Chrome fully and reopen it.
- Sign out of the extension and sign back in. See sign in to the extension.
- Still not reflecting: raise a ticket with support, covered in contact support.
Changing and ending a plan#
- Upgrading between paid plans: Moving from PRO to MAX happens instantly, with Paddle charging the pro-rated difference for the remainder of the billing cycle. See manage your plan.
- Downgrading or cancelling: Both take effect at the end of the billing cycle, with access intact until then and no refund for the remainder. The subscription can be restored any time before the cycle ends, from the website's account page. See cancel your subscription.
- A failed renewal: If a renewal payment does not go through, a grace period applies before access changes, giving Paddle a window to retry the charge. Updating your payment method on the website during that window is enough to keep the plan running without interruption.
- Refunds: Normal cancellations and downgrades do not refund; the cycle simply runs out. The exceptions, and how to raise one, are covered in refunds.
FAQ#
Is there a free trial?+
No, by design. Instead of a trial that expires, the free plan is permanent: use it as long as you like and upgrade only when the caps matter.
Do I need a credit card for the free plan?+
No. The free plan needs no card and creates no Paddle subscription. Payment enters only at upgrade.
Who handles my payment details?+
Paddle, end to end: checkout, storage, and the billing portal. Cognardo Workbench never sees or stores your card.
My payment went through but the plan is not showing. What now?+
Work the ladder above: refresh and check the website's account page, give the extension a couple of minutes, restart Chrome, sign out and in, then raise a ticket if it still has not landed.
Where do I see what each plan costs and includes?+
On the pricing page, which carries the plan details alongside checkout.