What the Free plan actually includes, and where it stops
Onplana's Free plan is 2 projects for up to 5 people with the Gantt, critical path, baselines, cross-project reports and the full AI assistant included, and its one hard edge is AI: a one-time grant of 100,000 tokens for the whole workspace that never renews.
The questions a free tier usually cannot answer
Evaluating is mostly about finding out whether the thing works on your own plan. These are the four checks that normally need a purchase order first.
What you cannot check without paying
- Whether the scheduling is real, because the Gantt is behind the paywall.
- Whether the AI is useful on your work, because it is a timed trial.
- Whether your own file imports cleanly, because import is a paid feature.
- Whether a colleague agrees, because you cannot invite one yet.
What you can check on day one here
- The Gantt, its critical path and baselines, all included.
- The AI assistant on real work, bounded by tokens rather than a clock.
- Your own .mpp, MSPDI XML, Excel or CSV imported for real.
- Up to 5 people in the workspace, arguing about it properly.
What you get on day one
Step 1
Plan 2 real projects, not a sandbox
Two projects and up to 5 people, with tasks, subtasks, dependencies, milestones, issues and a budget. Nothing about the planning surface is reduced: the project you build on Free is the same project shape a paying workspace builds.
Step 2
See the critical path, not a picture of one
The Gantt recomputes the critical path against your project calendar as dates move, and baselines record what you planned so the variance is a real number later. Both are on Free, which is unusual enough that it is the first thing to check against anyone else you are evaluating.
Step 3
Point your own AI at it
Connect ChatGPT or Claude over MCP and let it read and update the plan in place, 2 connections on Free. The assistant inside Onplana is included too: plan generation, status summaries, natural language task entry and chat that knows the project.
Step 4
Answer a question that spans both projects
The cross-project report builder is on Free, and so is the OData feed, so your two projects can answer one question and the answer can land in Power BI or Excel without anyone retyping it.
Proof
49 of the 87 rows in our plan comparison table are included on Free, as of this page's build. That figure is generated from the same table the pricing page renders rather than typed here, so it moves when the plans move.
You can check it by counting the Free column on the pricing page. You can check the agent claim without us at all: Onplana is listed in the Claude Connectors Directory and the ChatGPT connector directory, so search for it from inside either product. And you can check the scheduling on your own file before creating anything: the Schedule Health Check reads a .mpp, MSPDI XML or .xer and reports what it found, with no account.
The limits, led by the one that catches people
The one to read before you start: AI does not renew
Free includes the whole AI assistant, and it runs on a one-time grant of 100,000 tokens for the entire workspace, given once when you create it. It is not a monthly allowance. Nothing tops it up at the start of next month, and inviting a fifth person does not add more.
For scale: that is roughly four to eleven app builds depending on their size, or a few dozen status reports and risk analyses. A heavy first week can spend it. When it runs out the AI stops until you buy prepaid credit, which starts at $5, or move up a plan for a larger grant. Everything that is not AI keeps working exactly as before.
The rest of the ceiling
- 2 projects. The tightest limit and the one most people meet first. The next one is refused rather than degraded, and if you downgrade from a paid plan your extra projects are kept rather than deleted.
- 5 members, and no guest seats. Guests are how you give a client or a contractor access without paying for a full seat, and the allowance starts on the paid plans. On Free, everyone who needs in is a member.
- 300 MB of storage, and up to 500 documents per project.
- No hosted agents. Agents run on your own machine through the self-hosted relay, which is free and unlimited. What Free does not include is us hosting the connection for you so it keeps running with your laptop shut.
- 1 published app on a live URL, carrying a small "Made with Onplana" badge.
Billing mechanics, seat counting and what every tier costs live on the pricing page.
Questions people ask before they sign up
Does the Free plan expire, or turn read-only after a trial?
No. It is not a trial and there is no countdown. The one thing that ends a free workspace is going dormant: a workspace with no activity for 45 days gets an email, one with none for 60 is suspended, and one with none for 90 is deleted. Use it and none of that applies, and the first step is a warning with time to act rather than a surprise.
What actually happens when I try to create a 3th project?
It is refused, with a prompt to upgrade rather than a silent failure. Worth knowing in the other direction too: if you are on a paid plan with more than 2 projects and you downgrade to Free, the extra projects are kept. Nothing is deleted or archived automatically, you simply cannot create new ones until you are back under the limit. Your data does not become a hostage.
Can I connect ChatGPT or Claude on the Free plan?
Yes, 2 agent connections are included. Onplana is listed in both the ChatGPT connector directory and the Claude Connectors Directory, so you can confirm that from inside those products rather than taking our word for it. The connection reads and writes real project data, it is not a chat about your project.
Can I get my data out again if I decide against you?
Yes, and on the Free plan specifically. The OData feed for Power BI and Excel is included, as is the cross-project report builder with its exports, and the API with personal access tokens. We would rather you were able to leave than feel trapped into staying.
What does the Starter plan add over Free?
Exactly one thing from the comparison table: project templates. Everything else Starter gives you is more headroom rather than more capability, more projects, more members and more storage. The next real jump in what the software can do is sprints, capacity planning, timesheets and automation, and those are Professional.
Why give the AI away and then cap it with a one-time grant?
Because features cost us nothing to run and AI tokens cost us money per call. Gating the Gantt or the reports behind a paywall would be a pricing tactic rather than a cost. The token grant is an honest pass-through: you get enough to find out whether the AI is useful on your own work, and after that you buy credit from $5 or move up a plan. We would rather tell you that here than let you discover it mid-project.
Do I need a credit card to start?
No. The Free plan takes no payment method, and you are never moved onto a paid plan by default or at the end of some period. You choose to upgrade or you do not.
Start with two real projects
No card, no trial clock, and the schedule view is not the part we held back.
Start free