Design tools have quietly become rent. The subscription stack for a small clothing brand - a design app here, a stock library there, an AI credits plan on top - runs $30-60 a month whether you designed anything that month or not. Here is our pricing model, in full: 5 free designs daily forever. 2 Ultra weekly. And if you are on a roll, packs from $3.99. No subscription exists.
The free tier is the actual product
Not a trial. Not a teaser. Every day, the free AI design studio gives you 5 print-ready designs - transparent backgrounds, correct spelling, full print quality, previewed on real garments - with no sign-up at all. That is roughly 150 designs a month for zero dollars. Drop your email and you get a one-time +5 bonus on top. For most people making a gift shirt or testing a merch idea, the free tier is the whole story, forever.
Design Packs: for when you are cooking
Some sessions do not fit in five generations. You are building a brand's launch line, testing twelve slogans, or chasing a design you can feel but have not landed yet. That is what packs are for:
- 20 designs - $3.99. That is 20 cents per print-ready design.
- 10 Ultra designs - $4.99. Ultra is the extra-fine-detail mode for dense linework and intricate art - about 50 cents each.
Credits never expire and apply automatically after payment - no activation dance, no "use by Friday" pressure. Buy a pack in July, finish the ideas in October. Your money does not evaporate on a schedule.
The math against subscriptions
A typical design-app subscription runs $13-55 per month, every month, forever. Miss a month of designing? You paid anyway. Here is the same year, our way:
- Casual creator (free tier only): ~1,800 possible designs a year. Cost: $0.
- Active brand (free tier + a $3.99 pack every month): ~1,800 free designs + 240 pack designs. Cost: $47.88 a year - less than one month of some design suites.
- Launch-mode brand (free tier + 20 packs a year, mixed): still under $90 a year, with credits that roll forever.
And the output is not raw images you still have to prep - every design comes back already print-ready, which is the expensive part of design work anyway. The same transparency we apply to shirt pricing applies here: you pay when you use it, and only then.
Why this pricing exists
Simple: we sell shirts, not software rent. The studio is free because people who see their idea on a real product tend to want the product - a premium heavyweight tee with their design on it. Packs exist so heavy creators never hit a wall mid-session. That alignment is the whole business model, and it is why there is no watermark, no export fee, and no plan to "introduce Pro tiers."
Stretching every credit
- Steal structure before generating. Five minutes in the community design library or the prompt list beats five exploratory generations.
- Save Ultra for detail. Bold type and simple marks do great on standard generations; spend Ultra on dense illustration.
- One design, five products. Every generation previews across tees, long sleeves, crewnecks, hoodies, and crops - a single good credit is a whole capsule.
Start free - genuinely free - in the design studio. If you catch fire, $3.99 keeps you going. And your design tool never sends you an invoice for a month you did not use.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a subscription?
No — the everyday tier is simply free (5 designs a day), and design packs are one-time purchases when you need a burst of volume. No monthly invoice, ever.
Do free designs and pack designs differ in quality?
No — same engine, same print-ready output with transparent backgrounds and correctly spelled text. Packs just remove the daily wait.
Can I sell what I design?
Yes — designs you generate are your own original output, ready to put on products with no minimum. Protected logos and copyrighted art are the only things off the table.
Or start with the art: free AI design tool + all free tools →
