Arc Studio bills annually only: $0 for Free, $69 a year for Essentials, and $99 for the first year of Pro before it settles at $79. The free plan caps you at two scripts and watermarks your PDF. The interface is the reason people stay. The pricing page is where the decision actually gets made.
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Every figure below comes from Arc Studio's own pricing page and FAQ, in US dollars, checked in August 2026.
The verdict
Buy Essentials if you write alone and you want the outlining tools. That is the tier where Arc stops being a demo: unlimited scripts, custom formats, revision management, history, and the iPhone and iPad apps. At $69 a year it undercuts almost every monthly subscription in this category, because there is no monthly option to inflate.
Skip Pro in year one unless you want the three add-on features, or unless the student discount applies to you. Pro costs $30 more than Essentials up front and $10 more on renewal, which is a strange shape for a price ladder and worth understanding before you click.
Stay on Free only to evaluate. Two scripts and a watermark is a trial with no clock on it, not a working tier.
| You are | Best fit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Kicking the tires, one or two scripts | Free | $0, no credit card |
| Writing solo, want outlining and unlimited scripts | Essentials | $69/year |
| Running a season, want revision management plus add-ons | Pro | $99 first year, $79 after |
| Enrolled with a .edu address | Pro | $70 off |
| Teaching a class | Classroom | Discounted, quoted separately |
The free plan is a demo with the clock removed
Two scripts. That is the number that decides it. Celtx gives you one project on its free tier, so Arc is technically more generous, but WriterDuet gives you three with no watermark at all, and the watermark is what makes Arc's free plan unusable for anything real. You cannot send a watermarked PDF to a producer. You cannot enter it anywhere.
What you do get free is more than a stub: industry-standard formatting, the browser app, the desktop app, cloud sync, automatic backups, comments, and export to both Fountain and Final Draft. Upgrades are included, so you are never running an old build.
What Free withholds is the entire planning layer. No outlining tools, no season outlines, no custom formats, no revision management, no history, no feedback links, and no iPhone or iPad app. Inviting a collaborator is also gated. Arc's FAQ draws a fine distinction here that is easy to miss: inviting collaborators requires a subscription, but collaborating itself works on the free plan, since editing and commenting are free. So your writing partner does not need to pay. Whoever sends the invitation does.
That is a smarter free tier than it looks. It lets a paying writer pull unpaid collaborators into a script without either of them hitting a wall.
What Arc Studio does well
It gets out of the way. Fewer panels, less chrome, a beat board that sits next to the script instead of hiding behind a menu. If your last app made you feel like you were operating machinery, this one will feel like relief.
It works offline. Arc's FAQ confirms the app keeps working without a connection, despite real-time collaboration being built in. For a browser-first tool that is not a given, and it removes the main objection to cloud screenwriting.
One subscription covers every device. The subscription is per person, not per machine, and it includes macOS, Windows, iPadOS, iOS, and any browser. Final Draft, by contrast, caps one license at two computers. If you write on a desktop and revise on a tablet, that difference is real money.
Upgrades are included. No paid version bumps. Arc ships features continuously and you are always on the current build, which is the standard subscriptions ought to meet and perpetual licenses rarely do.
The annual-only billing is cheaper in disguise. Nobody likes paying twelve months up front. But $69 a year is $5.75 a month, and there is no monthly tier anywhere on the pricing page charging you a premium for flexibility. Most competitors take that premium.
Where it costs you
The AI features are not in the subscription. Table Read, Character Images, and Research Assistant all carry the same footnote on the pricing page: they are not included in the subscription price and run on credits you purchase separately. Read the marketing quickly and you will assume Pro buys them. It buys access to them. The usage is a second bill, and Arc does not publish credit pricing on that page, so budget for an unknown.
Pro's price ladder is odd. Essentials is $69 a year flat, with no renewal step shown. Pro is $99, then $79 forever after. So the gap you are really deciding on is $10 a year, wrapped in a $30 first-year toll. If the add-on features matter to you, the long-run difference is trivial and you should just take Pro. If they do not, the first year is a $30 tax on curiosity.
No Android app. Chrome on an Android device works, but Arc explicitly does not offer long-term offline support there. iPad writers are first class here. Android writers are not.
Annual only means annual commitment. There is no month-to-month escape hatch. If you write in bursts and want to pay for the two months you actually draft in, this is the wrong pricing model and no discount fixes that.
The board and the script stay two objects. Moving a beat on Arc's board does not reorder your pages. That is a design choice rather than a bug, but it is the one thing writers consistently expect and do not get. We covered the workflow consequences in Arc Studio Pro's limits on creative assistance.
Pricing decoded
| Plan | Billing | Year 1 | Renewal | Monthly equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | None | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Essentials | Annual | $69 | $69 | $5.75 |
| Pro | Annual | $99 | $79 | $8.25, then $6.58 |
Three years of Essentials costs $207. Three years of Pro costs $257. The whole decision is worth $50 over three years, which is less than one year of most competitors.
What each tier actually unlocks:
| Capability | Free | Essentials | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scripts | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| PDF export | Watermarked | Clean | Clean |
| Fountain and Final Draft export | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser and desktop app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone and iPad app | No | Yes | Yes |
| Outlining tools, season outlines | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom formats | No | Yes | Yes |
| History, revision management | No | Yes | Yes |
| Feedback links, The Stash | No | Yes | Yes |
| Inviting collaborators | No | Yes | Yes |
| Table Read, Character Images, Research Assistant | No | Credits | Credits |
Two discounts are worth checking before you pay full price. Students get $70 off Pro with a .edu address, which takes the first year to $29 and makes Pro cheaper than Essentials. Educators get a classroom rate that Arc quotes separately rather than publishing.
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Start FreeWhich tier by situation
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One spec, want to see if the app suits you | Free | Two scripts is enough to find out |
| Solo writer, several projects going | Essentials | Unlimited scripts and the outlining kit |
| You write on an iPad as much as a laptop | Essentials | Mobile apps start here |
| You want Table Read or Character Images | Pro | Access starts here, usage costs extra |
| Enrolled student | Pro with .edu | $29 first year beats every other tier |
| You need the board to reorder your script | Neither | Wrong tool for that job |
| You want to pay for two months a year | Neither | Annual billing only |
| Android tablet is your main writing device | Neither | No native app, no long offline support |
How to spend the seven-day trial
Pro comes with a seven-day free trial and no credit card at signup. Seven days is short, so do not spend them typing. Test the things that are expensive to discover later.
- Import an existing script as Final Draft or Fountain and check the formatting survived intact.
- Export a clean PDF and open it somewhere else. Confirm no watermark and correct pagination.
- Build one act on the beat board, then rearrange it, and watch what happens to your pages. Nothing will. Decide whether you mind.
- Turn off your wifi and write for twenty minutes, then reconnect and confirm the sync landed.
- Invite a collaborator on a free account and have them comment. This is the workflow you will use most.
- Set up a custom format if you write anything other than a feature.
- Try one Table Read and note what it consumed, so you know what credits mean in practice.
- Open the same script on a phone or tablet and edit a line.
If steps 1, 2, and 4 pass, the rest is preference. Those three are the ones that would cost you a deadline.
Alternatives
If Arc's board-beside-script model is the part you like but you want structure changes to actually rewrite the script, that is the difference our Arc Studio Pro vs ScreenWeaver comparison was written to explain. If you want to plan beats against real page counts before you commit to any app, the Beat Sheet Calculator is free and needs no account.
For production tools and studio-standard delivery, Final Draft 13 is still the safer default. For live co-writing where two cursors sit in one document, WriterDuet does it better. For pre-production and scheduling in the same tool as the script, Celtx covers more ground. And before you trust any free tier, read what free actually costs in the hidden costs of free screenwriting software. Arc's own pricing page{rel="nofollow"} is the source of record for all the numbers above.
FAQ
How much does Arc Studio cost?
Free is $0. Essentials is $69 a year. Pro is $99 for the first year and $79 a year after that. Every plan is billed annually and the pricing page shows no monthly option.
Is the Arc Studio free plan actually usable?
For evaluating, yes. For delivering, no. You get two scripts and every PDF you export carries a watermark, which rules out sending your work to anyone who matters. The formatting, cloud sync, backups, comments and Fountain and Final Draft export are all real, so it is a fair way to judge the app before paying.
Does Arc Studio work offline?
Yes. Arc's FAQ states the app keeps working offline even though real-time collaboration is built in. There is one exception: using Arc through Chrome on Android, where long-term offline support is not offered.
Do my collaborators need to pay too?
No. Sending the invitation requires a subscription, but editing and commenting are included on the free plan, so your collaborators can join without paying. They will need their own subscription only if they want the paid features like outlining and custom formatting.
Are Table Read and Character Images included in Pro?
Not in the subscription price. Arc's pricing page footnotes all three add-on features, Table Read, Character Images and Research Assistant, as running on credits you buy separately. Pro gives you access to them. Using them is a separate cost.
Is there a student discount?
Yes. Students with a .edu email address get $70 off the Pro plan, which brings the first year to $29. Educators bringing Arc into a classroom get a separate rate that Arc quotes on request rather than publishing.
Is there an Android app?
No. Arc runs in Chrome on Android devices, but there is no native app and no long-term offline support on that platform. The mobile apps are iPhone and iPad only, and they start at the Essentials tier.
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