Plans
From 0.18.1 there is one Plugboard plan. Prices are in Australian dollars, excluding GST. New licences are issued in AUD; other currencies are by quote.
The plan
Section titled “The plan”A$250 a month, billed annually: A$3,000 a year.
| Included | |
|---|---|
| Modules | Every base module |
| Technical seats | 2 |
| Managed devices | 2,000 |
| Tenants | 1 |
| Hosted AI calls | 5,000 a month on managed hosting |
Business seats are not included; you buy the ones you need. Participants are free. See seat types for which accounts count as which.
Extras
Section titled “Extras”| Extra | Billed annually | Billed monthly |
|---|---|---|
| The plan | A$250 a month | A$290 a month |
| Extra Technical seat | A$60 a month | A$69 a month |
| Business seat | A$30 a month | A$34.50 a month |
| Device block, per 1,000 devices above 2,000 | A$100 a month | A$115 a month |
| Campus operations add-on | A$100 a month | A$115 a month |
| Hosted AI calls above the allowance | A$25 per 1,000 | A$25 per 1,000 |
The campus operations add-on covers Facilities, Administration, Other departments and School operations. See school departments and modules.
Self-hosting is 15% off the whole total. The self-hosted plan includes no hosted AI calls, because the bundled model and your own key are free and never metered.
Monthly billing costs more over a year than annual billing. It does not raise the rates for going over.
A school without a licence, managed or self-hosted, is on a 30-day trial of every base module. After that the desk becomes read-only until a licence is added. See trial and read-only.
AI allowances
Section titled “AI allowances”The rule is that you are charged only for inference we pay for.
| How you get a model | Metered |
|---|---|
| The bundled model, on your own hardware | No. Included, unmetered |
| Your own key, either hosting model | No. Your key, your spend, your choice of provider |
| Vendor-hosted, on managed hosting | Yes, against a monthly allowance |
Vendor-hosted AI exists because region hosts do not run the bundled model. A managed school that wants AI without managing a key rides ours.
The plan includes 5,000 vendor-hosted calls a month on managed hosting. Over the allowance, A$25 per 1,000 calls.
Admin, Licence shows vendor-hosted AI used this month against the allowance, beside devices and seats.
Past the allowance the vendor model steps aside instead of billing you by surprise. AI falls back to your bundled model, your own key, or the no-model path, and nothing is blocked. Inference on your own hardware is never metered.
The allowance is sized so a real desk never sees the meter. A five-technician desk triaging around three hundred tickets a month, plus assistant use, lands between five hundred and fifteen hundred calls.
Self-hosted deployments never receive vendor credentials, so none of this applies to them.
Going over
Section titled “Going over”Nothing breaks. Using more seats or devices than the licence includes shows a warning, accrues on the licence and is trued up at renewal as a single line, rather than raising a small invoice every month that finance has to process against a fresh purchase order.
Enrolling a class set of iPads or hiring a technician never locks the desk.
How entitlement works
Section titled “How entitlement works”Your instance verifies its licence offline, with a public key.
- No call home at sign-in.
- A network outage cannot disable your service desk.
- We cannot change what you are entitled to without issuing a new licence.
If entitled modules change, the plan.changed email is sent to staff who can
manage billing. It cannot be switched off.
See licence and plan.
Billing never deletes anything
Section titled “Billing never deletes anything”Entitlement lives in the licence rather than the billing system. A failed payment starts a conversation, and cancelling a licence is a separate decision. A licence that lapses makes the desk read-only after its grace days; it never deletes your records.
Annual billing is the default, with automatic collection off, because most schools pay by transfer against a purchase order. A hosted payment page is available for anyone who would rather use a card or direct debit.
Managed hosting
Section titled “Managed hosting”Managed hosting is included in the plan price. See managed hosting. A dedicated region is an optional, separately priced requirement.
Several schools under one licence
Section titled “Several schools under one licence”A licence covers one tenant. More than one, for a group of schools, is agreed in a quote.
Licences on the earlier tiers
Section titled “Licences on the earlier tiers”Before 0.18.1, Plugboard was sold in four tiers: Core, Standard, Advanced and Group/Enterprise. They are no longer offered, but a licence issued on one keeps its signed terms until an agreed change and a new licence are issued: the same modules, the same included counts and the same price.
| Tier | Included devices | Technician accounts | Tenants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | 500 | 3 | 1 |
| Standard | 2,000 | 8 | 1 |
| Advanced | 6,000 | 20 | 3 |
| Group/Enterprise | Negotiated | Negotiated | Negotiated |
On a tier licence, every Technical seat counts against the technician accounts above. Business seats are counted and shown, but never flagged as over.
Support coverage
Section titled “Support coverage”Included support operates 09:00–17:00 Australia/Sydney, Monday–Friday, excluding NSW public holidays. Regional US/EU coverage, after-hours response and guaranteed response times require a separately priced written agreement.