Wanted to share some news directly with the community before you hear it elsewhere.
Starting this week, we’re updating the free plan to include 14 days of conversation history instead of 90 days. Everything else stays the same: unlimited transcription, unlimited summaries, no caps on usage.
Why we’re doing this
When we launched Pocket, we wanted to make it as accessible as possible. Free unlimited transcription felt like the right move, and it still does. We’re not changing that.
But here’s what we learned: the people going back to conversations from weeks or months ago are the ones getting serious value from Pocket. They’re using it for work, for important calls, for things that actually matter to them.
And honestly? We need Pro subscriptions to keep building. Every feature request in this forum, every bug fix, every improvement to transcription quality: that all takes resources. The 90-day free history made it easy to get full value without ever subscribing, which isn’t sustainable for us long-term.
What this means for you
If you’re on the free plan:
You’ll have access to the last 14 days of conversations
Older conversations won’t disappear: they’re just behind the Pro upgrade
Unlimited transcription and summaries continue as before
If you’re on Pro:
Nothing changes. Full history, always.
We want your feedback
I know plan changes can be frustrating, especially if you’ve been relying on the 90-day history. I’m not going to pretend everyone will be happy about this.
If you have thoughts, questions, or want to tell me this sucks, drop a comment below. I read everything.
Sorry but this is a serious problem, ladies and gentlemen. You’re telling founding members that they can’t access meetings that took place greater than 14 days ago? No other competing product does that and I have two of them. You said it yourself, people get great value when they’re able to go back and search on old meetings, etc. and you’ve taken it away from your early backers. I was hoping that was a glitch but clearly it’s not. This is really something you should reconsider.
One piece of feedback I’d like to leave is to allow folks to keep access to all their recordings locally (i.e. don’t stop them from being able to access their recordings, transcriptions or summaries at all). However, server access should be disabled after 14 days, meaning if you switch phones (and need to redownload your recordings/transcriptions/summaries) or if you need something to be resummarized, or if you want to ask Pocket AI about those recordings – those features should be disabled. AI memory could also be limited to the most recent 14 days if not on Pro.
The current change you’re describing will make users feel like they have to rush to save their data, and subscribing will feel more like an annoyance rather than a feature bump.
Competitors like pl4ud allow unlimited cloud access, albeit they ship with limited monthly minutes. I understand the need to differentiate yourselves in a market saturated with AI recorders – might I suggest a minute limit of 600/900/1200 for new users instead of unlimited instead? Unfortunately, Pocket was not first in this space, and competing from behind to grab market share means ceding in some ways.
I’m sure you’ve already considered all the options as that’s your job, but I think the user experience will be severely impacted (and I have to also mention that user experience is not super high right now given the UX/bugs around checklists and calendar. Even though that is already being resolved, it definitely shipped with bugs and usability issues that left some frustrated with the user experience already)
Users are already essentially beta testing the Pocket app and you’re cutting features one quarter into the product launch. In my honest opinion, that’s not a great look and worrisome for the long term.
I just feel that early users take the bet on the product (by paying for it and being patient for all the bugs) and so they should have grand-fathered features/pricing. No one is asking for freebies. But once its shipped, to change terms and pricing leaves a sour feeling.
@Akshay - Thanks for sharing this update and for always keeping the community in the loop. I understand the need to make adjustments for sustainability and continued development — that makes sense.
That said, it doesn’t really seem fair or right to Founding Members who supported Pocket early on. Many of us believed in the product from the start and helped shape it into what it is today.
In many way, without us Founding Members taking the time to comment and help out here and take the time to add to @feedbackfeedback, the product would not be what it is today, which is becoming truly amazing in many ways.
Perhaps there’s another approach that could balance things better — for example, introducing tiered options such as Free, Standard, and Pro, each with different features and price points. That might help maintain accessibility while still encouraging upgrades in a way that feels more equitable for early supporters.
I really appreciate all the work that’s gone into Pocket and the transparency around these decisions. Just wanted to share this perspective constructively.
The people going back to conversations > 14 days ago are the people who have a standing once a month meeting that they use pocket for.
The time frame for when someone goes back to look at old summaries likely has more to do with business flow (monthly or quarterly meetings) than it does with the volume of utilization that they are using.
I routinely have about 1 meeting a week that I use pocket for. And then a few one-off events (full day meetings or brainstorming sessions, etc) a month. Lets call it 3… So I use pocket a total of 7 meetings a month. Its really hard to justify $19.99/month for 7 meetings.
From the beginning, I have been very aware that founding members are a net drain on the company if they stay on the free tier. I have also been really consistent in vocalizing the possibility (need?) for a lower tier founders plan that will unlock pro features while at least covering the compute costs associated with my ongoing usage. I am still very open to that idea and think its probably the right way forward.
But don’t hold people’s data hostage, change the terms later, or otherwise try to force people into what is an admittedly expensive sub.
Additional 2 cents: the lines between founders, launch specials, and new users is too blurred. The pocket team explicitly said that the free tier doesn’t exist after September 22nd, yet up until today, unlimited minutes is still being offered to new users.
I think if you’re going to make the change:
Founders should maintain the 90 day cloud history and speaker diarization
Launch Specials have 90 day cloud history and no speaker diarization
New users (starting today, or whenever you updated the website) FREE TIER - 14 day cloud history and no speaker diarization
it seems like everyone is going to have unlimited minutes since you have never revoked that offer, so then all new users that are not founders should be categorized into “Launch Specials or New Users”. Unfortunately because you were not clear, there are already folks who bought into Pocket with the promise of 90 day cloud history. You should honor that up until the moment you made the change on the website. Probably could have marketed as, “Buy one now before we change the policy” but its a little bit too late for that.
We’re looking at 3 tiers now, Founding Members, Launch Specials and New Users.
Otherwise, you’re really frustrating the founder members and they’re the ones beta testing and c2c marketing for you.
Edit3: With the decision to revert the change, I feel confident in the Pocket team once again. Thanks for pivoting so quickly and listening to user feedback.
There have been a lot of thoughtful suggestions from other founding members here, and I genuinely hope leadership takes them into account. If not, the likely outcome is that many of these pocket devices will end up on a shelf collecting dust while people revert to other tools. That’s not what any of us want.
I’ll go a step further: even if the retention window were extended back to 90 days, users should still have a way to access their recordings after that point. It’s our data, and we should retain access to it.
One practical way to address the limited on-server retention (and to be clear, 14 days feels unreasonably short) would be to restore a 90-day window and add native Dropbox and Google Drive integrations. That would allow users to automatically archive recordings as they approach the retention limit, without manual effort.
@vbrown2025 I agree — 14 days really doesn’t feel like enough time. As @Gus mentioned, a 30‑day window seems like the minimum, especially for those of us who manage recurring monthly workflows.
I also believe our data should always remain accessible, whether through the current USB option or with added integrations like Dropbox or Google Drive. It might make sense for only the audio files to stay available on the free tier, while the AI features are reserved for paid plans.
With that said, as a “paying Founding Member” I would like to have EVERYTHING transferred via a usb so I can store it locally (and/or via Dropbox or Google Drive, etc) and not have to rely on the Pocket Cloud as the only storage place for what AI has created and my edits, etc
I believe there should have been a grace period before this became the new policy. I have summaries from a month ago that are now behind the paywall and the only option to access them is to buy Pro.
Please give us additional time to download our older summaries and I’ll plan to archive them immediately in the future. C’mon, I supported the Kickstarter and would appreciate some additional consideration.
This is a dealbreaker for me and I will probably retire my pocket at this point. It already that I bought it but most companies try to find ways to if you want they don’t have to buy hardware and then keep them basic aspects. It’s pretty common for me to need to go back two weeks, especially since the content is more or less trapped in the app and doesn’t easily export elsewhere. I picked you over competitors because of the marketing and frankly because of the slightly lower price. Oh well, all in all the technology is too new to be as useful as I was hoping it would be.
As a founding member 90 day cloud history was a listed benefit when purchasing. Happy to show the screenshot if helpful. Moving it from 14 to 90 days for founding members is not right
Was there a warning about this that I missed? Doesn’t seem right to suddenly change the features after promoting unlimited summaries. And now I can’t get my meeting notes from more than two weeks ago? Like others have said, offer the ability to bulk export summaries. The product is still very buggy and not worth the high subscription rate.
First: this is not a bait and switch. We’re not removing unlimited transcription or unlimited summaries from the free plan. That part stays.
What changed is summary/transcript history in the app access on free (90 → 14 days). And I agree with the main criticism: we should’ve communicated this earlier and given a smoother transition. That’s on me, we’ve only been realizing lately how much compute and team costs add up running the Free unlimited plan.
Here’s the reality: transcription + summaries aren’t “free features.” They cost real money every time you use them (compute + storage + bandwidth). Most products in this category either:
cap minutes, or
degrade quality heavily on free.
We chose the “unlimited usage” path because it makes Pocket genuinely useful day one. But we have realized that the 90 days of free history + unlimited usage is not sustainable if we want to keep the company alive and keep shipping improvements.
Clarifying what’s actually happening:
We are not taking away unlimited transcription or unlimited summaries on the free plan. That stays.
What changed is how far back you can view summaries/transcripts in the app on free: 90 days → 14 days.
Importantly: we are not deleting your recordings. Your audio is still on-device and you can export audio anytime.
Finally, I hope you can support us through a tough moment. Me and the whole team are here to listen and help. We’re trying to keep Pocket sustainable long term while changing as little as possible of what we originally promised.
This absolutely well written and I share your view 100%. I decided to back pocket because they had a new style with the sleek MagSafe form factor and the UI seemed more intuitive. Since receiving both my Pocket devices in October I have been with the rest of the early founders struggling and fumbling through the beta stages of Pocket. To take this stance and revoke 76 days from the early founders is a distasteful move in my opinion. I understand the overhead and R&D, but this in my opinion. I’d not a move that will make me want to become a pro member at $200/year. I will sell my devices for what I can and take away a lesson learned here to stick with established companies and lean away from start ups.
The only saving grace of this change becomes concrete is that to my knowledge, all audio files and transcriptions will ALWAYS save locally to the device. Please someone correct me if I am mistaken. To be sure, I exported all my media today, and with that I would like to applaud the Pocket team for fixing the batch export feature and making it functional.
Good question. The cost difference isn’t really ‘14 vs 30 days of storage’, the real cost driver is unlimited transcription + unlimited AI summaries, which run compute every time and add up fast as usage scales.
We chose to keep unlimited usage (because that’s the core value) and solve sustainability via history access instead of capping minutes or nerfing quality. The thinking behind 14 days is simple: if you’re regularly going back to notes older than ~2 weeks, Pocket is clearly saving you meaningful time, that’s exactly when Pro should pay for the ongoing compute and keep the service healthy for everyone.