Arc Studio bills annually only: 免费 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. For the head-to-head with the industry standard, see Arc Studio vs Final Draft.
Still shortlisting? Start from our best screenwriting software 2026 roundup or the screenwriting software comparisons hub.
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 年度 subscription in this category, because there is no 年度 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 | 免费, 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 ceiling Arc Studio sets for its free tier—one more than Celtx's single-project limit, making Arc technically more accommodating in pure numeric terms. However, WriterDuet offers three complete projects with no watermark restrictions whatsoever, and it is precisely that watermark overlay that renders Arc's complimentary plan impractical for professional use. A watermarked PDF cannot be submitted to producers, agents, or competitions. It signals amateur status and closes doors before anyone reads a word.
What Arc provides without payment extends well beyond a basic trial skeleton: industry-standard screenplay formatting that matches studio expectations, full access to both the browser-based application and the native desktop client, seamless cloud synchronization across devices, automatic backup protection against data loss, inline commenting for feedback and notes, and export capabilities to both Fountain markup and Final Draft's proprietary format. Software upgrades arrive automatically with your account, ensuring you always work with the current build rather than being stuck on an outdated version.
What the Free tier deliberately excludes is Arc's entire pre-production and organizational infrastructure. No outlining tools for story structure, no season outlines for episodic planning, no custom format templates beyond standard screenplay, no revision management to track draft history, no version history timeline, no shareable feedback links for external reviewers, and no iPhone or iPad applications for mobile writing. The ability to invite collaborators also sits behind the paywall. Arc's FAQ documentation makes a nuanced technical distinction here that many users overlook: sending collaboration invitations requires an active subscription, but the act of collaborating itself—editing documents and leaving comments—functions perfectly well on the free plan once the invitation has been accepted. This means your writing partner, co-writer, or script consultant does not need their own paid account. Only the person who extends the invitation carries that requirement.
That represents a more strategically designed free tier than surface evaluation might suggest. It permits a single paying subscriber to bring multiple unpaid collaborators into active script development without anyone encountering feature lockouts or forced upgrade prompts during the writing process itself. If you are systematically comparing the 免费 tier across every major option in this software category, our comprehensive analysis of what free screenwriting software actually includes in 2026 positions Arc's two-script limitation alongside seven competing platforms, revealing how its restrictions and allowances stack up in practical writing scenarios.
What Arc Studio does well
Arc Studio deliberately removes interface friction. Fewer floating panels competing for screen space, reduced visual chrome and decorative elements, a beat board that remains visible alongside your script text rather than being buried three clicks deep in a dropdown menu. If your previous screenwriting application made you feel like you were piloting complex industrial equipment, Arc's simplified approach will register as immediate relief—a return to writing instead of interface management.
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 一年, and there is no 年度 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 | 年度 equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | None | 免费 | 免费 | 免费 |
| 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 discount paths can lower your upfront cost before committing to full pricing. Students holding a valid .edu email address receive $70 off the Pro tier, bringing the inaugural year down to $29—a rate that positions Pro below the Essentials tier in first-year cost. Educators working in classroom settings can request a specialized educational rate that Arc provides through direct inquiry rather than listing publicly on the pricing page.
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Start FreeWhich tier by situation
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One spec in hand, curious whether the platform fits your workflow | Free | Two scripts provide sufficient room to evaluate core features and decide on fit |
| Solo writer juggling several active projects at once | Essentials | Unlimited scripts plus the full suite of outlining and organizational tools |
| You split your writing time equally between iPad and laptop | Essentials | Mobile app access becomes available starting at this tier |
| 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 熙熙 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 免费. 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 年度 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.
Final Step
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