# How the free trial works URL: https://useembers.com/help/account-and-billing/free-trial/ Category: Account and billing Updated: 2026-10-31 Last verified: 2026-10-31 > Your trial covers your first 2,000 engagers or 7 days from when you first open your leads, whichever comes first. No card needed; contacts need a paid plan. Your trial covers your **first 2,000 engagers**, and it starts the moment you create your account, with no card. An engager is a public profile Embers fetches for your workspace because its owner reacted to or commented on a post, profile, or keyword you watch, whether or not they match your ICP. The trial ends when those 2,000 are used, or 7 days after you first open your leads, whichever comes first. One exception: if the 2,000 are used before 25 of them match your ICP, Embers pauses your agents but keeps the trial open until its days run out, so a watched page with the wrong audience does not end your trial in an afternoon. Pick a plan to resume the agents, or change what you watch first. The 7 days start the first time you see them: the first-leads screen at the end of setup, the **Leads** page, or a lead's detail. Until then the days do not count down, even once your agents are scanning, but the engager count does not wait. If your agents have run for 7 days and nobody has opened the leads, the days start then. If you never open them, the trial ends 30 days after signup. Nothing is charged unless you choose a plan. The trial runs on the Solo plan, so you get Solo's limits: one member, 5 [watched profiles](/help/account-and-billing/linkedin-accounts-and-seats/), and 10 keywords. See [compare plans and limits](/help/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits/). Because the trial is Solo, every [destination Embers can send leads to](/help/integrations/overview/) works during it. Agency and Signal War Room have no trial; they begin after the Embers team confirms scope. Profiles with 250,000 followers or more are not collected on the trial or on any plan. See [very large audiences](/help/signals/watchlist/#very-large-audiences). > **Warning: Contact details are not part of the trial** > > Emails and phone numbers unlock with your first paid month on Solo or above. During the trial the contact card on a lead is locked, a CSV export leaves the email and phone columns blank, and webhook payloads leave out the [contact fields](/help/integrations/webhook-payload-reference/#contact-fields). See [reveal a lead's email and phone](/help/outreach/lead-enrichment-and-contact-info/). ## Make the most of the trial The engager count, not the calendar, usually ends a trial. A busy watchlist reaches 2,000 well inside a week, so set up on day one rather than waiting. ### Finish setup on day one Add at least one profile to watch, confirm your ICP, and choose your agents. The [quickstart](/help/getting-started/quickstart/) walks through it. Setup does not use up your days: they start the first time you open your leads. ### Watch the count The **Free trial** card at the foot of the sidebar shows both numbers with a bar, for example "412 of 2,000 engagements used" and "5 days left". Until you open your leads it reads "7 days start when you first open your leads" instead of counting down. The bell at the top right opens **Notifications**, which shows the same card with **Pick a plan** and tells you when you pass half the engagements, the last tenth of them, three days left, and the last day; the bell counts what you have not read yet. The plan card on **Settings**, then **Billing** (`/settings/billing`) repeats the numbers, and the **Trial engagements** card under it shows the count against the cap with a bar, for example "1,840 of 2,000". **Refresh billing** at the top of that page reads the latest count. On the dashboard the same numbers sit in the **Free trial** card, with what a plan keeps and **Pick a plan**. Nothing sits over the page while the trial has room. In the last three days, or within the last tenth of the engagements, a blue line appears at the top of every page but the dashboard, such as "3 days left in your trial. Pick a plan before Oct 23 to keep your agents running." with **Pick a plan**. Close it and it stays away until the next step: the last day, or the engagements nearly running out. ### Skip the trial when you are ready Choose **Pick a plan** on the sidebar's **Free trial** card, in **Notifications**, or on the line at the top of the page to open `/choose-plan`, or **Skip trial and pay now** on the plan card to jump to the plan table below it. Pick Solo, Growth, or Enterprise, monthly or yearly. Checkout is hosted by Dodo Payments and charges you that day. Its discount code field takes a code such as **TRIGIFY30**, the Trigify switch offer: 30% off your first three months on a monthly Solo, Growth, or Enterprise plan, once per customer, until 31 December 2026. It does not apply to yearly plans. The trial ends the moment the payment goes through, which lifts the 2,000 cap and unlocks contact details. On `/choose-plan`, **Keep my trial** takes you back without paying. The first time you export leads or draft a DM during the trial, a notice reads "Keep this running after your trial", with how many trial engagements you have used, **Not now**, and **Start Solo today**, which opens `/choose-plan`. It shows once per workspace in each browser. Only the workspace owner sees the trial's card, notices and the Billing screen. Someone who joins by invitation starts no trial of their own; they work under the plan of the workspace they joined. ## What counts as an engager Embers counts every person it scores across the workspaces you own, whatever their fit. Your queue shows only confirmed leads, so the count on the trial card always runs ahead of the leads you see. A scan never takes the count past 2,000: when one finds more engagers than the trial has room for, Embers keeps the best-scored ones that fit, and the trial ends there. ## When the trial ends Nothing is charged and no plan starts on its own, and the trial never starts again on its own. The workspace moves to Free: - **Agents stop.** Free cannot run them, and Embers emails you that they are paused. Nothing new is collected until you choose a plan. To read each agent's status and restart it, see [find out why your agents stopped scanning](/help/troubleshooting/agents-not-scanning/). - **Nothing that costs runs.** Rebuilding your ICP, starting or retrying the setup scan, and adding or refreshing a watched profile are refused with "Your free trial has ended. Pick a plan to keep going." If you had not finished setup, `/onboarding` shows **Your free trial has ended** with **Pick a plan** and **Go to dashboard**. - **The app becomes a preview.** Each list keeps its first few rows with the rest behind a "Pick a plan" panel, and the company and title filters on the leads list are empty. A yellow line at the top of every page but the dashboard (where the trial card says it) reads "Your trial ended on" the date, then "Agents are paused and your leads are locked until you pick a plan.", with **Pick a plan**. **Notifications** keeps the same notice. You are not locked out and nothing redirects. - **The plans open over the app.** Outside Billing and setup, **Your trial has ended** opens over the page with the plans, and it has no close button. If you belong to another workspace, **Switch workspace** under the plans (**Switch client** in an agency) opens the workspace switcher, so you can keep working in a workspace that has a plan. - **Nothing is deleted.** Leads, ICP, agents, reports, and settings stay as they were and pick up again when you subscribe. There is no re-onboarding. - **What the trial added is kept, paused.** The trial runs on Solo's limits (5 watched profiles, 10 keywords) and Free's are 1 and 0, so you can be past Free's caps without having done anything wrong. On Billing the **Watched profiles** and **Keywords** cards read "Kept, paused until you pick a plan" with **Pick a plan**, not **Over limit**. The watchlist and keyword lists say "Your free trial has ended. These profiles are kept and paused until you pick a plan." (keywords the same), and adding is off: removing one does not make room, because nothing is added until you pick a plan. - **Email goes quiet.** Free gets no digest and no update notifications. Billing and account email still arrive. Embers then issues a personal return offer: **20% off your first billing cycle**, good for **14 days** from when the trial ended. The Billing screen shows it with a **Claim 20% off** button, and the discount applies only once you claim it. The plan table on Billing, the plan picker that opens over a page, and `/choose-plan` (where the dashboard's trial card and the trial-ended banner lead) offer the same **Claim 20% off**; a plan picked without claiming bills the full price. In the plan picker and on `/choose-plan` the offer sits above the plans with the day it ends; once claimed it turns green, "20% off applied", and every plan shows the price you will pay, the full price struck beside it and "20% off your first year" (or "first month" on monthly billing). The plan table on Billing then says "Your 20% return offer is applied at checkout, for your first billing cycle." See [return offers after a plan ends](/help/account-and-billing/cancel-pause-or-resume/#after-the-plan-ends). The plan picker opens by itself once per visit after the trial ends. Close it, or choose **Not now**, to look around the workspace first; the banner at the top of the page and the dashboard's trial card keep **Pick a plan** in reach, and `/choose-plan` has **Back to dashboard**. For the same 14 days the workspace owner can answer one question about the trial: **Help improve Embers**, "One quick question about your trial.", with **Share feedback**, on the Billing screen and under the ended trial card on the dashboard. Answering, skipping, or dismissing it never changes the return offer. ## Refunds You can request a refund of your **first paid charge within 14 days** of that charge. Later charges and partial billing periods are not refundable except where the law requires it. Write to viraj@useembers.com. The refund window is separate from the trial: the trial is the time before you pay anything, the refund window is the 14 days after your first charge. ## Related - [Quickstart](/help/getting-started/quickstart/): From signup to your first ranked lead. - [Compare plans and limits](/help/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits/): What each plan includes after the trial. - [Change your plan](/help/account-and-billing/change-plan/): Move between Solo, Growth, and Enterprise once you pay. ## Frequently asked questions **When do the 7 days start?** The first time you open your leads, whether that is the first-leads screen at the end of setup, the Leads page or a lead's detail. Until then the days do not count down, even while your agents scan. If your agents have run for 7 days and nobody has looked, the days start then. If you never open your leads, the trial ends 30 days after signup. **What happens if I use the 2,000 engagers but find few leads?** If fewer than 25 of them match your ICP, your agents pause but the trial stays open until its 7 days end. Your leads stay where they are. Pick a plan to resume the agents, and change what you watch so the next scan finds buyers. **What counts as an engager?** Every public profile Embers fetches for your workspaces because they reacted to or commented on something you watch. ICP matches and non-matches both count, so the count runs ahead of the leads in your queue. **Do I need a card to start the trial?** No. The trial starts on its own when you create your account, and nothing is charged unless you choose a plan. **Can I see contact details during the trial?** No. Email addresses and phone numbers unlock with your first paid month. Until then the contact card on a lead is locked and CSV exports leave the contact columns blank. **Do I need to cancel the trial?** No. Nothing is charged automatically and no plan begins on its own, so there is nothing to cancel. **Can I trial twice?** No. The trial runs once per email address, so deleting the account and signing up again with the same email starts no new trial. After it ends, choosing a plan starts billing straight away. The Embers team can give a trial more time once, for example to reach the leads it found; the **Free trial** card in the sidebar then shows the new end date and engagement count.