Overview
For pricing and feature comparisons, visit the pricing page.Plans
Sample Vault has four plans:- Demo Room (free) — the full local app, free forever, with a weekly allowance to try the AI features
- Home Studio (subscription) — for individual producers
- Professional Suite (subscription) — for power users who want cloud storage, sync, and unlimited AI
- Lifetime (one-time purchase) — own the desktop app outright instead of subscribing; see Lifetime
How AI Usage Works
Library size is unlimited on every plan — your samples stay on disk, and analysis (BPM, key, sound characteristics) is always free and runs locally. Only AI operations are metered, and what meters them depends on the operation and your plan. Deep Tagging — the pass that gives every sample its real genre, creator, and sample pack — runs across your whole library on every paid plan, with no cap on size or count. On Demo Room you can deep-tag one folder to try it. Deep Search, the assistant, and the kit designer run under fair use on Professional Suite, so a normal production day never runs out. On Home Studio the assistant carries a monthly allowance while Deep Search and the kit designer run under fair use. AI Collections and library auto-organization are paid-plan features that run under fair use, with no allowance.Starter Pools
Every account without an active subscription — Demo Room, and Lifetime holders who haven’t added a subscription — can try the AI features for free:- A weekly allowance of AI actions shared across the assistant’s AI features — Deep Search, the assistant chat, the Sketch Designer, and library Suggestions all draw from it. Every action costs the same, whichever feature it came from. Your first allowance is larger than the weekly one, so there’s room to try each feature properly before it settles into the weekly rhythm. The allowance refills each week; unused actions don’t carry over.
- Deep Tagging on one folder, so you can see your real genres, creators, and packs before deciding.
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)
Route AI requests through your own OpenRouter API key instead of Sample Vault’s managed pools. BYOK is available on Professional Suite and Lifetime. Two modes are available:- Key only — every AI call uses your key; no Sample Vault pool is touched.
- Pools first, then key — operations draw from your plan’s pools, and silently fall through to your key once a pool is empty.
Checking that a key works
A key OpenRouter accepts is not always a key that can do the work. Your OpenRouter account’s privacy, guardrail, and provider settings decide which providers a request may reach, and your credit balance decides whether it runs at all. A spending limit is not a balance: OpenRouter won’t charge your card unless you pre-pay or turn on auto top-up. Sample Vault chooses its own model for each feature, so an account restricted to one model family can block work even when that family is allowed. Deep Tagging, search, the assistant, and collections don’t all run on the same model. Sample Vault can check a saved key for you. It confirms the key is recognised, reports the remaining balance, and tries a minimal request against each model it relies on, naming the reason for anything that comes back blocked. The check runs when you save a key and can be run again at any time from your API key settings.Assistant Memory
The assistant can remember your preferences, the conventions you work by, and what you’re currently working on, and carry that context between sessions. It’s part of Professional Suite, and available on Lifetime when you bring your own AI key. Home Studio and Demo Room don’t carry memory between sessions. Everything the assistant remembers is visible and editable — see AI Assistant → Memory.Lifetime
Lifetime is a one-time license that unlocks the desktop app for good, with all future updates included. There’s no recurring subscription. What it includes:- The full desktop app — unlimited library size, the Library and all its views, Sound Profile, Similar Samples, Quick Actions, tempo and key lock, Ableton Link, and unlimited projects.
- AI through your own key. Lifetime doesn’t come with managed AI pools, so Deep Search, Deep Tagging, the assistant, and AI collections run on a key you bring yourself. Without a key, you still get the same free weekly AI allowance as Demo Room.
- Your own cloud, optional. There’s no built-in cloud storage, but you can back up and sync through your own Dropbox or Google Drive — no subscription required.
- Activated on your devices — see Device activation below.
Device activation
A Lifetime license is tied to your devices rather than to an active subscription. The first time you open the app on a machine, give the device a name and activate it. The license can stay active on up to three devices at once. To move the license to a different machine once you’ve reached the limit, revoke one of your activated devices from the Manage devices page, then activate the new one. Revoking frees the slot right away.Storage
Storage caps apply only to samples uploaded to cloud storage. Local files on your disk never count.
Built-in cloud storage and sync come with Professional Suite.
Storage caps are max-preserving across concurrent entitlements (the highest one wins) and never shrink on downgrade.
On Professional Suite and Lifetime, you can also route uploads through your own Dropbox or Google Drive instead of the built-in cloud. Those uploads count toward your own provider’s storage, not Sample Vault’s caps. Lifetime has no built-in cloud, so this is its backup and sync path.
Browser Access
Browser access — using Sample Vault from any modern browser at samplevault.ai — is included on Professional Suite, since it works against the samples you’ve uploaded to cloud storage. Demo Room, Home Studio, and Lifetime users see an upgrade prompt at sign-in.Monitoring Usage
Open Settings → Billing & Usage for your allowance meters. The avatar in the top navigation also shows a small dot when one is running low — open the menu to see which.When You Hit Limits
- Demo Room Deep Tagging trial used — Once you’ve deep-tagged your one free folder, upgrade to a paid plan to deep-tag your whole library, or route Deep Tagging through your own key on Lifetime.
- Weekly AI allowance used (Demo Room) — The shared AI features pause until the allowance refills the following week. Active features like Deep Search, the assistant chat, and the Sketch Designer stop running; passive assists like library Suggestions and prompt ideas simply go quiet. Upgrade to a paid plan (or, on Lifetime, add your own key) to keep going without waiting. Local browsing, playback, and the everyday free Library search keep working as normal.
- Home Studio assistant allowance used — The assistant pauses for the rest of the month; Deep Search, the kit designer, and Deep Tagging keep running under fair use. Upgrade to Professional Suite for an assistant with no monthly allowance.
- Fair-use cap hit (paid) — You’ll see a brief slow-down message; capacity recovers within seconds to a minute.
- Storage cap hit — New uploads pause; existing uploaded samples remain accessible.
Managing Your Subscription
- Demo Room users: Click “Upgrade Plan” in Settings → Billing & Usage to see paid options.
- Paid subscribers: Use “Manage Your Subscription” to update payment details, change plans, or cancel.