Plans and credits: the complete guide

In short

Want to know what Carteia costs and what you get? Here's everything in plain terms. The price is made of two simple things:

• A subscription (monthly or annual) that unlocks the features and gives you access to the platform.
• Credits, which work like tokens: you use them for the "heavy" operations (artificial intelligence, PDFs, customer emails). Each month you get some included in your plan and you can buy more when you need them.

The best part: you start for free with Assaggio, try everything at your own pace and only move up when your venue grows. No surprises.

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What it costs: the six plans

Here are the prices side by side. They're per month and include VAT. Choosing annual billing costs less: you pay once a year and save compared to twelve separate months.

Full feature comparison

This table updates itself with the real limits and features of the moment. Read it from left (cheapest) to right (most complete): for each feature you see what's included in every plan.

Which plan is right for you

Assaggio (free)

For those who just want to put the menu online with a QR code. Perfect for a small bar, an ice cream shop or a B&B. You get 1 venue, 2 languages, up to 40 dishes and 1 PDF per month (with the Carteia watermark).

Osteria (€8 per month)

The first paid step. Remove the 40-dish limit, unlock a few AI menu imports and customize your page colors. Great for seasonal venues and simple businesses.

Bistro (€25 per month)

The plan for the serious independent: 4 languages, unlimited reservations from the menu, custom QR with your logo, wine and beer list, AI pairings and FAQs, automatic translations and watermark-free PDFs. The "professional" entry point.

Ristorante (€59 per month)

For the structured restaurant, even with several rooms. Includes 1 venue, expandable with the Extra venue add-on. Adds advanced booking and table management, food cost calculation, full analytics, the customer book and marketing tools.

Insegna (€129 per month)

For small chains up to 2 venues. Unlocks marketing automation, loyalty points, advanced events, customer segments and unlimited collaborators.

Insegna Plus (€199 per month)

For larger groups: up to 5 venues and the highest allowances of credits, AI imports and PDFs. Everything in Insegna, with more capacity.

Do you run a national franchise or need a connection to your POS system? Write to us at hello@carteia.app and we'll find a tailored solution.

Credits: what they are and what they're for

Credits are Carteia's tokens. They're used for operations that take "extra" work from the system, especially the ones with artificial intelligence. Think of them like old phone tokens: you get some included and, when they run out, you buy more.

There are two types of credits and it's important to understand the difference:

Credits included in the plan

Each month your plan gives you an allowance of credits (0 with Assaggio, 15 with Osteria, 60 with Bistro, 250 with Ristorante, 600 with Insegna, 1,000 with Insegna Plus). They reset on renewal: unused ones don't roll over.

Credits bought separately

You buy them in packs whenever you want. They last 12 months and add up between one purchase and the next. They're your "reserve" for peak months.

When you run an operation, Carteia uses the credits that expire first: so the included ones of the month first, then the reserve you bought (starting from the oldest). That way nothing goes to waste. You see a single balance: no maths required.

How much each operation costs

This table updates itself with the real costs of the moment and lists all the operations that consume credits. The ones that don't appear here (like publishing the menu, creating the basic QR or managing reservations) are included in the plan and don't cost credits.

A couple of useful things to know:

• Translations cost Senza costo aggiuntivo per language: if you translate into 3 languages, that's 6 credits.
• Emails cost very little: 1 credit per 10 sends. AI-generated marketing ideas cost Senza costo aggiuntivo on request, but the Ristorante, Insegna and Insegna Plus plans include some for free every month (3, 5 and 10 per month respectively).
• The food cost calculation of a recipe is free: Senza costo aggiuntivo.

How to buy credits

When you need more credits, you buy them in packs from the Subscription page. The bigger the pack, the better the price per credit. And from the Osteria plan up, you get an automatic discount on packs that grows with the plan (up to 40% with Insegna and Insegna Plus). You can also enable auto top-up, which gives you 10% extra credits on every refill.

You'll find the details on packs, prices, discounts and auto top-up in the dedicated guide: Buying credits.

Add-ons: add without changing plan

Sometimes you just need "a little bit more" without moving up a whole plan. That's what add-ons are for: you pay them monthly and turn them on or off whenever you want:

Not all plans can activate every add-on: for example the extra venue and collaborator start from the Bistro plan, while the extra language is available from Osteria. The Subscription page shows you only the ones you can activate.

The 14-day free trial

When you activate a paid plan for the first time, you start with 14 days of trial. During the trial you use the Bistro plan features, so you can see what changes first-hand. At the end of the 14 days, the plan you chose starts automatically. If you change your mind before, cancel and you pay nothing.

Every now and then there's also a launch promotion on the Osteria plan that gives the first 3 months free: if you find it at sign-up, it's applied automatically.

Payment, invoices and cancellation in a nutshell

• You pay securely with card, Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe, the payment service used by millions of businesses.
• You manage receipts and payment documents from the payment portal, which you open with one click from the Subscription page. All the details are in the Invoicing guide.
• You can cancel whenever you want, with no penalties. And if you change your mind within 14 days of the first payment, you have the right to a full refund (European right of withdrawal). See the Cancellation guide.
• If a payment fails, Carteia retries for a few days and notifies you. If after the attempts the payment still doesn't go through, the account automatically returns to the Assaggio plan: access to paid features is suspended, but your data and menu stay intact and come back as soon as you fix the payment.

Next steps

• Buying credits
• Invoicing
• Cancelling your subscription