I read Eric’s comments slightly differently:
Photo ($99) + Gigapixel (was: $49, s/b: $64) = was: $148/year**$163**
Gigapixel ($49) + Video ($149) = $198/year, hard cap $163
Photo ($99) + Video ($149) = $248/year, hard cap $163
Gigapixel ($49) + Photo ($99) + Video ($149) = $297/year, hard cap $163
Any 2 out of 3 gets you full Studio
and that will be:
My mistake. R-1 & PaulM set me straight. It is always $163.
Gigapixel AI costs $64 to renew, not $49. 64 plus 99 gives you the $163 price.
Those who are only paying $148 are doing so because they got a discount (I believe it was 15%) for signing up to auto-renewal when the subscription option was first introduced.
Well, that is a new one on me. A 15% discount. Never saw that one coming. Thanks, PaulM. Now it is all coming together. So it really is $163. OK. Duly noted.
As PaulM explained to me, you’re right R1. And I was mistaken. The cloud of confusion has lifted!
Not necessarily - Eric has said that the payment will be capped at $163, meaning that’s the maximum you’ll pay. It may well be that those paying less will continue to pay their current price - but of course I’m speculating.
Thanks! You are correct. I was wrong.
Those of us currently paying less than $163 have had our subscriptions adjusted so we’re paying $163. That was the whole point of my post.
If you have 2+ auto-renewals, during the transition all but one gets cancelled, and that remaining sub turns into Topaz Studio at $163/yr. E.g. if you had Gigapixel + Photo AI, Photo AI gets cancelled and Gigapixel turns into Topaz Studio
This subscription has been automatically cancelled due to a new subscription for the same product.
Which also means that if next year you decide you only need Gigapixel, you have to start a new subscription at a minimum of $149/yr instead of the current $64/yr. So in that case it might actually make sense to NOT be transitioned to Topaz Studio.
The main issue is that we thought we were going to keep our existing individual subscriptions (Giga, Photo, Video) and then gain access to Studio as long as those were auto-renewed. This cancellation of subs came out of nowhere.
I appreciate that they might’ve been trying to do something special for existing customers but this was a terrible rollout and horribly messaged. People are already experiencing subscription fatigue and this didn’t help. Also, there are errors all over the place. The new annual price for Gigapixel is $12/month ($144), but billed at $149/year.
I think the plan all along was for Founder’s subscriptions to be $163, so they should’ve just gone with that - subscribe to Topaz Studio before September 16 and get grandfathered at that price, instead of the 2+ auto-renewals kerfuffle.
And then if they wanted to go with the 2+ auto-renewals, they should’ve made it simple - 2 renewals at $163 → Studio. 3 renewals at $312 → Studio Pro.
Eric was very clear what the intention was:
I’m another who will need to contact support because their “internal logic” decided to be unfriendly.
Eric might’ve been clear here, but as those of us who’ve been transitioned can attest, no one is paying less than $163, so in all likelihood $163 was the Founder’s price that they agreed upon internally, and the lowest two active upgrade licenses thing was something that the accounts team had no idea about.
Perhaps you’re right R-1 NA NA, however I think it’s more likely the intention was for it to work as the CEO described in the public forums.
I trust they’ll rectify the issue given the opportunity.
I was at $84, and $54 = $138 set to autopay on 30 Sep 25. We’ll see what happens when I “soon” get transitioned to the Founders Subscription…
So is Topaz Studio going to get its own section in the Forums? Right now…this is the only real “active” thread I see about Studio and it’s buried within “Other Releases”.
There are separate threads fro Video, Gigapixel and Photo, eg:
https://community.topazlabs.com/t/topaz-photo-v1-0-0/95494/171
IMHO they should have “(Studio)” appended to avoid confusion
I agree, and suggested that when the new names were added a week or so ago. TL replied saying that they were watching and steering posts to the appropriate area basd upon content.
As someone who was already familiar with the Community Forums, I was initially a little confused by the similar names. I can’t imagine how baffled newcomers must be when they’re just becoming familiar with the layout…
My recommendation is to buy the one-time version and make sure auto-renewal is on. This way you get founder stats, legacy app access, and access to the new Topaz Video app. Then just download Topaz Video, it should work for you even prior to our auto-transition.
that’s correct, the transition will not raise anyone’s subscription payments
Thanks.
Man, I’m so confused.
I watched a video tutorial online that used gigapixel cli to do some cool stuff in ComfyUI. I had gigapixel so I figured I could use that. Then I found out Topaz went to a subscription model, and further they added a “PRO” version to use CLI.
I rarely use any of these products, it’s basically for hobby stuff. So…if I get this founder thing with the 2 legacy apps before 26th, which you mention gives PRO features…can I use CLI with Gigapixel or not? Or is CLI still something that requires a PRO subscription??
Why make it so complicated? Just put a $163 option to pay to upgrade/subscribe for “Founders”.
I have current subscriptions to Video and Gigapixel - making me a founder I suppose - so OK - isn’t Photo now supposed to be included now? Every time I open Photo (after signing out/in, etc), the programs says an “upgrade” is available (like it has for several months) - but the website still wants me to pay $99?
Is that right? I thought “everything” was included for “founders”?
Thanks…
