Raycast AI Pricing in 2026: Credits, Plans and What You'll Pay

Raycast AI costs $10 a month on Raycast Pro, which now comes with 500 AI credits a month. Pro+ is $20 for 3,000 credits and Max is $50 for 7,500, per Raycast's pricing page. Raycast Free comes without AI. Since September 10, 2026, you pay by how much the models read and write, not by message count.

That change landed on a lot of Mac menu bars at once, and the natural reaction is to wonder whether $10 still buys the same thing it did in August. This guide lays out each Raycast plan, how a credit gets spent, how to check your own usage before you pick a tier, when bringing your own ChatGPT or Claude account is cheaper, and how Raycast's credits compare with the flat subscriptions and built-in AI you already have on a Mac. Prices were checked on November 7, 2026.

Raycast AI plans and prices in 2026

Raycast sells three paid plans for individuals, and all three include AI; the Free launcher doesn't. Paying yearly takes the monthly cost down to $8, $16 and $40. These figures come from Raycast's pricing page as of November 7, 2026.

A few details sit outside the table. Verified students get 50% off Pro, and the discount applies only to Pro. New accounts can start a free Pro trial, but the advanced models on Pro+ and Max aren't part of it. Raycast's own announcement calls the middle plan Pro+, while the pricing table labels it Plus; they're the same $20 plan. Teams plans cost more per seat, and our Raycast for Teams guide covers them.

What changed in Raycast AI pricing on September 10, 2026

On September 10, 2026, Raycast moved its AI plans from rate limits to usage-based AI credits and kept every subscription price the same. Before, a plan capped how many requests you could make; now each plan grants a monthly pool of credits that different models drain at different speeds. Raycast's announcement lists the rest of the change:

• Pro stays at $10 and now includes some models that used to need the Advanced AI add-on; the top-tier ones still need Pro+ or Max.
• Advanced AI became Pro+ at $20, moving over at each subscriber's next billing cycle.
• Max is new, at $50 for heavier use.
• Every existing subscriber got one bonus month of AI credits.
• Bring your own AI (a ChatGPT or Claude account, an API key, a custom provider or a local model) now requires a paid plan.

If you're still on Raycast version 1, the switch has a second date. Raycast's credits manual says nothing changes in practice on v1 until December 17, 2026: when credits hit zero, you keep working under the old request limits. After that date, AI stops at zero credits until you update to version 2 or your next allowance arrives. That matters on Intel Macs and older macOS versions, which version 2 doesn't support, as our Raycast alternatives page explains.

How Raycast AI credits work

A Raycast AI credit is a unit of model usage, priced by the model you choose and the amount of text it reads and writes. Raycast is explicit that credits measure AI usage, not a fixed number of messages. Input and output are priced differently, so the same prompt costs different amounts on different models.

Four habits push the count up faster than people expect:

• Long conversations. The longer a chat runs, the more text sits behind each new reply.
• Attachments. A PDF or a long paste is text the model has to read.
• Tool calls. AI Extensions and other tools add work behind each answer.
• Regenerating or editing a message. Each retry is a fresh request.

The model picker is where the cost shows up before you spend it. Next to Speed and Intelligence, each model carries a Cost meter. When I reach for Quick AI to tidy a sentence, I pick a model low on that meter; a sentence doesn't need the smartest model Raycast has, and the meter makes that trade visible.

How to check your Raycast AI credit balance

Raycast shows your remaining credits and every grant in its settings. These steps follow Raycast's credits manual:

1. Open Raycast Settings and go to Account to see the credits you have left and your next renewal date.
2. Select Show details to open AI Usage.
3. Switch between Today, Last 7 Days and Last 30 Days.
4. Read Usage by Model to see which models cost you most, and Credit Activity for each grant and when it expires.

Inside AI Chat you can type /usage instead, or run Show AI Credit Usage from Root Search. For a single answer, open its actions to see Input Credits, Output Credits and Total Credits. A Low Credits pill appears above the composer as you get close, and it turns into No Credits Left at zero.

Rollover, top-ups and running out

Unused Raycast credits roll over for one extra billing cycle: each monthly grant expires 60 days after it arrives, according to the manual. Trial credits last 7 days. Cancelling doesn't change those expiry dates, but you need an active paid plan to use what's left.

Top-ups come in packs of 500, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 credits, bought from Settings, then Account, then Top Up. They last 12 months, aren't available during the Pro trial, and on Teams plans belong to each member rather than a shared pool. Neither the manual nor the pricing page lists what a pack costs, so check the price in the app before you buy. Credits are spent in order of expiry, so your monthly grant usually goes first.

When credits run out, Raycast AI stops until the next allowance, a top-up, or a switch to a model you bring yourself. One thing that catches people: a provider's own rate limit is separate from your credit balance, and buying credits won't lift it.

Is Raycast Pro enough, or do you need Pro+?

Raycast Pro is enough if your AI use is short and occasional; Pro+ is the better deal per credit by a wide margin. Pro gives 500 credits for $10, which works out to 50 credits per dollar. Pro+ gives 3,000 for $20, or 150 per dollar, and Max matches that rate at 7,500 for $50. That's my arithmetic from Raycast's listed prices, not a figure Raycast publishes, but it means Pro+ costs twice as much and holds six times the credits.

Raycast doesn't publish how many credits a typical message costs, since the answer depends on the model and the length. So the honest way to choose is to measure a normal week of your own use:

1. Use Raycast AI the way you normally would for seven days, on whatever plan or trial you have.
2. Open Settings, Account, Show details, and set AI Usage to Last 7 Days.
3. Multiply that week's total by four and a bit to estimate a month.
4. If the estimate sits under 500, stay on Pro. If it's well over, compare Pro+ against Pro plus the occasional top-up, using the top-up prices the app shows you.
5. Check Usage by Model. If one expensive model accounts for most of it, switching to a cheaper model for routine prompts may keep you on Pro.

The common mistake is upgrading after one heavy day. A single afternoon spent feeding long documents to a top model can look alarming in Today, while a full week in Last 7 Days tells you far more. Rollover helps here too: an unused Pro grant stays good for 60 days, so a quiet month cushions a busy one.

Bring your own ChatGPT or Claude account to Raycast

A ChatGPT or Claude subscription you're paying for anyway can be connected to any paid Raycast plan, and models you bring yourself don't use Raycast credits. Raycast's announcement says those models work in AI Chat, Quick AI and AI Commands. Your usage then follows the provider's limits, and the usage panel shows your Claude or ChatGPT account's usage windows instead of a credit count.

I already pay for one chat subscription, so the first thing I looked for in Raycast's change was whether I could plug that in instead of paying for the same models twice. For someone in that spot, the cheapest Raycast AI setup is Pro at $10 (or $96 for the year) plus your existing account connected for the heavy work and the 500 Raycast credits held back for models your subscription doesn't cover.

The other bring-your-own options, all of which need a paid Raycast plan per the manual's Bring Your Own AI page:

• Your own API key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or OpenRouter. You pay the provider for each request on top of Raycast Pro, at that provider's rates.
• A custom provider, meaning any OpenAI-compatible service.
• Local models through Ollama, which run on your Mac with nothing leaving the computer. No provider bill; your Mac's chip and memory set the limits.

Credits vs. flat subscriptions: what AI costs on a Mac

AI on a Mac is sold three ways in 2026: metered credits (Raycast, and our own app, Merlin), flat plans with usage windows you can't see in numbers (ChatGPT, Claude), and AI built into the operating system (Apple Intelligence). Credits tell you exactly what you've spent and punish heavy days; flat plans feel unlimited until a limit appears; built-in AI costs nothing extra but does less. Prices below were checked on each vendor's page on November 7, 2026.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a flat subscription with a desktop app. Its pricing page describes Plus as "expanded" messages and uploads, without numbers, and says Go may include ads. Apple's App Store listing for the ChatGPT app shows Go at $8.00, Plus at $19.99 and Pro tiers at $100, $200 and $500, and it also sells credit packs, such as 100 credits for $4.00. So ChatGPT sells metered extras alongside its flat plans.

Claude

Claude has a Mac download and plans measured in usage windows rather than credits. Anthropic's pricing page lists Pro at $20 a month, or $17 a month billed as $200 a year, and Max at $100 for five times Pro's usage, with limits that reset every 5 hours and every week. You don't see a running balance the way Raycast shows one; you find the edge when you reach it.

Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence is part of macOS 27, so there's no separate plan to buy, and its ChatGPT extension works without a ChatGPT account. Apple's Mac User Guide adds two caveats: features that rely on its server models have daily usage limits, and Apple writes that "expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future." For quick rewrites and summaries inside Apple's apps, it's the free baseline to try before paying anyone.

Merlin

Merlin, our Mac app, also runs on monthly credits, and its pricing page says they pay for the models Merlin runs and the paid tools it uses. Free includes 5,000 credits a month; Pro is $29 for 25,000. Unlike Raycast, unused credits don't carry over. A credit buys a different amount of work in each app, so don't compare the raw numbers across Raycast and Merlin.

Which AI plan to pay for on a Mac

Pay for the AI you'll open every day, and use the free tiers for everything else. Before I renew any AI subscription, I list every AI charge on my card statement on one line, because the overlap is usually where the money goes. My read on who should pay for what, using the prices above:

• You mainly want quick rewrites and summaries in Apple's apps: start with Apple Intelligence and pay nothing.
• You live in Raycast and already pay for ChatGPT or Claude: Raycast Pro with that account connected. Don't buy Pro+ for models your existing plan already includes.
• You live in Raycast and pay for no other AI: Pro if your measured week stays small; Pro+ if it doesn't, since its credits cost a third as much each.
• You want one strong chat assistant in its own Mac app: ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, at about $20 each. Our ChatGPT alternatives comparison weighs the $20 plans against each other.
• You want privacy above all: Raycast Pro with a local model through Ollama keeps prompts on your Mac.
• You want AI that does tasks in your email and calendar, not just answers: look at an assistant built for that, and check how its credits are counted before you commit.

One more check, whichever you pick: put a reminder in your calendar a week before the annual renewal. Yearly billing saves real money on Raycast and Claude, and it's also the easiest way to keep paying for something you stopped using in March.