The Free Plan: What's Included and Where the Limits Are
A clear breakdown of the playout.video Free plan: what you can build and stream at no cost, which limits apply (watermark, 2-hour sessions, two destinations), and what upgrading changes.
What the Free Plan Is
The Free plan is a permanent $0 tier. It is not a trial: there is no countdown to expiry and no credit card required. Every new account starts here, and you can stay here as long as you like.
The idea is simple: you get the full production toolset to build a channel, and enough streaming allowance to run it casually. Paying starts when your channel does serious hours.
What You Can Do on Free
Everything involved in building a channel works on Free:
Upload videos and organize your media library (individual videos up to 1 hour long, 10GB total storage)
Import videos from a link, up to 3 an hour
Build playlists and arrange your timeline
Design overlays in the composition editor and save up to 10 overlay templates
Create calendars for scheduled streams: add entries, set up recurring blocks, plan your programming
Go live with one stream at 1080p30 to two connected platforms
Use Live Studio with up to 2 guests, in sessions up to 2 hours
The Limits
Limit | Free plan |
|---|---|
Watermark | playout.video watermark on all output |
Concurrent streams | 1 |
Quality | 1080p at 30fps |
Destinations per stream | 2 |
Session length | 2 hours, then auto-stop |
Storage | 10GB |
Upload length | 1 hour per video |
Imports from a link | 3 videos per hour |
Live Studio guests | 2 |
Overlay templates | 10 |
Recording to library | Not included |
Custom RTMP destinations (output) | Not included |
RTMP/WHIP source input (into studio) | Not included (Business) |
Running calendar schedules | Build only (running requires Channel) |
Website embed | Not included (Channel add-on, or Business) |
Two of these deserve a closer look:
The watermark appears on every stream from a Free workspace. It comes off the moment you upgrade to any paid plan. See How to Remove the playout.video Watermark.
The 2-hour session cap means a Free stream stops itself after 2 hours of continuous streaming. You can start it again whenever a free slot is open; the cap is per session, not per day. Free streams share our servers, so at busy times paid accounts start first. The stream page shows a countdown as you approach the limit. See Session Length Limits: Why Your Stream Stopped.
Storage on Free
Free includes 10GB of media storage. You can see how much you use in Settings → Usage.
When Your Library Is Over 10GB
This usually happens when a paid plan ends and the library is bigger than Free allows. Nothing is deleted straight away. Workspace owners get an email, and the storage card in Settings → Usage shows how many days are left. After 30 days, the oldest files are removed until the library fits in 10GB.
To keep your files, delete the ones you don't need or upgrade to a paid plan. On a paid plan nothing is removed.
When Nobody Uses the Workspace
If nobody in a Free workspace signs in, uploads a file or starts a stream for 90 days, its media library is deleted. Owners get emails before that happens. The workspace and its streams stay, so you can upload again later.
Free vs Creator: the First Upgrade
Creator ($19/mo billed annually) is the natural first upgrade, and it changes the three limits people hit first:
The watermark comes off.
Sessions become persistent. No more 2-hour cap: this is where true 24/7 streaming starts.
Multistreaming opens up: 5 destinations instead of 2, plus custom RTMP endpoints.
It also raises storage to 100GB, uploads to 4 hours per video, Live Studio to 8 guests, and adds recording your streams to the library.
If your goal is a calendar-programmed channel that goes live on schedule, look at Channel instead: The Channel Plan: Run Your Channel Like a TV Network.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my Free workspace ever expire? No. The workspace and its settings stay as long as your account exists. Its media library is deleted after 90 days with no activity, as described in When Nobody Uses the Workspace.
I had a trial before. What happened to it? Trials are gone. Accounts that previously had an expired trial are now simply Free workspaces with the limits above.
Can I test everything before paying? Almost everything. Building calendars, designing overlays, and rehearsing in Live Studio all work on Free. The main things you cannot try are running a calendar schedule, recording, website embeds (a Channel add-on, or included on Business), and RTMP/WHIP source input (pushing OBS or a hardware encoder into the studio, a Business feature).