Most of it never leaves the house
The assistant thinks on your own machine, and thinking on your own machine costs nothing per use — however much of it there is. That is the whole reason the bill can be flat.
The question nobody answers
What does it cost to run?
Nothing. There is no meter, no per-word charge, and no bill at the end of a heavy month. The price you have already seen is the price for the year, and using it more does not move it.
What you pay per question
Nothing
Ask it once a week or four hundred times a day. It is the same bill either way, and the bill arrives once a year.
The small jobs stay small
Tidying a long conversation, naming something, reading a page you sent it — none of that reaches for anything expensive. It is the commonest way these things quietly become costly, and it is handled.
When an outside model is worth it, we pay
Some questions genuinely deserve one of the big models, and we will not pretend otherwise. You open the valve, we choose which one, and the cost comes out of the same flat fee — never out of a bill to you.
There is no bill to be surprised by
No meter, no overage, no true-up at the end of the year. If your household ever needed far more than we planned for, we would come and discuss it in writing rather than send you a larger invoice.
Why everyone else’s bill is unpredictable.
An assistant assembled from parts bills you for every word it reads and every word it writes. That sounds small until you notice how much of its work is invisible: it re-reads the whole conversation each time you add a line, it checks things on a schedule whether or not anything changed, and it quietly does small jobs in the background all day. None of that feels like usage. All of it is billed.
The models themselves are not priced alike, either. The strongest ones cost well over a hundred times more per word than perfectly capable ordinary ones. Someone who runs the expensive model for everything — including the small background jobs that nobody would ever notice — pays that multiple on all of it. The fix is to match the work to the model, and to let the routine things run somewhere that costs nothing at all. That is real work, it has to be redone whenever anything changes, and it is exactly the sort of thing we exist to take off your desk.
So we do it. Nearly everything happens on your own machine, where there is no per-word charge no matter how much of it there is. The small jobs never reach for anything expensive. Scheduled checks look first and only wake the assistant proper if something has actually changed. And when a question genuinely deserves one of the big outside models — some of them are better, and we will not pretend otherwise — you open the valve, we choose which one, and we pay for it out of the same flat fee.
Assembled from parts
- A stack of subscriptions — $40 to $60 a month for a household, past $100 for anyone who leans on it
- Plus usage, billed per word, on top of the subscriptions
- A heavy week costs more than a light one, and you find out afterwards
- Keeping the bill down is a standing chore, and it is yours
With us
- One fee, once a year, agreed in writing before you pay it
- No usage charge of any kind — there is nothing to meter
- A heavy week and a light week cost exactly the same
- Keeping it efficient is our chore, and you will never see it happen
The honest part: this is not magic, it is absorbed. We carry the cost of the outside models and the work of keeping that cost sensible, and we priced the year knowing we would. If your household turned out to need far more of the expensive kind of thinking than we expected, we would come and talk to you about it in writing rather than quietly send you a larger bill — because a larger bill is the one thing we have promised you will never get.
For the reader who wants the mechanics
You do not need any of this, and nothing below is ever asked of you. It is here because a few readers will want to know that the savings are real rather than rhetorical.
- The assistant’s own housekeeping — summarising a long conversation, naming things, reading a page you sent it — is handled by small models on your machine rather than by the expensive one. It is the single largest saving, and it changes nothing about what you experience.
- Anything the assistant can reach for is described to it only when it actually reaches. Carrying descriptions of every tool into every exchange is the most common way an assistant becomes expensive without becoming better.
- Anything that runs on a schedule checks cheaply first. A mailbox that has nothing new in it does not wake the assistant at all; most scheduled checks end without anything thinking about anything.
- Long-running conversations are kept trimmed. Older exchanges are folded down into what mattered, so a conversation that has run for months does not re-read months of itself every time you add a line.
- If an outside model is unavailable when it is genuinely needed, another is used instead. You will not see the swap, and nothing waits on it.
- There is a ceiling on what the assistant may spend outside without asking. You never set it, and you are told in writing what it is.
And what the fee covers
Everything on this list stops being your problem.
The flat fee is not only buying model time. It is buying the dozen small standing jobs that a private assistant otherwise hands to you.
The job
Anywhere else
With us
Setting it upGetting from a box to something useful
You, across a weekend, with a browser full of tabs open — and a five-minute wizard is still five minutes of you
Done before it ships. It arrives configured, named, and already knowing your household.
Loading your historyTwenty years of letters, photographs, records
Nobody offers this. You sort it yourself, or it never happens.
We do it, by hand, before the machine reaches you.
Keeping it currentUpdates, versions, the thing that broke overnight
You, on a Sunday, reading release notes
Nothing to click. You will not know it happened.
BackupsAnd getting it all back after the worst day
You remembered to set it up, and you hope you set it up correctly
Continuous, encrypted, and our responsibility to restore.
When it breaksBecause eventually something does
A support forum, a queue, a replacement you buy again
We fix or replace it. Our job, not yours.
Keeping it privateThe part everyone promises and few can prove
A policy you are asked to trust, or a codebase you are asked to audit
Under your own roof it physically cannot leave the house. Written scopes, written deletion confirmations.
Asking for helpAt the moment you actually need it
Videos, a community, a chat window and your own patience
You write to us and we handle it. Nothing on it is your job.
Owning it in the endWhat you have after a year of paying
A subscription that renews, and a machine that drifts out of date
The machine — and everything it has learned — is yours to keep.
What you are billed
Over a year
Nine invoices from nine companies — $40–60 a month for a household, past $100 for someone who leans on it
One
Apply for a number
We do not sell this as a saving. You are not buying a cheaper stack; you are buying the end of having a stack.
Answers before you apply
What does it cost?
One membership covers everything: the machine, onboarding done before it ships, your history loaded, integrations connected, the care, and human support. The founding year is $8,995 for Home and $19,995 for Studio — list is $10,995 and $24,995 once the sixteen founding seats are gone — and founders renew at $4,995 and $11,995, locked for as long as membership is continuous. Estate & Office starts at $36,000 a year and is scoped by conversation.
How does it begin?
It begins with the Archive Assessment — $1,950 for Home, $3,950 for Studio. We catalogue a slice of your records and hand back a written scope plus a working demonstration built on your own material, which you keep either way. It reserves your numbered seat, and is credited in full against your founding year. It is delivered work, not a deposit: once we begin it is not refundable, and if we cannot serve you exceptionally we decline the commission and return it rather than take it.
Can I try it first?
No. Every system is built for one member and loaded with their world, so there is nothing generic to lend out and take back. What protects you instead: a written review of your application before any invitation — if it is not right for you, we will say so in writing — your founding year confirmed with you in writing before it begins, the 72-hour arrival guarantee, and a warranty that makes repairs our job.
Why not just use one of the AI apps?
Because an app you rent is a room in someone else’s building: your questions travel to its computers, the subscription never ends, and it never adds up to anything you own. This machine reads and answers in your house — and after a year it is yours. The side-by-side: your assistant vs the AI apps →
Who gets accepted?
Members whose archives and households we can serve exceptionally — that is the whole test. You apply in writing, we review your application, and if it fits you receive an invitation with a 10-day window. If it does not fit, we will say so — in writing, before any invitation.
What do I own?
Stay a year, and the machine — and everything it has learned — is yours to keep. Until then, looking after it is our job: if it breaks, we fix or replace it — our job, not yours.
What if I cancel after year one?
The machine keeps working, on your shelf, without us — it is yours, and so is everything it has learned. If you stay instead, you renew at your founding rate, locked for as long as your membership is continuous.
Apply to join — the Founding Sixteen
Sixteen numbered memberships · one fixed price, at either address · cared for from Miami, USA
One fee, once a year
No meter, at either address.
Both addresses are flat, and both are the same fee. What you have already seen is what it costs.
The founding year
$8,995 / year
Everything included, at either address. Fixed until September 2027.
The Assessment is delivered work you keep, and is credited in full against your founding year. Your year is confirmed with you in writing and is final. Under your own roof, ownership vests at twelve months.
Not sure yet? Write to us first — if we cannot serve you exceptionally, we will say so before you commit to a year. Ask us anything