{ "schema_version": "1.0", "id": "piktochart", "name": "Piktochart", "research_status": "researched", "vendor_domain": "piktochart.com", "category": "Design & Content", "task": "Ads, creative & branding", "summary": "Infographic, report and poster maker with template libraries and AI credits. The free plan limits downloads, Pro is priced per member, and PDF and PowerPoint export start on the Business tier.", "best_for": "individuals and small teams who need infographics, data-heavy reports and posters to look designed without hiring a designer — and above all students, teachers and nonprofits, for whom $39.99 and $60 a member a year with PDF and PowerPoint export are the best-value doors on the page", "skip_if": "you mainly need slides, because tools built for presentations do that better for the money. Skip it too if you need PDF or PowerPoint export but were budgeting for Pro, since those formats only start at Business. And skip it if you were counting on a real free tier, because two downloads is a demo rather than a plan — or if your AI use is heavy, since the credit allowances are capped and the page never prices a top-up", "honest_knock": "The ladder here is not about how much you make, it is about which file you are allowed to hand over. Pro — the tier the page marks most popular — exports PNG only. PDF and PowerPoint are Business features, which the full feature table confirms in a single row most people scroll past. So if the reason you want this is to email a PDF handout or drop slides into a deck, Pro at $10 a member a month is not a cheaper Piktochart — it is the wrong product. Your real entry price is $17 a member a month on annual billing, or $20 monthly.\n\nThe free plan reads as generous and is not. Unlimited projects, two downloads — and not two a month: the comparison table lists the number of downloads as a flat 2. In our test on 20 October 2026 that counter ran per account, not per design: 2, then 1, then 0 across two different designs, and the third try opened 'You have run out of free downloads.' That is enough to find out whether you like the editor, which is a fair trial, but it is not the working free tier some competitors in this category offer, so do not plan around it.\n\nThe third thing to price is the AI credits: 60 on Free, 500 on Pro, 1,000 on Business. The pricing page does not say what one credit buys or what happens when you run out. The app says more, but not all of it: in our test on 20 October 2026 the AI infographic button said 1 credit, yet the free balance went from 60 to 57 after two failed attempts and one that worked, and the app sold one-off top-up packs from $20 for 2,000 credits. If AI generation is the reason you are buying, try it on Free first and watch the counter, because that meter can decide your bill.\n\nOne last piece of arithmetic. The annual discount is 33% on Pro but only 15% on Business, so the saving shrinks exactly at the tier most teams that need PDF or PowerPoint end up on. And if you have an educational email address or nonprofit status the picture changes completely: Education is $39.99 per member for a whole year and Nonprofit is $60, against $120 for a year of Pro, and both include the PDF and PowerPoint exports that Pro does not. Read the discount labels on those two with a squint, though. The FAQ calls them 76% and 64% off 'our annual pricing', which works back to about $167 a year — neither the $120 the same FAQ quotes for annual Pro nor the $180 that monthly Pro annualises to. The prices are real and cheap; the percentages are measured against a list price the page never shows you.", "pricing": { "status": "public", "entry_price": "$10", "entry_price_terms": "per member per month billed yearly ($15 monthly)", "from_price_usd_month": 10.0, "plans": [ { "name": "Free", "price": "$0", "includes": "2 PNG downloads total, 1 GB storage, 60 AI credits, free templates only, capped at four members" }, { "name": "Pro", "price": "$15 per member per month billed monthly or $10 billed annually ($120 a year)", "includes": "Unlimited PNG downloads, premium templates and icons, 500 AI credits, 100 GB" }, { "name": "Business", "price": "$20 monthly or $17 billed annually ($204 a year)", "includes": "Adds PDF and PowerPoint export, Brand Kit, 1,000 AI credits, 250 GB" }, { "name": "Enterprise", "price": "quote-only from 101 members", "includes": "SSO/SAML, workspace management, dedicated account manager, one-off hour of training" }, { "name": "Education", "price": "$39.99 per member billed annually", "includes": "250 AI credits, limited Brand Kit, unlimited PNG, PDF and PowerPoint downloads; requires educational email" }, { "name": "Campus", "price": "quote-only above 3,000 seats", "includes": "" }, { "name": "Nonprofit", "price": "$60 per member billed annually", "includes": "250 AI credits, limited Brand Kit, unlimited PNG, PDF and PPT downloads" } ], "plans_source": "summarised from pricing.notes; every plan name and amount appears verbatim in those notes", "notes": "(re-verified 6 September and again 19 September 2026 on piktochart.com/pricing/, US dollar view; the plan amounts are unchanged from our 6 August 2026 reading) Free is $0, Pro is $15 per member per month billed monthly or $10 billed annually ($120 a year), Business is $20 monthly or $17 billed annually ($204 a year), and Enterprise is quote-only from 101 members. Free stops at 2 PNG downloads — a flat total, not two a month — 1 GB of storage, 60 AI credits and free templates only, and is capped at four members (one owner plus three). Pro adds unlimited PNG downloads, premium templates and icons, 500 AI credits and 100 GB, and the annual rate is what the page calls 33% off. Business, 15% off annually, adds PDF and PowerPoint export on top of PNG, the Brand Kit (unlimited brand colours, fonts and logos), 1,000 AI credits and 250 GB. Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, workspace management, a dedicated account manager and a one-off hour of training. Three further cards on the same page price other audiences, and two of them beat Pro on both price and capability. Education is $39.99 per member billed annually — the card splits the cents into a separate element, which is why a careless reading gives $39; the FAQ prints the full figure — with 250 AI credits, a limited Brand Kit and unlimited PNG, PDF and PowerPoint downloads, and requires a valid educational email address. Campus is quote-only above 3,000 seats. Nonprofit is $60 per member billed annually with the same 250 credits, limited Brand Kit and unlimited PNG, PDF and PPT downloads. The page's own FAQ calls those two 'a 76% discount' and 'a 64% discount' from its annual pricing, which works back to a list of about $167 a year — a figure that appears nowhere on the page, where annual Pro is $120 and monthly Pro annualises to $180. The page can be switched between USD, GBP, EUR, SGD, MXN and INR. No free trial is offered on the paid tiers — the free plan is the trial — and you can cancel anytime, though the FAQ adds that refunds are generally not given under the Terms of Use and are reviewed case by case, and that purchases of $168 or more can be settled by bank deposit.", "verified_at": "2026-09-19", "source_url": null, "schema_offer": { "price": 15.0, "currency": "USD", "description": "Pro, per member, billed monthly — $10 per member is the annual rate. Read on the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-19.", "page": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/" }, "source_quotes": [ { "field": "price", "plan": "Education", "quote": "$39.99/year", "source_url": "https://piktochart.com/pricing/", "read_on": "2026-11-04" }, { "field": "price", "plan": "Nonprofit", "quote": "$60/year", "source_url": "https://piktochart.com/pricing/", "read_on": "2026-11-04" }, { "field": "price", "plan": "Pro jaarlijks", "quote": "$ 10", "source_url": "https://piktochart.com/pricing/", "read_on": "2026-11-04" } ], "recent_change": null, "price_history": null }, "free_plan": true, "free_plan_evidence": "(re-verified 6 September and again 19 September 2026 on piktochart.com/pricing/, US dollar view; the plan amounts are unchanged from our 6 August 2026 reading) Free is $0, Pro is $15 per member per month billed monthly or $10 billed annually ($120 a year), Business is $20 monthly or $17 billed annually ($204 a year), and Enterprise is quote-only from 101 members.", "cost_traps": [ { "id": "per_seat", "label": "Per-seat pricing", "evidence": "(re-verified 6 September and again 19 September 2026 on piktochart.com/pricing/, US dollar view; the plan amounts are unchanged from our 6 August 2026 reading) Free is $0, Pro is $15 per member per month billed monthly or $10 billed annually ($120 a year), Business is $20 monthly or $17 billed annually ($204 a year), and Enterprise is quote-only from 101 members.", "verified_at": "2026-09-19", "source_url": null }, { "id": "usage_metered", "label": "Usage-metered", "evidence": "Free stops at 2 PNG downloads — a flat total, not two a month — 1 GB of storage, 60 AI credits and free templates only, and is capped at four members (one owner plus three).", "verified_at": "2026-09-19", "source_url": null }, { "id": "annual_lock", "label": "Annual commitment", "evidence": "Your real entry price is $17 a member a month on annual billing, or $20 monthly.", "verified_at": "2026-09-19", "source_url": null } ], "compare_with": { "name": "Canva", "why": "the comparison nearly everybody actually makes, and it comes down to two questions rather than feature counts. First, check where each tool puts the file format you need, not what the headline costs. Piktochart keeps PDF and PowerPoint behind Business at $17 a member a month on annual billing, and a rival that includes your format one tier down is cheaper than its price list suggests. Second, be honest about what you are making — Piktochart is at its strongest on data-heavy infographics and reports and weaker as a general-purpose design tool, and if it is really slides you want then Beautiful.ai and Gamma are the closer peers. We have not read Canva's, Beautiful.ai's or Gamma's price lists ourselves, so verify theirs as well as ours; the Piktochart figures here were read on 2026-08-06." }, "links": { "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/piktochart.json", "review": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/", "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/piktochart/", "vendor_site": "https://piktochart.com" }, "purchase": { "seller": "the vendor", "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.", "handoff_url": "https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=36542&awinaffid=2880219&ued=https%3A%2F%2Fpiktochart.com%2Fpricing%2F", "affiliate": true, "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site." }, "provenance": { "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages", "researched_since": "2026-07", "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/", "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.", "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters." }, "cost": { "status": "not_yet", "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost", "rules": null, "growth": null }, "unknowns": [ "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.", "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.", "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product." ], "verification": { "price": "quoted", "free_trial": "being_verified", "refund": "being_verified" }, "status_page": null, "measured": { "support": null, "onboarding": null, "inbox": { "timeline": { "signup_at": null, "messages": [ { "received_at": "2026-10-20T15:54:04Z", "sender_name": "Piktochart team", "sender_domain": "piktochart.com", "subject": "Welcome to Piktochart | Confirm your email address", "folder": "junk", "offer": null }, { "received_at": "2026-10-20T15:59:15Z", "sender_name": "Piktochart team", "sender_domain": "piktochart.com", "subject": "You just joined 34 million of the world's sharpest communicators", "folder": "junk", "offer": null }, { "received_at": "2026-10-27T15:57:13Z", "sender_name": "Piktochart team", "sender_domain": "piktochart.com", "subject": "Two ways to make something great today", "folder": "junk", "offer": null } ] }, "window_start": "2026-10-19T22:00:00Z", "window_end": "2026-11-02T23:00:00Z", "window_days": 14, "time_basis": "signup_date_midnight_Europe_Amsterdam", "status": "complete", "observed_at": "2026-11-04T02:18:02.225482Z", "counts": { "transactional": 1, "onboarding_tips": 0, "sales_upsell": 0, "personal_looking_sales": 0 }, "first_sales_email_hours": null, "has_list_unsubscribe": false, "uncertain": 2, "after_cancel": { "status": "not_tested" }, "after_deletion": { "status": "not_tested" }, "after_unsubscribe": { "status": "not_tested" } }, "invites": { "status": "not_tested", "default_on": "not_tested", "plus_accepted": "not_tested", "invitee_can_unsubscribe": "not_tested", "address_book_requested": "not_tested", "workspace_requested": "not_tested" }, "entry_exit": { "signup": { "screens": "not_tested", "card_required": "not_tested", "call_required": "not_tested", "observed_on": null, "evidence_url": null }, "cancel": { "screens": "not_tested", "call_required": "not_tested", "observed_on": null, "evidence_url": null } }, "tested_on": "2026-10-20", "tested_by": "Our team; actor, account and scope are documented in the review.", "review_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/", "method": [ "Recorded the account plan and download allowance", "Requested a List infographic from Pikto AI using our reference data", "Replaced text in a free infographic template", "Adjusted the infographic styling", "Inspected the available download formats", "Downloaded two Normal PNGs", "Attempted a third infographic download" ], "claims": [], "exit_test": null, "facts": { "trial_requires_card": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No explicit observation in the public evidence.", "observed_on": "2026-10-20", "evidence_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/#hands-on" }, "trial_duration_confirmed": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No explicit observation in the public evidence.", "observed_on": "2026-10-20", "evidence_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/#hands-on" }, "export_file_inspected": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No explicit observation in the public evidence.", "observed_on": "2026-10-20", "evidence_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/#hands-on" }, "export_reimport_tested": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No explicit observation in the public evidence.", "observed_on": "2026-10-20", "evidence_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/#hands-on" }, "export_direct_download": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No explicit observation in the public evidence.", "observed_on": "2026-10-20", "evidence_url": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/piktochart-review/#hands-on" }, "marketing_emails_14d": { "value": "not_tested", "basis": "No complete unambiguous 14-day inbox observation available.", "observed_on": "2026-11-04", "evidence_url": null } } }, "task_evidence": { "structured_checks": [], "sessions": [ { "source": "session", "product_name": "Piktochart", "product_id": "piktochart", "run_date": "2026-10-20", "session_type": "hands_on", "what": "Tested by our team on 20 October 2026 on a new Free account (Daan created it and our AI assistant ran the test in his browser; nothing was paid and no card was entered): we made the same small infographic, titled TESTHAVEN with the figures 12, 8 and 20, once from a free template and once with the Pikto AI generator, changed its colour and font, and downloaded until the free downloads ran out.", "findings": [ "Free gives 2 PNG downloads per account, not per design: the download panel went from '2 Downloads Left' to 1 and then 0 across two different designs. A third try opened 'You have run out of free downloads.' with 'Choose your plan', and no file came.", "PNG is the only free file format. PDF and PowerPoint carry a BUSINESS label, and choosing PDF opened an upgrade window straight away. Normal, Medium and High quality were all open on Free; a transparent background asked for an upgrade.", "The AI generator was not reliable for us. The button said 1 credit, two of our three attempts ended in an error ('Probeer later opnieuw', try again later), and the balance went from 60 to 57 for one finished infographic. Whether each failed attempt cost a credit or the one that worked cost three is not clear from what we saw.", "The AI kept all three numbers ('Appels: 12', 'Peren: 8', 'Bananen: 20': apples, pears, bananas) but extended our title to 'TESTHAVEN Fruit Inventaris' and added sentences of its own ('Perfect voor een gezonde snack of in een taart', 'Perfect for a healthy snack or in a cake'). The app warns that AI content may be inaccurate.", "In the AI design's export the heading 'TOTAAL' in the closing block overlapped the paragraph below it, leaving part of it unreadable, and the photo next to 'Peren: 8' showed no pears.", "Both downloads arrived as separate PNG files, not a ZIP: 800x1807 px (315 KB) for the template design and 800x2075 px (552 KB) for the AI design, each with our title and the three correct numbers.", "The free template we used ('Food Safety Starts With You') was quick to edit: double-click, select all, type, and it saved automatically. Its other sections and English paragraphs stay in the design until you delete them, and many other infographic templates carry a PREMIUM label.", "Changing the background colour (palette plus hex field) and the title font worked on Free; 'Create Brand Colors' and 'Upload Brand Font' asked for an upgrade. The app also sells one-off AI credit packs, from $20 for 2,000 credits to $200 for 25,000." ], "not_tested": [ "Whether 'Download as pages' gives a ZIP, and whether that costs one download or more", "When the 60 free AI credits reset", "The paid plans (Pro and Business), PDF and PowerPoint export, and the Brand Kit", "AI video, image generation and the AI image tools (upscaler, background remover)", "Moving layout blocks, and charts and maps in the editor", "Whether the AI generator is more stable with an English prompt" ], "report": null, "disclosure": null, "evidence_status": null, "result": "reported", "note": "Findings as written up after the session; no pass/fail per task was scored.", "in_catalog": true } ] }, "open_questions": [ { "question_id": "piktochart:cancellation_terms", "key": "cancellation_terms", "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?", "status": "open" }, { "question_id": "piktochart:data_export", "key": "data_export", "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?", "status": "open" }, { "question_id": "piktochart:data_location", "key": "data_location", "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?", "status": "open" }, { "question_id": "piktochart:minimum_seats", "key": "minimum_seats", "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?", "status": "open" } ], "vendor_answers": [], "agent_channels": { "vendor_mcp": null, "agent_checkout": { "status": "not_checked", "detail": "We could not read the vendor's pages as plain HTML.", "checked_at": "2026-10-07", "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout" } } }