FigureLabs / SciFig Pricing and Hands-on Checks (2026)
Before buying a scientific figure tool, separate the subscription price, the credits needed for a finished file and the permission to publish it. A free generation allowance does not answer all three. We checked the live pricing controls and tried the same input in both products on October 20, 2026.
Scope:Public pricing, visible license wording and the signed-out generation path. Both generation attempts stopped at sign-in or sign-up. We obtained no generated files and did not test paid exports, text editability, scientific accuracy or generation speed.
Disclosure: this article is published by the LitFigure team. The screenshots are browser captures from the named sites, not simulated results. There are no affiliate links or accuracy rankings.
Monthly price, annual total and credits belong in separate columns
All amounts below are USD before any applicable checkout tax. An annual monthly equivalent is not a monthly payment option. These are the live browser prices we saw, not older search-result promotions; no purchase was made.
| Product | Plan | Monthly billing | Annual total | Annual / month | Credits/month: monthly / annual plan | Annual renewal shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FigureLabs | Starter | $10 | $108 | $9 | 1,000 / 1,000 | $108 |
| FigureLabs | Plus | $35 | $312 | $26 | 5,000 / 5,000 | $312 |
| FigureLabs | Pro | $99 | $888 | $74 | 20,000 / 20,000 | $888 |
| SciFig | Starter | $19.90 | $100 | $8.33 | 2,000 / 1,200 | Not separately stated |
| SciFig | Plus | $29.90 | $288 | $24 | 4,000 / 4,000 | Not separately stated |
| SciFig | Pro | $49.90 | $360 | $30 | 8,000 / 8,000 | Not separately stated |
The important exception is SciFig Starter: monthly billing includes 2,000 credits per month, while the $100 annual plan issues 1,200 per month. The lower annual price therefore also changes the allowance. Annual credits are issued monthly rather than as one immediate yearly balance.
Free allowances also differ: FigureLabs lists 150 one-time credits plus 50 daily refresh credits. SciFig lists 150 on day one, made up of a 100-credit welcome bonus and a 50-credit check-in, with later check-ins reaching up to 150 on streak reward days. Daily rewards are not a permanent accumulated balance.
For occasional use, expiry matters as much as the headline allowance. FigureLabs says individual-plan credits reset at the billing-cycle boundary. SciFig currently says paid credits carry over and do not expire, including after cancellation; daily check-in rewards expire at the next UTC midnight. Verify the balance type before estimating how many finished files a plan will fund.
FigureLabs official pricing ↗ · SciFig official pricing ↗
Open the four billing screenshots
FigureLabs also displayed Team at $35 per seat monthly or $26 per seat per month with annual billing, with 5,000 credits per seat monthly. We did not verify minimum seats or a team checkout. Credit packs, institutional quotes, education approvals and API wallets are separate purchasing paths and are not included in the individual-plan table.
A free tier, publication permission and a certificate are different things
FigureLabs marks Publication Authorization as excluded from Free and included from Starter in its plan comparison. Its FAQ separately says that free plans are for non-commercial use. That supports a precise warning about the free-plan conditions; it does not justify rewriting non-commercial as a blanket ban on every academic use.
SciFig has conflicting signals on its own current pages.The free-plan card visually places a cross beside full publication and commercial rights, and the comparison table leaves that free cell unconfirmed. However, the current FAQ, publication-license page and Terms sections 5.2–5.4 describe publication and commercial rights and a free license PDF without an explicit free-tier exclusion. The license page says the Terms take precedence. We therefore do not repeat the old “free tier has no publication authorization” claim as settled current fact, or promise that a free account can obtain a certificate.
If this affects a submission, ask the vendor to confirm rights for your exact account, figure version and creation date, and keep the applicable terms and certificate. We did not generate a file or download a certificate in this test.
SciFig publication-license explanation ↗ · SciFig current Terms, section 5 ↗ · FigureLabs Terms ↗
A platform license also cannot guarantee journal acceptance. Check the journal’s current figure and AI disclosure instructions separately, using the final version you intend to submit.
Budget for a finished, editable file
The following is arithmetic using the published credit rules, not observed account charges. FigureLabs lists 50 credits for generation, 60 for a text edit and 150 for a vector export. One generation plus one text edit plus one vector export therefore totals 260 credits. Whether one conversion also serves every later export was not tested.
SciFig currently lists 50 / 75 / 100 credits for standard / advanced / premium illustration generation and model-dependent AI edits, plus 150 once per figure for vectorization on paid plans. The equivalent three-step scenario is 250 / 300 / 350 credits. Its page says Canvas edits and subsequent Canvas exports are free after conversion. These are published rules, not an export-quality result.
The models and resolutions are not identical, so those totals do not rank value or image quality. Retries, alternate candidates and upscaling change the cost. Credit allowances also do not bypass plan restrictions on vector output or advanced creation modes.
An SVG can contain raster content, and a PPTX can contain one embedded image. Before paying for editability, ask for a real export sample: change one label as text, move one object and reopen the saved file. We did not obtain those samples here.
What happened with the same input
We used the existing Chrome session on October 20, 2026, with neither product signed in. Both received the following synthetic, non-confidential brief:
| Product | Action | Observed result |
|---|---|---|
| FigureLabs | Entered the brief on the homepage and clicked Create. | A join dialog requested sign-in or registration. No image was generated. |
| SciFig | Entered the brief in Text-to-Figure and clicked Generate, displaying 50 credits. | A sign-up dialog appeared and offered to restore the prompt afterward. No image was generated. |
This establishes the access boundary of this session. It does not establish which tool draws better, edits more faithfully, exports native text or runs faster. Those questions require an authenticated generation–edit–export test using actual files.
Check the file at the size you will submit
Regardless of the platform, check pixel dimensions at the final print width. Effective PPI equals pixel width divided by width in inches; a DPI metadata tag alone does not settle print resolution. Then inspect small labels, arrows and the scientific content.
Check an exported PNG or JPG with the free Image DPI Checker →
The checker reports resolution; it does not verify publication rights or scientific correctness. For file-format and editing boundaries, see the export guide. Export guide →