AI Tool Pricing Changes — April 2026 Pricing Watch

Our monthly receipt check. Who moved the pricing page behind a sales call, who raised rates without an email, and who quietly rebranded a price cut as a 'restructuring.' April was busy.

Every month we screenshot pricing pages for 40+ AI tools and diff them against the prior month. We’re looking for: price increases, tier restructuring that reduces what existing plans include, “unlimited” claims with new footnotes, and pricing pages moved behind a form or sales call.

April was a busy month.

How we track this

Our methodology, briefly: on the first of each month, we screenshot the pricing pages of the tools we monitor. We log the URL, the timestamp, and any notable footnotes or asterisks. At the end of the month, we compare. We flag any change that:

Increases the price of any existing paid tier
Reduces what’s included in an existing paid tier without a price reduction
Adds or expands “fair use,” “reasonable use,” or “subject to limits” language
Moves pricing information behind a contact form or sales call requirement
Reduces the free tier in ways that affect paying-customer decision making

We don’t flag every product update — tools can ship new features without gaming the pricing. We flag changes to what existing customers are already paying for.

April findings

Notion AI — fair-use language added to “unlimited” AI responses

What changed: Notion’s AI add-on ($10/month per member) is marketed as “unlimited AI responses.” In April, Notion updated their terms of service to include a “reasonable use” clause for AI features — specifically citing that “automated,” “bulk,” or “high-frequency” usage may be throttled or restricted.

Why it matters: The pricing page still says “unlimited.” The ToS now says unlimited with footnotes. If you’re running automated workflows through Notion’s AI features — content generation pipelines, bulk document processing — you are now technically subject to throttling without notification. Notion has not sent an email to existing subscribers about this change.

What we saw before: No fair-use language in the ToS AI section as of March 1, 2026. We have the screenshots.

Notion’s response: We emailed their support team on April 15. Response as of publication: no reply.

Source: Notion Terms of Service — current version vs. our March archive.

Copy.ai — Pro tier price increased, existing customers not notified

What changed: Copy.ai’s Pro plan increased from $49/month to $59/month (monthly billing). Annual pricing increased from $36/month to $42/month. The change was live on their pricing page by April 8.

Why it matters: We did not receive an email notification as an active Pro subscriber. We discovered the increase when we pulled our April screenshot and compared it to March’s. Our April billing charge came through at $59 — up from $49 — with no prior notification.

The billing sequence: March charge $49 → April 1 pricing page update → April 8 (confirmed date of change on website) → April billing $59 with no notification email.

What constitutes acceptable practice here: A price increase of 20% with no customer notification is not acceptable. We’ve filed a dispute with our card issuer and requested a prorated refund for April. As of writing, the dispute is pending.

Source: Copy.ai pricing page — April 2026 screenshot vs. March 2026 archive.

Otter.ai — “Pro” tier quietly renamed to “Business,” different limits

What changed: Otter.ai’s mid-tier plan was previously called “Pro” at $16.99/month (billed annually). It has been renamed “Business” and now costs $20/month (annual). The previous Pro plan features have been partially absorbed into a new “Starter” tier at $8.33/month.

The confusion: Otter sent an email announcing a “new plan structure” but framed it as adding value, not as a price increase. Existing “Pro” subscribers are now billed as “Business” subscribers at the new price. The email did not include the phrase “price increase.”

The actual numbers: If you were a Pro subscriber on the old annual plan ($16.99/month equivalent), you’re now paying $20/month equivalent — an 18% increase — for a plan that has a different name and slightly different feature set.

Otter’s framing: “We’ve restructured our plans to give customers more value.” We’ve checked. The AI note-taking minute limits per month are the same as before. The “more value” is primarily additional seats at the Business tier.

Source: Otter.ai pricing page — April 2026 vs. March 2026 screenshots.

What changed: Grammarly’s pricing page now shows personalized pricing for logged-in users. If you’re not logged in, you see a simplified tier overview without specific prices for Business plans. The Business pricing now requires either logging in or filling out a “contact sales” form.

The problem: If you’re evaluating Grammarly for a team as a new prospect, you can no longer see Business pricing without creating an account first. This is a pre-purchase friction point that obscures competitive pricing data and makes comparison shopping harder.

Why we flag this: Hiding pricing behind a login or sales form is a deliberate choice to reduce transparency. It’s not a technical limitation. It correlates with price increases that teams only discover after a sales call — when switching costs are already partially embedded.

Source: Testing from a logged-out incognito browser session — Grammarly pricing.

Runway — Gen-3 outputs now watermarked on Standard plan

What changed: Runway’s Standard plan ($15/month, billed annually) no longer produces watermark-free video outputs by default. A “remove watermark” option requires upgrading to Pro ($35/month) or applying credits separately.

Prior behavior: Standard plan outputs were watermark-free as of our February 2026 snapshot. The watermark requirement appears to have been added in April without a retroactive email to Standard subscribers.

Why it matters: This is a feature removal from an existing paid tier. Standard plan subscribers are now paying the same price for a plan that requires additional steps or costs to produce content usable in commercial contexts.

Source: Runway pricing page — April 2026 vs. February 2026 archive. Runway ML Terms of Service for commercial use.

Pattern we’re seeing

Three of the five changes above involve existing customers paying more (or receiving less) without an explicit price-increase notification. The framing is always: restructuring, new plan, additional value. The mechanism is always: your subscription costs more or includes less than it did last month.

We are not suggesting these companies are acting illegally. We are suggesting that customers who rely on “unlimited” claims and static pricing page screenshots are systematically exposed to plan degradation in ways that wouldn’t happen in more regulated markets.

The practical implication: screenshot the pricing page and terms of service when you subscribe. Set a calendar reminder to check them quarterly. Trust the receipt, not the marketing.

Sources

What we don’t know / haven’t confirmed

We have not received legal counsel on whether the Copy.ai billing increase without notification constitutes a breach of contract in any jurisdiction. We’re sharing our experience, not legal advice.
Our Notion ToS analysis is based on a diff of the publicly available document. Notion’s legal team may interpret the “reasonable use” clause differently. We’d welcome a statement.
We don’t know whether Runway notified annual subscribers by email — we’re on a monthly plan. Annual subscribers may have received different communication.
We covered 40 tools this month; this article documents 5 flagged items. Tools not mentioned here did not show pricing changes meeting our threshold — but absence from this list is not an endorsement.

Next edition drops first week of June 2026.

AI Tools That Buried Their Pricing in April 2026