Is Raycast worth it in 2026?
What the free plan covers, what the paid tiers add in AI credits, and when Alfred or Spotlight is enough for a Mac.
The quick answer
Raycast is worth it for a Mac user who opens a launcher many times a day, and its free plan works on its own with no time limit. Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year and adds unlimited clipboard history, cloud sync, dictation and 500 AI credits a month. The catch is that Raycast offers no paid plan without AI, so you pay for credits you may never spend. Alfred and Apple’s built-in Spotlight are the main alternatives, and Spotlight costs nothing.
Paying for Raycast? Get 10x more out of it.
Step-by-step tutorials for Raycast, Claude, Midjourney and many other tools, plus member deals on software. 7-day free trial on the annual plan.
Raycast is worth it for a Mac user who opens a launcher dozens of times a day and wants snippets, window management and clipboard history behind one shortcut. The free plan covers all three, though clipboard history only reaches back three months. The purchase decision starts with AI, and Raycast’s pricing page shows how much the AI allowance changes from tier to tier.
This review works from Raycast’s own pricing page, which lists every plan, credit grant and team seat price. Three numbers decide most purchases: what the free plan leaves out, how many AI credits a dollar buys on each paid tier, and what a team of your size pays per seat.
Raycast plans at a glance
Monthly prices in US dollars as listed on the pricing page. Annual prices are per plan, per year. Credits are monthly grants.
| Feature | Free | Pro | Plus | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0 | $10 | $20 | $50 |
| Annual price | $0 | $96 a year | $192 a year | $480 a year |
| AI credits per month | None (no AI) | 500 | 3,000 | 7,500 |
| Credits per dollar (monthly) | None | 50 | 150 | 150 |
| Clipboard history | 3 months | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Raycast Notes | 5 notes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cloud sync, dictation, custom themes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What you get
- ✓A free plan with no time limit: the launcher, thousands of extensions, snippets, window management and a calculator, all at $0.
- ✓Pro billed annually works out to $8 a month, with unlimited clipboard history and notes plus cloud sync.
- ✓Plus and Max give 150 AI credits per dollar, three times the ratio of Pro, so heavy AI users get more for each dollar spent.
- ✓Team plans with no seat minimum: Teams Free is $0 per user and Teams Pro is $15 per user a month.
- ✓A 50% student discount on Pro for verified students.
The trade-offs
- ✕No paid plan without AI, so you pay for credits even if you turn AI off.
- ✕Pro gives 50 credits per dollar, the thinnest AI allowance of the three paid individual plans.
- ✕Credits expire: monthly grants last 60 days, and Raycast does not say how many prompts a credit buys.
- ✕Free clipboard history is three months, and Free notes are capped at five.
- ✕A 25-seat team costs $3,600 to $4,500 a year on Teams Pro, depending on billing term.
Worth it if…
- →You open a launcher dozens of times a day and want snippets, window management and clipboard history in one place.
- →You want AI inside the launcher, through AI Chat and AI Commands, and you will spend the monthly credits.
- →You want cloud sync or dictation, both of which are off on the Free plan.
- →Your team already shares snippets and quicklinks and would outgrow the Teams Free caps on shared snippets, quicklinks and commands.
Skip it if…
- →You want the launcher and nothing else. The Free plan covers that, and you would pay for AI you do not use.
- →Alfred or Spotlight already does what you need, and you have no interest in AI.
- →You are a heavy AI user on a budget. Pro’s 50 credits per dollar is the thinnest of the individual plans, so price Plus before you buy.
- →Your team needs a chat tool rather than a launcher. Compare Teams plans with a chat subscription before paying per seat.
What the free plan covers, and where it stops
The Free plan is not a trial. Raycast offers it for personal use and for organizations, and it does not expire. It includes the launcher, thousands of community extensions, Clipboard History, Quicklinks, Calculator, Snippets and Window Management, which covers the everyday launcher jobs without paying anything.
The limits are narrow but real. Clipboard history keeps only three months on Free, and you can keep five Raycast Notes. Cloud sync, dictation, custom themes, custom window management commands, bring-your-own-key and the translator all sit behind a paid plan. Free also has no AI at all. For most people three months of clipboard history is enough, but anyone who wants to find something copied last year hits the wall first.
Pro: what the monthly price buys
Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year. Billed annually, that works out to $8 a month, 20% under the monthly rate. The same 20% annual discount applies to Plus ($192 a year against $240 billed monthly) and Max ($480 against $600), so the billing choice is the same at every tier.
What the paid plans share is the removal of the Free limits. Clipboard history and notes become unlimited, and cloud sync, dictation, custom themes, bring-your-own-key and the translator switch on. The tiers differ mainly in AI credits and access to top-tier models, which is where the price gap really sits. Verified students get 50% off Pro through a form linked from the pricing FAQ, although the discount does not apply to the Teams plans.
New accounts can start a free Pro trial with access to Pro models. Trial credits expire seven days after they are granted, and advanced models are not part of the trial. Raycast does not say how many credits the trial includes, so a trial tells you whether you like the launcher, not how far the AI allowance goes.
AI credits: the number that decides the purchase
Raycast measures AI use in credits. Pro grants 500 a month, Plus 3,000 and Max 7,500. Divide each grant by its monthly price and Pro gives 50 credits per dollar, while Plus and Max each give 150.
Academy calculation: that ratio comes from Raycast’s own figures, and it is the comparison that matters most when you pick a tier. If you will use AI every day, Pro is the least generous of the three individual paid plans.
Credits are not messages. Raycast says each model spends credits at its own rate, so cheaper models go further, but it publishes no figure for prompts per credit. Two rules make the balance harder to plan around. Each monthly grant expires 60 days after it is granted, and unused monthly credits roll over for one extra billing cycle. Top-up packages add credits that expire 12 months after purchase, but they need an active paid subscription to use.
Cancelling does not change those expiry dates. Your balance is shown under Account in Raycast Settings, so check it after a week of normal use before you commit to a tier.
The catch: you pay for AI even when you switch it off
Raycast does not sell a Pro plan without AI. You can turn AI off completely in Settings, which disables every AI feature, but the price stays the same. In practice the Pro plan buys the launcher upgrades and a credit allowance you may never spend.
That is the biggest buying trap, and it changes the comparison. Alfred’s Powerpack lists a single license at £34 on its vendor page, sold in pounds with no dollar price, and it describes no AI allowance. Spotlight costs nothing and comes with every Mac. If your goal is a faster launcher without AI, compare Raycast’s annual Pro price against Alfred and Spotlight, not against another AI subscription.
What Raycast costs a team
Teams Free costs $0 per user and does not expire, but it caps shared snippets and shared quicklinks at 30 each and shared commands at 5. It has no AI. Teams Pro is $15 per user a month or $144 per user a year. Team members are unlimited on both Teams plans, with no minimum or maximum seat count, and you pay per user as the team changes.
Take a 25-person team on Teams Pro. Billed monthly, that is $375 a month, or $4,500 a year. Billed annually at $144 a seat, it is $3,600 a year, a $900 gap for the same team. Each seat gets its own monthly grant, which comes to 12,500 credits across 25 people. Whether that is enough depends on how often the team runs AI commands, and Raycast does not say how far a credit goes.
Raycast against Alfred and Spotlight
Spotlight is the free baseline. It is built into macOS, Command-Space opens it according to Apple’s support page, and it handles apps and files well. Apple’s page describes no snippets, extension store or AI commands, so Spotlight is the fit for a Mac user who only wants fast app and file search.
Alfred sits in between. Its Powerpack adds workflows and features on top of the core Alfred app, and the vendor page lists a single license at £34 and a Mega Supporter tier at £59 with free lifetime upgrades. Those prices are in pounds, and Alfred gives no dollar figure, so compare them in your own currency. Because Alfred describes no AI allowance, the choice comes down to whether you want AI inside the launcher at all.
The verdict
For a Mac user who lives in the keyboard, Raycast is worth it, and the free plan is the right place to start. Move to Pro on an annual plan when you hit the three-month clipboard limit, want cloud sync or dictation, or start running AI commands every week. Stay on Free if the launcher is all you want.
The honest caveat is the credits. Pro’s monthly grant is the thinnest AI allowance of the three individual paid plans. If AI is the reason you are buying, start with Plus at $20 a month, which gives 3,000 credits and 150 per dollar. If you are buying for a team, price 25 seats on Teams Pro at $3,600 a year billed annually before you decide.
Better alternatives?
If it is not the right fit, these are worth a look.
Alfred Powerpack
£34 for a single license on its vendor page, sold in pounds. The Mega Supporter tier at £59 adds free lifetime upgrades. No AI allowance is described.
Spotlight (built into macOS)
Free, built into macOS, and opened with Command-Space. Good for apps and files. Apple’s page describes no extension store, snippets or AI commands.
Claude Pro
If you want AI in a chat window rather than a launcher, a general AI subscription may do the job. See our Claude Pro review.
Frequently asked questions
Is Raycast free?▾
Yes, for personal use. The Free plan has no time limit and includes the launcher, thousands of extensions, snippets, window management and three months of clipboard history. It includes no AI. Raycast also says the Free and Teams Free plans can be used by organizations, and Teams Free does not expire.
How much is Raycast Pro?▾
Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year, which is $8 a month billed annually. It includes unlimited clipboard history and notes, cloud sync, dictation, custom themes and 500 AI credits a month. Plus is $20 a month and Max is $50 a month.
Does Raycast Pro include AI?▾
Yes. Raycast does not offer a Pro plan without AI. You can turn AI off completely in Settings, but you still pay the plan price, which includes the monthly credit grant.
What are Raycast AI credits?▾
Credits measure AI usage. Pro grants 500 a month, Plus 3,000 and Max 7,500. Unused monthly credits roll over for one extra billing cycle, and each monthly grant expires 60 days after it is granted. Raycast does not say how many prompts a credit buys, because each model spends credits at its own rate.
How much does Raycast cost for a team?▾
Teams Pro is $15 per user a month or $144 per user a year, with no seat minimum. A 25-person team pays $375 a month billed monthly, or $3,600 a year billed annually. Teams Free costs $0 per user but caps shared snippets, quicklinks and commands, and it has no AI.
Is there a Raycast student discount?▾
Yes. Verified students get 50% off the Pro plan through a form linked from Raycast’s pricing FAQ. The student discount applies only to the Pro plan, not to the Teams plans.