Frequently asked questions
Plainhand shows you where your prose goes slack, so you can fix it yourself.
Pricing, refunds, and how your writing is handled.
- Mechanical checks
- Free, unlimited, no account needed
- Free trial
- One free deep read per account, up to 1,500 words
- Deep read
- $19 for 10 reads, or $5 for 2, one-time payment
- Time to use them
- 90 days from purchase
- Invites
- Invite a friend and you each get a free bonus deep read
- Length
- Up to 150,000 words per deep read
- Refunds
- Full refund within 14 days: email support@plainhand.net
What is Plainhand?
Plainhand is a prose editor. Paste in your writing and it highlights passages that tend to read as flat or mechanical, such as repeated sentence openers, uniform sentence rhythm, filter words, and stock phrases, with a plain-language note on each one. It never rewrites your text. You decide what to change.
What's free?
The mechanical checks: every highlight in the editor. They're free, unlimited, and don't require an account. They run entirely in your browser, so your text isn't sent anywhere.
New accounts also get one free deep read, on up to 1,500 words, so you can see what it does before you buy.
What does Deep read do?
Deep read is a closer, AI-assisted editorial pass. It first works out whether your text is fiction, an essay, or an informational article, then gives notes suited to that kind of writing. For fiction, it looks for passages that summarize when they could dramatize. For essays, claims that need support. For articles, points that are buried or too abstract. Each finding links to the passage it refers to.
How does pricing work?
There are two one-time options: $19 for 10 deep reads, or $5 for 2. Either way, you have 90 days from purchase to use them, and each deep read covers up to 150,000 words. There's no subscription and nothing renews automatically. When your reads or your 90 days run out, you can buy more.
What counts as one deep read?
Each completed deep read uses one of the reads you bought. If a deep read fails before any analysis finishes, it isn't counted. A deep read that completes and finds nothing to flag still counts, because the analysis ran.
How do invites work?
When you're signed in, your personal invite link appears under Deep read in the editor. When someone creates an account through your link, confirms their email, and finishes their own free deep read, you each get one bonus deep read.
Bonus deep reads work like the free one: each covers up to 1,500 words, and one is used only when you've already used your free read and don't have an active purchase. If a bonus deep read fails before any analysis finishes, you get it back. Each invited account earns a reward once, inviting yourself doesn't count, and each person can earn up to 10 bonus reads through invites, whether they're the one inviting or the one invited. You can see how many bonus reads you have under Deep read.
Does Plainhand tell me whether writing was made by AI?
No. Plainhand points out patterns that often make prose feel mechanical, whoever wrote it. Those patterns show up in human writing too, and carefully edited AI writing can avoid them. Don't use Plainhand's results as evidence of who or what wrote a text.
What happens to my writing?
Mechanical checks never leave your browser. When you run a deep read, your text is sent to our server and passed to an AI model provider for analysis. We don't store your text or the results. The privacy policy has the details.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Email support@plainhand.net within 14 days of buying, from the email address on your account, and we'll refund you in full. Refunding a purchase ends the deep reads it included.
I forgot my password.
Choose "Forgot password?" on the sign-in page and we'll email you a reset link. If it doesn't arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
How do I delete my account?
Email support@plainhand.net from the address on your account and we'll delete it along with its data, except purchase records we need to keep for accounting.
How do I contact you?
Email support@plainhand.net. We aim to reply within two business days.