Account and subscription
Marginal is a subscription: $10 a month or $96 a year, one plan. The first sign-in starts a 14-day trial of the full app, with no card. Everything on this page lives in Settings ▸ Account, also reachable as Account… in the app menu and the command palette, and by clicking the licence chip in the status bar.
What the subscription covers
Section titled “What the subscription covers”Editing. Reading, preview, printing, and export always work, signed in or not. If a subscription lapses, Marginal turns read-only: your files are never locked, and a document you changed while you were licensed can still be saved.
The AI features are separate. They run on your own API key and are never gated by the subscription.
Signing in
Section titled “Signing in”Click Sign in… and finish in the browser with Google or GitHub. Marginal picks the result up automatically. If the hand-off from the browser does not reach the app, Sign in with a code shows a code in the browser to paste into Settings instead.
Sign out ends the session on this device and in your browser, so the next sign-in asks which account to use.
Subscribing
Section titled “Subscribing”Subscribe offers the monthly and yearly plans and opens Stripe Checkout in the browser; Marginal picks the purchase up when it completes. Manage subscription… opens the Stripe customer portal for invoices, card changes, and cancellation.
If a payment fails, the status shows Payment issue and editing keeps working for a few days while you update the card; after that the app is read-only until the payment goes through.
Status
Section titled “Status”The Status line, and the chip in the status bar, tell you where you stand:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Trial — N days left | The trial is running |
| Monthly, Yearly, Complimentary | The subscription is active, with its renewal or end date |
| Payment issue | A payment failed; editing continues for a few days |
| Clock changed, Licence check failed | Marginal could not confirm the licence; Refresh now retries online |
| No active subscription, Signed out, Not signed in | Read-only |
The licence is checked against the server once a day in the background. A network failure changes nothing; only a refusal from the server ends the session.
Devices
Section titled “Devices”Devices (N of M) lists the devices signed in to your account and how many the plan allows. Rename gives a device a name you recognise; Deactivate frees a seat taken by a device you no longer use.
Deleting your account
Section titled “Deleting your account”Delete my account… asks you to type DELETE. It cancels the
subscription, signs out every device, and removes the account from
Marginal’s servers and from the sign-in provider. Payment records stay with
Stripe. Your files are not touched.