Pricing: three free scans a month, or Unlimited for $6.99

The Free plan costs nothing and includes three scans per calendar month. That quota is counted on our servers against your account, so it follows you rather than your phone or your browser, and three means three.

Each scan works the same way on either plan. You photograph the object with your phone's camera, there and then in the aisle or at the kitchen table, and back comes a plain-English read on maker, era and origin, with a confidence level attached. Every result carries a standing note that this is an AI-generated estimate rather than an expert appraisal, and that it is not a basis for a buying or selling decision. When confidence falls below our threshold, the result says so and offers a referral link to an independent appraisal service, because that is the right next step and pretending otherwise would not help you.

If the photo itself cannot be read, because the mark is in shadow or the glare is sitting on it, Patina asks you to retake it rather than spending one of your three on a vague answer. Retake prompts are capped at ten a day, and a photo we ask you to retake is not kept.

What free does not get you is a valuation. Patina never states what an object is worth, on any plan, at any price. Identification is our job. Valuation belongs to a qualified appraiser, and the honest thing we can do is tell you when to go and find one.

Patina has not opened yet, so the two plans here are the pricing we intend to launch with, and the only thing to do today is join the waitlist.

There are two plans and the difference between them is volume, not capability. Every feature on Free is also on Unlimited.

Free, for the occasional find

Three identifications a month, on the house. This is the plan for the occasional finder or the person who has just inherited something: a dresser of unfamiliar pieces, one odd piece of pottery in a box, or an argument about a hallmark that wants settling. If you meet an unfamiliar object a few times a year, you never need to pay us anything, and three free scans are enough to see a real result before paying for anything.

Unlimited, at $6.99 a month

For the estate sale regular and the serious thrift shopper, so you can scan every unfamiliar object you meet. If you walk sales most weekends and you have a few minutes to decide on a table full of things you cannot place, three scans will run out on your first stop. Unlimited removes the counting.

A reasonable way to decide: start on Free, and if you reach the third scan before the month is out, that is your answer. Scan history is the last ten scans on both plans, so paying more does not buy you a longer archive, it buys you the right to keep going.

Unlimited is $6.99 per month, on a monthly interval. There is no annual option.

The website takes no payment. Unlimited is sold through the App Store and Google Play inside the Patina phone app, and that app is not in the stores yet, so there is nothing to buy here today. Card details never touch our servers. Stripe keeps the subscription record behind the unlimited plan, which is how the app knows whether your plan includes unlimited scans; we hold your subscription status and a billing customer reference, and nothing about your card.

The Free plan has no billing at all. There is no card step and no trial period on either plan, because the Free plan is itself the way to try Patina before paying for it: three identifications a month, at no cost.

When you reach the free limit

The quota is three scans per calendar month, so the third scan is the last one until the calendar month turns over and the count starts again. If you do not want to wait, Unlimited lifts the cap. Photos and scan results are kept while your account exists, so your history keeps working either way.

Both plans need an account

Sign-in is by email and password. An account is what the server counts your scans against and what your history is attached to. We store your name, email address and password hash for that, plus the photos you scan and their results, and we note the plan you picked at sign-up so it carries through.

We would rather you hear this from us than discover it later.

• Photos and scan results are stored on Amazon Web Services in the United States. There are no EU or UK data residency options.
• You cannot buy Unlimited anywhere yet. It is sold inside the Patina phone app through the App Store and Google Play, and the app is not in the stores.
• Scan history shows your last ten scans rather than everything you have ever photographed, on both plans.
• We hold no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or other certification or audit, and we publish no uptime commitment.

What you can do, once you have an account, is leave. The Account screen deletes the account yourself: type your email to confirm, and the account, its photos and its scan history go at once, with any subscription paid on this website cancelled first. The same screen downloads a file of everything we hold about you. If you cannot sign in, write from your account email to the contact address the privacy notice names.

The site's terms and privacy policy name the company that sells Patina.