Questions for the ghost.

Yes. Download the plugin and open it — you'll see a Start Trial button. Hit it and you get 14 days of full access with 3 AI credits included. No account, no credit card. The trial key is bound to your machine automatically and is restored on reinstall. After 14 days the plugin returns to demo mode (periodic mute, preset saving off); buy the Full License at any time to unlock permanently. How the free trial works →

It unlocks the plugin on one computer, starts you with 10 AI credits, and creates a GhostWare account to manage your key, credit balance and activated machine. Everything except the optional AI Analyze is free and unlimited once unlocked. The Full License is priced at a founder rate through September 30, 2026, then rises to its standard price on October 1, 2026 — see the buy page for the current price.

No. The Full License, every bundle and every credit pack are one-time purchases. Nothing recurs, nothing expires, and credits stack when you top up.

Every purchase — the Full License, both bundles and every AI credit pack — is covered by a 5-day refund policy. Contact us within 5 days of purchase with your license key or Stripe receipt and we will refund it, no questions asked. Open a GitHub issue → to request one.

A Full License unlocks one computer at a time. The same machine can re-activate freely. Moving to a new machine? Deactivate the old one from your account dashboard, then activate the new one.

There are two entry points depending on where the plugin is right now:

• Demo or trial mode (first activation): the plugin shows a license panel automatically when you open it. Paste your GW-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX key into the field and hit Activate — no settings navigation needed.
• Already running (re-activate or switch key): open the Settings screen and click the License button. This opens a key-entry callout with the same Activate button and shows your current credit balance.

Either way, activation locks the key to the current computer and confirms your credit balance. Your key is always visible in your GhostWare account if you need to look it up.

Log in to your account with your purchase email to see your key and current balance any time.

Not at all. GhostMode's analysis engine runs on your machine for free, forever — all 83 moods, full capture analysis. The AI layer is an optional upgrade for a second opinion.

One credit is spent per AI Analyze click, with all refine rounds included. Credits never expire. The Full License starts with 10; you can buy more from the credit packs whenever you want.

By default, no. The AI request sends only a compact numeric fingerprint of your capture — measurements, not sound. You can opt into a full-audio mode per request if you want the model to hear the actual material, and you can turn the AI off entirely. Whichever mode you use, your audio is never saved or stored anywhere.

No, never. GhostWare runs no AI training pipeline of any kind. Whatever you send for analysis — a fingerprint or, in opt-in full-audio mode, the capture itself — is held in memory only long enough to analyze it, then discarded. It is never written to a database or disk, never logged, and never used to train any AI model, ours or our AI provider's.

Analyze quietly falls back to the offline engine, so you always get a chain. A clipping or failed AI result is never published — your previously audible chain stays put.

One signed installer includes the GhostInTheMachine bundle: GhostInTheMachine as Audio Unit, VST3 and Standalone on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), four flagship standalone plugins as AU and VST3 — FibraVerb, FibonacciCompressor, SpectralEQ and FilterMotion — plus StutterGate as an additional AU and VST3 standalone. See the download page for details.

The plugin checks for updates itself and verifies each package by SHA-256. Updates are never launched automatically — you stay in control. Full changelogs live on the release notes page.

Open your account and use the billing portal link for receipts on purchases made through Stripe.