Early Access is a release stage where a product is fully functional and available for purchase, but is still being actively developed and refined ahead of its official 1.0 release. Early Access customers often get the product at a reduced founder price, but may run into a few more bugs than a full release.

Yes, just download and install, and you’ll get 30 days, full access to everything, no credit card or signup required. When the trial ends, the app drops into a read-only mode so you can still open and export your work; you just can't keep editing until you activate a license.

One license activates on up to 3 machines, across Mac, Windows, and Linux. If you get a new computer and need to free up a license, deactivate the old one from inside the app, or email me and I'll free up the slot.

The 30-day trial is available so you can be confident before you buy. But if you do purchase a license and decide it isn't the right tool for you, you can request a full refund within 14 days. Just email me at wesley@opuswriter.app and I'll take care of it.

No. Every update throughout version 1 is free. Somewhere down the road I may release a paid 2.0 with significant new functionality. If that happens existing customers would get a deep upgrade discount, but that's nowhere on my roadmap. The features I want to ship in version 1 will keep me busy for years.

No. Every part of OpusWriter — planning, drafting, editing, formatting, exporting — works without AI. If you do want the AI tools, you bring your own API key from a provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, or OpenAI) and pay that provider directly at their actual rates. I never see your manuscript and I take no cut. A full AI editorial pass on an 80,000-word novel runs roughly $15–$40, versus $1,000+ for human editors.

On your computer, wherever you save it. There's no cloud, no account, no upload, no telemetry. Your project is a single .opws file that you can back up, copy to another machine, or open with any ZIP tool if you ever need to. Your words are not locked in.

Word documents (.docx) import directly, with chapter breaks auto-detected. For Scrivener, compile your project to .docx first and import that. You can also paste prose straight into the editor.

Not at all. OpusWriter has extensive planning tools, but every one of them is optional. If you're a pantser, open a chapter and start writing — the editor is clean and focused, and the planning modules stay hidden until you decide you want them. There's even a "Pantser" workspace preset that hides them by default.