# The beta programme: try tools before they are finished

<Lead>
New tools do not arrive finished on a single day. In the **beta programme** you get them weeks earlier, test them against your real work and help decide what they become. By default your workspace is not part of it, and that is on purpose: preview versions are a deliberate step, not a state you drift into.
</Lead>

## What "preview version" means

A tool in beta works, but it is still moving. In practice:

<DefinitionList>
  <DefItem term="The feature can change">
    Settings, output format and flow are not fixed yet. What takes three steps today may take two tomorrow.
  </DefItem>
  <DefItem term="Results can differ">
    A preview tool does not hit what you expect every time. Check results before they go to a client.
  </DefItem>
  <DefItem term="Billing can change">
    What a run costs is only final once the tool is stable.
  </DefItem>
  <DefItem term="Your results stay">
    Whatever you produced is yours and stays. Even if the tool is changed, moved back a stage or discontinued.
  </DefItem>
</DefinitionList>

<Info>
The platform shows you these same four points where they matter: the first time you open a preview tool, and after that as a quiet notice at the top of the tool. That notice cannot be hidden and carries the same wording in branded workspaces too. It is a mandatory label, not a design element.
</Info>

## Two ways in

You do not have to switch your whole workspace over just to try a single tool.

<DefinitionList>
  <DefItem term="The whole beta programme">
    Your workspace rides along with every preview tool. New ones appear in the marketplace automatically as soon as they enter beta. The route for people who want to be at the front.
  </DefItem>
  <DefItem term="Just this one tool">
    You unlock exactly one preview tool, the rest of your workspace stays stable. The route for people who need one specific tool and quiet everywhere else.
  </DefItem>
</DefinitionList>

## Joining the beta programme

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the settings">
    Go to **Settings · Tools** and then to **Beta programme**. The page first shows you what you are signing up for.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Tick two confirmations">
    You explicitly confirm two things: that preview tools receive **no automatic refund for failed runs**, and that you have read the beta terms of use. Without both ticks the button stays disabled.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Join">
    One click on **Join beta programme**. From then on preview tools appear in the marketplace, with a "Beta" marker on the card.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Joining is recorded with the time, the person acting and the version of the terms. It applies to the whole workspace, so to your colleagues as well. Let them know.

<Info>
Joining and leaving is for **owners and admins**. Members see on the same page whether their workspace is in the programme, but cannot change it. Viewers do not see the page.
</Info>

## Trying just one tool

If your workspace is on stable and you see a tool in the marketplace marked **Preview feature**, you get two buttons there:

<Checklist>
  <ChecklistItem>**Test this tool only** unlocks exactly that one tool. Everything else stays stable.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>**Activate the whole beta programme** takes you to the settings page above.</ChecklistItem>
</Checklist>

A single unlock survives leaving the programme later: whoever unlocked a tool explicitly keeps it.

## How to spot a preview tool

<Checklist>
  <ChecklistItem>In the **marketplace** the card carries a "Beta" chip. The **Beta &amp; preview** filter shows you every preview tool unlocked for you at once.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>On the **detail page** the preview notice sits above the description.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>**Inside the tool** a quiet line at the top names the channel and states that the feature and its billing can still change. The way to send feedback sits right next to it.</ChecklistItem>
</Checklist>

If your workspace is not in the programme and has no individual tool unlocked, preview tools never appear in the marketplace at all. The marketplace stays as quiet as before for everyone else.

## What beta costs

<Checklist>
  <ChecklistItem>Preview tools bill through credits **like stable tools** do.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>Where a **beta discount** is configured, a run costs less than in the stable version. The discount ends automatically once the tool becomes stable.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>A tool that is normally licensed as a **monthly add-on** carries no monthly fee during beta. The licence only becomes due with the stable version.</ChecklistItem>
</Checklist>

<Warning>
**The one exception you need to know:** preview tools get **no automatic credit refund for technically failed runs**. With stable tools we refund every technical failure without asking; in beta, credits reserved for a run can stay spent after a failure. That is the price of early access, which is why you confirm it explicitly when joining. Your statutory rights are unaffected. Details in the beta terms (§ 17 of the terms of use).
</Warning>

## Sending feedback

Feedback is the actual reason the programme exists, so it sits low on purpose:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open feedback">
    Every preview tool carries a **Beta feedback** button near the bottom edge. The button in the notice at the top of the tool opens the same panel.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Say briefly how it went">
    Three faces for the overall impression, plus an optional category: a bug, an idea, confusing, or I like it.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Tell us more if you want">
    A text field for everything that fits no category. Optional, but this is exactly where the most useful sentences live.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
Please put **no client data** into the text field. What happened is enough for us to improve the tool; who it concerned is not. Free text is treated confidentially, used internally for development only, and deleted after the period stated in the privacy policy.
</Info>

Your feedback feeds into the decision on whether a tool becomes stable, stays where it is or is withdrawn, together with error and usage figures. That is not a phrase, it is the mechanism.

## Leaving again

You can leave at any time, and it costs you nothing but the early access.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Leave">
    On **Settings · Tools · Beta programme** you find **Leave beta programme**. The dialog tells you first how many installed preview tools would be affected.
  </Step>
  <Step title="What happens next">
    Affected tools are **paused**, not uninstalled. They stay in your list, all previous results stay available, shareable and in file storage. Only new runs are blocked.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Coming back">
    If you rejoin, everything continues where it stopped. And if the tool became stable in the meantime, it simply starts working again on its own.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
A paused tool carries the notice **Beta paused** at the top and, if you are allowed to configure it, the way back. As a member you see instead that your admins decide this.
</Info>

## The second stage: experimental

Above beta there is a third stage: **Experimental (on request)**. It is meant for very early tests where results can differ strongly from what you would expect.

<Checklist>
  <ChecklistItem>This stage is granted by **us** on request; it cannot be switched on by yourself.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>Two routes lead out of it: **Step back to beta** stays in the programme, **Leave beta programme** exits entirely.</ChecklistItem>
  <ChecklistItem>Both routes give up the unlock. Getting back to this stage takes a new request, and the dialog says so beforehand.</ChecklistItem>
</Checklist>

## Who may do what

| Role | See the status | Join and leave | Unlock a single tool |
|---|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| Owner | yes | yes | yes |
| Admin | yes | yes | yes |
| Member | yes | no | no |
| Viewer | no | no | no |

<Faq>
  <FaqItem question="Do I lose my results when I leave the programme?">
    No. Never. Affected tools pause for new runs, everything produced stays fully available. Nothing is uninstalled automatically; that always stays your own decision.
  </FaqItem>
  <FaqItem question="Why can I not see a tool a colleague told me about?">
    Most likely it is a preview tool and your workspace is not in the beta programme. Preview tools are completely invisible to stable workspaces, not merely locked. Ask your owner or admin.
  </FaqItem>
  <FaqItem question="Does a beta tool become stable automatically?">
    Not automatically. We decide that on feedback, error and usage figures. When a tool becomes stable nothing changes for you except that the notice disappears and any beta discount ends.
  </FaqItem>
  <FaqItem question="Can a preview tool disappear again?">
    A tool can be moved back a stage or discontinued; that is part of its trial character. It then pauses just as it would when you leave. The results you produced with it stay in this case too.
  </FaqItem>
  <FaqItem question="Does the beta programme cost anything while I use no preview tool?">
    No. The programme itself is free. As always, you only pay for what you actually run.
  </FaqItem>
  <FaqItem question="Do advertising objections apply inside preview tools?">
    Yes, unchanged. Beta is no special case for data protection, permissions or security. A preview tool gets no additional permissions and passes the same checks as any stable tool. See [advertising objections](/help/compliance/werbewiderspruch) and [action approval](/help/grundlagen/handlungsfreigabe).
  </FaqItem>
</Faq>

<Aside>
For the wider picture of how tools reach your workspace and how credits and monthly add-ons differ, see [Tools and pricing](/help/grundlagen/tools-und-preismodelle).
</Aside>