GateTrue

What each generator documents about marking its output

A crossing point you can buy later, and one you cannot

Both entries stop applying the mark at a named plan. One vendor states that a watermark applied earlier survives the upgrade, so the purchase has a deadline the other one does not have. As of 2026-09-22.

What an upgrade reaches on each of two plan-gated entriesOn one entry the vendor states that files generated before the upgrade keep their watermark, so the decision has to be taken before the work. On the other the page says nothing about earlier files, so the register records a crossing point and claims nothing in either direction.Work isgeneratedOn the free orentry plan,marked on bothentries.Then a decisionAn upgradeBoth entriesstop applyingthe mark to newoutput.Reaches forwardThe earlierfilesOne vendor saysthey staymarked; theother does notsay.Only one issettledRecoveryGenerate again,which returns adifferent file,or rely onsilence.
Fig. 1 Silence is not permission. Planning around an absence is weaker than planning around a sentence.
The two entries on one question at a time, in each vendor's own terms. Recorded 2026-09-22.
On this questionLuma AIPika
Where the mark stopsThe thirty-dollar planThe twenty-eight dollar plan
Earlier filesStated to keep the watermarkNot addressed on the page
When the decision mattersBefore the work is generatedBefore the work is delivered
Recovery if missedGenerate the shot againPay, then export
Licence boundaryThe same plan as the markThe same plans as the mark

Inclusion rule. One row per question on which these two entries can be compared from their own published pages. Questions neither vendor addresses are left out rather than filled with a dash. Order. Fixed order: the mechanism first, then who holds it, then what it leaves behind.

Where each value above was read, and what the register records in the paid tier column. Recorded 2026-09-22.
GeneratorPaid tierDocument read
Luma AINo watermark from Plus ($30/mo)licensing guide
PikaWatermark-free from $28 Propricing page

Inclusion rule. The two entries on this page, with the value each one's own pages support in the column they diverge on. Order. Alphabetical by generator name.

1The same mechanism with and without a deadline

Read as values, these two cells are the same kind of thing: a named plan with a price, thirty dollars against twenty-eight. Read as consequences they are not. One vendor's licensing guide says a watermark applied under the free or entry plan cannot be removed even if the subscription is upgraded later; the other's pricing page says nothing about earlier files at all.

So on one entry the purchase can wait until delivery approaches and on the other it cannot wait at all. That is a scheduling constraint rather than a budget line, and it is invisible in a column that holds a tier and a figure.

2Why regenerating is not re-exporting

The recovery path on the deadline row is to generate the shot again, and that is not the same operation as exporting it again. A generative model asked the same question twice returns two different files, so the clean version of an approved shot is a new shot that has to be approved a second time.

On the entry without the stated deadline the register makes no claim in either direction, because the page does not address it. Silence is not permission: a reader planning around an upgrade on that row is relying on an absence, which is weaker evidence than the sentence on the other row and easier to mistake for good news.

3What both rows leave empty

Neither vendor names a provenance standard or a metadata field, so both record not documented in the file-contents column at every tier. Paying changes what a viewer sees on both entries and changes nothing a later reader could inspect on either.

Both also bundle the marking boundary with the commercial licence, which is worth noting because a third entry in this register does not: there the two lines sit a plan apart and produce a tier whose output is clean and unpublishable. Agreement between these two on that point is a coincidence of packaging, not a norm.

4Sources

  • Free tier
    Content generated on the Free and Lite plans carries a watermark that cannot be removed, even if the subscription is upgraded laterstated on the licensing pageLuma, Dream Machine licensing guide / recorded 2026-09-22
  • Paid tier
    Watermark-free download is included from the $28 Pro plan upwardfrom Pro and FancyPika, pricing / recorded 2026-09-12

Both values above are read from the vendor pages linked in the rows: lumalabs.ai and pika.art, on 2026-09-22. Each entry has its own page, Luma AI and Pika, and the rule for the column they diverge on is on the paid tier column page. Other pairs: the first payment, no free plan, or a stated one.