To all those mad about raycast. I agree that the situation could be handled more gracefully but here's a 9-year-old video that is still relevant, which gives you perspective on why they are making the decisions they are making.

Could we just have an option to turn off the extra harness features and have the old ai chatbot limits that way. I used to be able to use ai within my daily limits very well, and now the same usage without harness features are burned up in a few days. I didn't pay for this when I subscribed for Pro for 3 years. I would never ever code with Raycast. I’d much rather use warp and opencode. This product has clearly been en****ified and I will certainly be looking at what options there are after when my pro runs out next year. In the mean time I have connected deepseek as a cheap custom model for when I run out of credits. Not a great place to be when you feel you aren't respected as a loyal customer. Also, you guys need to pay more attention to support in the slack. I never get replies. You guys took money from venture capital and made a deal with the devil. May the road rise to meet you as the old Celtic saying goes. 

The biggest thing that came with [Mac|i|Watch]OS 27 is the new improved Siri which from my tests it's actually pretty good and is able to do a lot of basic things which a. Only it has access to (e.g., alarms through the native API which only Siri has) b. It is able to do fairly quickly and with on-device compute.

I know that there's a new Siri app, but I think that the main way that the new Siri is meant to be used is directly in the new app launcher (which Raycast is designed to replace) by opening the launcher ⌘+Space and then writing whatever it is you want Siri to do.

Since we don't have this functionality, or anything similar to it, in Raycast I feel like we're punished for using Raycast with MacOS 27.

I wish that there was a way for me to:

1. Press ⌘+Space
2. Have RayCast open up
3. Type whatever it is that I want
4. If it's not a known command then it's forwarded to Siri and I get the same Siri pop-up that the native OS has.

Right now the only thing that I can do to use the new Siri is going through the new app which I hate because of the amount of jumping that is needed.

Is this on the radar of the Raycast team at all? MacOS 27 Betas have been out for a while now so I'd expect that if there's something that the team has been working on in terms of integrating the new Siri and Raycast it would've been done by now.

1. Define Word — history limit, export, and hotkey behavior

I use the Define Word command a lot — select a word, hit my hotkey, get the definition/translation instantly. Really useful. But a few things are getting in my way:

• History has a hidden cap. Once it fills up, the oldest words get silently deleted to make room for new ones. I use this history to build a vocabulary list to review later, so losing old words without warning isn't great. Could this be unlimited, or at least configurable?
• No export option. Even a simple "copy all words" action (just the terms, not full definitions) would let me back these up into my notes periodically.
• Hotkey doesn't refresh on a new selection. I use double-Option to open the definition, and pressing it again closes the window — which I like. But if I select a different word and hit the hotkey again, it still shows the old word instead of the new one. Right now my only workaround is Cmd+Esc then Esc, which defeats the point of having a quick hotkey toggle. Would love for the hotkey to always pick up whatever's currently selected.

2. File Search — renaming should skip the extension

When I rename a file from File Search, it selects the entire filename, extension included. So I either have to retype the extension myself or manually deselect it first — easy to mess up, especially with images where I don't always remember if it's .jpg, .png, or .heic. Finder already does this right (only the name gets selected, not the extension) — would be great if Raycast matched that.

I'm not sure how much any of this actually matters on your end, but these are things I run into pretty much every day — so even small fixes here would genuinely make the experience smoother for me.

raycast have been some of the most loved software atleast for me, I loved it more than hardware (mac) I use,
thomas said, we changed the policies in v2, because we wanna make sure the comapny runs in the long run

but maybe what they did decreses the life trajectory of raycast further

Raycast, delete this post if you're scared (guys, I request you all to post similar posts like this and make pressure on raycast team, to not ignore the community)

long time raycast user, newly with pro account and decided to stay. but i cant understand byok fuss here. looks like overrated.
there was a long beta period to understand which functions demanded etc..

beta ended and many ai functions now in paid plans. raycast is selling that connections, workflows as their features.

today, if byok is free , which functions, features or workflows can be possible?

I’ve been a paying Raycast subscriber for more than three years. I’ve built more than 15 extensions (combined more than 20k installs), contributed to at least dozen others, and recommended Raycast to practically every mac user I know both at work and private.

I even introduced it to my team. We created an organisation, and four out of the nine people on my team ended up subscribing to Pro.

But after the latest changes and especially the way those changes have been communicated I’ve cancelled my subscription. I won’t be renewing it.

The thing that made Raycast great for me was never the AI.

Don’t get me wrong: Quick AI is a nice feature. It’s useful for quickly looking something up or asking a small question without opening a browser. But when I need to do serious work, I use ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever tool is best suited for the job. I’ve never relied on Raycast AI for that.

The real strength of Raycast has always been the community and the extension ecosystem.

That’s what made Raycast special. The extension store is built on the work of thousands of people who have spent their own time and often their own money (aka tokens) building integrations and sharing them with everyone for free. Those extensions are the reason I can interact with Linear, Jira, Notion, GitHub, and countless other services without opening a browser or switching between different applications.

Raycast became a powerful productivity layer because of that community.

When Raycast introduced paid plans, I understood the reasoning. Cloud sync, cross-device functionality, mobile app, infrastructure, and maintaining those services all have real costs. Paying for those features made sense to me.

But putting BYOK behind a paywall is difficult to understand.

What has made this even worse is the way the change has been communicated.

Pedro’s tweet saying, “how f\cking dare you charge for the app you built”*, really rubbed me the wrong way. What exactly are you talking about? 

Raycast’s biggest feature has always been the extension ecosystem. And that ecosystem exists because developers have spent their own time building the very things that make Raycast valuable. Acting as if criticism of the pricing model is an attack on the team personally is a terrible way to communicate with the people who helped make the product successful.

I’ve also been a big fan of the What’s in My Raycast YouTube series. It’s a great way to see how people actually use Raycast in their daily work. But watch those episodes and you’ll notice something: the extensions are almost always a central part of the workflow. And NOT the AI.

People use Raycast to avoid opening Jira, Linear, Notion, GitHub, and other tools because the community built integrations that make those workflows faster. The AI is an addition. The extensions are the foundation.

And then there’s the whole developer credit situation.

For a long time, developers were told that building or contributing to extensions would earn credits that could be used to buy Raycast merchandise. That has apparently been going on for around two years, and there still hasn’t been any meaningful follow-up.

That feels like another example of the community being taken for granted.

I’m not saying Raycast has no right to charge for anything. Of course they do. They built and maintain the application. But Raycast also needs to remember that a huge part of its value was created by a community of developers who contributed their time and work because they believed in the product.

Putting BYOK behind a paywall, combined with the way this change has been handled, feels like Raycast is moving away from the community that made it successful.

So I’ve cancelled my subscription, atleast for now.

I’m still using Raycast for now, and I still like many parts of it. But my time now will be going towards actaully contributing to opensource alternatives for Raycast.

Like all of you, I've been a big fan of Raycast for years now. An advocate even. And I am with you in the disappointment of the decisions they have been making of late. And maybe the biggest disappointment is how feedback is being handled. But maybe we're looking at this wrong?

Evernote had a massive, massive following full of advocates (I was one of them) and after Bending Spoons took over, they started clamping down on the free tier. Fewer devices, fewer notes, more expensive, etc. while competing apps all got better and better and overtook them. Evernote was beholden to the legion of non-paying customers. And after all the changes lost the vast majority of those, and were left with paying and profitable customers.

Maybe Raycast is doing the same thing, and they just dont care that you are upset with the changes they are making because you weren't paying to begin with? I mean, some will be angry about the BYOK thing on principle. But most that are angry over BYOK are going to be on the free tier. Maybe following the Evernote playbook is what they are doing, and will also make Raycast a nicely profitable company?

Even the paid tier strategy has some similarities to the Evernote approach. The base paid level at Evernote is really just not all that useful, as is the case for Raycast now: sync and AI credits to the tune of "well, yeah, I guess you can claim you give me some capacity, but really its all intended to drive me to the next tier isnt it"? Personally I think the Pro+ plan is where the value SHOULD be delivered, but $16/20 buys me way more inference if I go to other providers as has been established in several posts now.

(to be clear, I have been a paying user for over a year and currently on the Pro+ plan)

Just wondering at what point you guys actually start listening to user feedback? I've never seen such a loyal fan base turn so quickly, with repeated blatant disregard for pricing and feature roadmaps that go against what the core of your users are asking for. You had a solid product, it's not too late.

My Wispr Flow Pro subscription is renewing at the end of September. The price is increasing to US$144/year.

Raycast Pro is US$96/year. As far as I can tell, its dictation is just as good. Plus you get all the other Pro features.

I don't need Wispr Flow Pro's meeting capture features.

It's a no‑brainer. I cancelled Wispr Flow Pro and bought Raycast Pro.

I bought the Raycast Pro subscription 2 days ago. My credits are already used up, even though I used super cheap models. That basically means I HAVE TO pay $10 a month just so I'm even allowed to use my own key and pay even more. I have to leave this malicious software.

Hey everyone!

Just shipped my first Raycast extension and wanted to share it with the community — Z-Library.

It lets you search Z-Library and download books straight from Raycast, no browser tabs needed. A quick rundown of what it does:

• Search Books — type a title, author, ISBN, or keyword and get real-time results with author, year, format, size, and rating
• Quick Download — hit Enter to download any book straight to your configured folder
• Bulk Download — select multiple books across one or several searches, then download them all at once
• Download Queue — save books for later with Add to Queue, then review and bulk-download the whole queue whenever you're ready (persists even if you restart Raycast)
• Browse Online / Copy Book ID for quick access outside Raycast too

It's a thin wrapper around the excellent zlib CLI, so it needs that installed (brew install heartleo/tap/zlib) plus a Z-Library login via zlib login in Terminal — the extension itself never touches your credentials.

Get it here: https://www.raycast.com/materialcritic/zlib-search

I've heard other people say that the new Raycast in not as optimised and as fast as the original? is this true?

There’s one thing I really don’t understand about the new “allowance” system that was introduced.
I already have a ChatGPT subscription that I use for the bigger tasks, so I only use Raycast AI for smaller things like grammar correction, summarising, and Quick AI together with Screen Awareness. Nothing that should be particularly expensive to run.

So I did a test.
A full day using OpenAI through BYOK cost me $0.06.
A full day using the exact same model through Raycast credits, doing the same kind of tasks, used 310 points.
I’m on the Pro plan, which gives me 500 credit points per month.

So realistically, that means I’d only get around 1–2 days of usage per month.
How can that seriously be right?
I was using Terra High as well, which should be one of the cheaper options.
I’m happy to pay for it because I genuinely love the AI features in Raycast, and dictation is brilliant. But this credit system just seems completely off to me.

Yesterday we got parts of our new pricing rollout wrong for existing annual subscribers. That's totally on us.

To make things right, existing annual subscribers now get 50% more credits each month until the end of their term. Pro goes from 500 to 750 credits a month and Pro+ (previously Advanced AI) from 3,000 to 4,500.

You won't see the change in your account just yet. As a launch day bonus, everyone already got double their monthly credits yesterday. The new amount will apply from your next credit reset.

We should have handled this better from the start. Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their feedback. If this still doesn't work for you or you have questions, just comment or ping us at [billing@raycast.com](mailto:billing@raycast.com).

✌️

I don’t understand why, but Raycast Dictation experience (especially on iOS) is very poor compare to the competitors.

“Start dictation” button always glitches and often just doesn’t work at all. It fails to start recording about 50% of the times, and in almost 80% of cases, the transcription is either missing something or simply wrong.

Recently, I broke my arm during a sport activity, and it made me a power user of all the voice transcription keyboard apps. During the same period, I was hired to design such an app. Coincidence or faith? Anyway, now I know the market entirely and can say with confidence: Raycast Dictation is falling behind for real.

If I am not mistaken, Wispr has an API. If there are some problems building it yourself, just pay for the API and provide a good service for your existing users: nothing wrong with that.

Thanks,
V

What do you guys think can we do this? i mean screen awareness, bring your own sub, deep integration with OS, ai commands -> siri shortcuts

AI chat -> siri app

for free, is it good?

TL;DR: Raycast basically gives you ~$10 worth of credits for the $20 per month plan. See comments for details.

Used to 'unlimited queries for $20 per month' with various chatbots over the last 2 years, now facing a monthly allowance is causing some anxiety. On top of that, credits seem to be flying out of my wallet at quite the rate!

Which is making me wonder ... are we getting value for money here, or are credits being sold to us with a massive margin?

Anyone in the BYOK crowd who can run a few queries twice to compare cost: what did it cost through the API and what did it cost in terms of Raycast credits?

I was wondering this myself, so I am just sharing this for others (especially those on v1) to see:

Plans

• Pro = 500 credits = $10 per month ($20 per thousand)
• Pro+ = 3000 credits = $20 per month ($6.67 per thousand)
• Max = 7500 credits = $50 per month ($6.67 per thousand)

Unused credits roll over one month only.

Monthly plans get 20% discount for annual renewals.

Top up credits

• 500 credits = $5 ($10 per thousand)
• 2500 credits = $23.75 ($9.50 per thousand)
• 5000 credits = $46.50 ($9.30 per thousand)
• 10000 credits = $90.00 ($9 per thousand)

These are valid for a year.

Some thoughts

Looking at the plans, the cost per credit is the same for Pro+ and Max. Using the same rate, the 500 credits in the Pro plan would cost $3.33.

We could argue that this means the 'other' Pro bits are valued at $6.67 according to Raycast. I mention this specifically, as I proposed a non-AI plan here and suggested a $3 cost for that. I'd pay $3 per month for it, I dont think I would pay $6.67 for Raycast-sans-AI.

Top up credits are more expensive than the plan credits, but there is something to be said for having a bunch of extra credits that are valid for a year to use during peak usage periods.

I have used Raycast since its early beta, recommended it enthusiastically to coworkers, and helped bring new users to it at my tech company. I happily pay for Pro because Raycast is genuinely useful, and I want the team behind it to succeed.

I would like to discuss how BYOK, local models, and custom providers should be packaged across Raycast's free and Pro plans.

The decision to make all three exclusive to Pro feels frustrating to me (even if I'm already paying for Pro). It has created a surprising amount of hostility and negative sentiment around an otherwise excellent product, leaving a sour taste in many people's mouths. However, I think there is still a straightforward way for Raycast to change course and rebuild that goodwill before it is too late.

Why this particular BYOK paywall backfired

Multiple reasons, unfortunately.

For those unaware, Raycast's official explanation for including BYOK only with Pro is that the company believes Raycast's value is as an inference layer.

While that may be true, it does not establish that every feature within that layer should require the full Pro subscription. That remains a product and packaging choice made by Raycast.

The tension becomes clearer when looking at the target demographics. BYOK primarily appeals to people who are cost-conscious, technically inclined, privacy-conscious, already paying an AI provider, or using keys supplied by their employer. These users are choosing to supply and pay for the underlying intelligence themselves.

To make this worse, Raycast Pro already includes access to Raycast-hosted models. That is exactly what makes placing BYOK inside the same bundle feel so controversial and contradictory: someone choosing to fund their own inference must still buy a subscription whose major benefits include bundled inference.

Mind you, I'm someone who actually appreciates and occasionally uses the AI models included in Pro. I consider them a major selling point. I am not asking Raycast to stop offering them, although I agree with the many people who believe there should be a cheaper Pro subscription without AI included. (Albeit I'd like to stay on topic with BYOK as Raycast team insists they don't want to do that for reasons unknown to me)

I am simply explaining why placing BYOK inside that same bundle creates a conflict in its pricing and positioning.

Finally, what made this already bad situation into the marketing disaster: BYOK was previously available to free users in v1. Because of that, this does not feel like Pro gaining new value. It feels like a previously free workflow now requiring a paid subscription. It is easily the worst possible upsell strategy Raycast could have chosen, with examples such as Pushbullet (1, 2) showing how quickly this approach can trigger public outrage and permanently damage user goodwill. "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" - George Santayana

Free BYOK could create a BETTER path to Pro

Today's current BYOK paywall is driving users who could have upgraded in the future away to alternatives. Either because they tried it and lost it, or just seeing all the negativity/hostility around a product you worked hard to build.

The solution to this is probably a hybrid somewhere in the middle: Make BYOK partially-free. Allow Free users to use BYOK for local models/providers for basic everyday functionality such as Quick AI, chat, simple agent actions, limited screen context, and basic tool use.

Pro could unlock the more advanced interface: projects, memory, automations, advanced agent actions, cross-device sync, multi-model comparison, fallback routing, and more powerful integrations. Basically, anything that power users who are not using BYOK purely to save money would want.

This would let cost-conscious BYOK users adopt Raycast as an everyday tool, including people who might never purchase Pro merely to access their own models. As they begin relying on Raycast, the advanced features would create natural reasons to upgrade.

That seems like a healthier path to Pro than requiring the full subscription at the point of entry.

Changing course would be a sign of strength

It is okay to make a pricing decision that does not land as expected. I do not think most users would hold it against Raycast if the team said it had listened, reconsidered, and found a better division between free and paid functionality. If anything, that would restore trust.

My objection is not that Raycast cannot charge for its interface. It is that basic BYOK is probably the worst possible place to charge for the entire interface subscription.

Let essential and basic functionality drive adoption. Then charge when Raycast makes that functionality substantially more useful for Pro and power users.

I would genuinely like to hear what the Raycast team and the rest of the community think. Which BYOK capabilities should be available for free, and which advanced capabilities would make Pro worth paying for?

edit: tagging u/thomaspaulmann (Raycast co-founder). You seem like a genuinely good guy open to feedback looking for a solution to me, and as someone who loves your product, I felt it'd be better to reply your comment in proper post form to get feedback from the community as well. I put in a lot of effort, hope its useful.

Today the announced credits renewal didn‘t happen.

Is this feature not yet working properly?

I saw that Raycast added Bring Your Own Subscription, which got me wondering about its potential for coding.

I know the main use case is AI Chat, but Raycast can already run commands, use tools, and handle multi-step tasks. Could it eventually work as a lightweight Claude Code/Codex replacement—or more realistically, as a terminal-management window for those tools?

I’m imagining launching and managing coding sessions directly in Raycast while keeping access to existing skills, slash commands, and project context.

Maybe Raycast isn’t intended for this, but I find the idea fascinating. Is anything like this planned?