What happens when I downgrade my plan?

If you downgrade from Expert to Regular, or if you sign up for the Regular plan after your trial, some Paperpile features will no longer be available.

This guide explains what happens to each affected feature when you change your plan. Your data and configurations are never lost, and when you upgrade, you can always continue where you left off.

Features affected by changing your plan

FeatureWhen you downgrade to RegularWhen you upgrade to Expert or Enterprise and Institutions

Full-text PDF search

PDF full-text search is disabled. Only reference metadata and abstracts are searchable.

PDF full-text search is available. Turn it on in the advanced search options menu. See Advanced search options for more details.

Supplementary files (non-PDF)

You cannot open or download existing files or add new files. No files are deleted.

All files become accessible again and you can upload new files.

PDF annotations

You cannot add annotations like highlights and sticky notes in Paperpile's PDF viewer. Existing annotations remain and can still be viewed. Any annotations made outside of Paperpile and synced via Google Drive or OneDrive are added to PDFs and are visible in Paperpile.

All annotations tools are available again in Paperpile’s PDF viewer.

Google Drive and OneDrive sync

Sync is turned off and cannot be turned on. Existing files in Google Drive and OneDrive remain in place but won’t be updated.

Turn on sync again in Settings > Data and files > Cloud storage.

Library proxy access

Proxy connections are turned off. PDFs are directly downloaded through a direct connection not going through your proxy. Open access PDFs and restricted PDFs from a campus network are not affected.

Turn on proxy connections and add new ones in Settings > Proxy connection.

Custom citation styles

You cannot upload new custom CSL files. Existing custom styles cannot be chosen as your default citation style or for new Google Documents or Word documents. No styles you have uploaded are deleted.

Upload custom CSL files in Settings > Citation styles and choose them as your default style in Paperpile or as a style for your Google Documents or Word documents.

Shared folders

Your shared folders remain fully accessible to you. Nothing is deleted. Your collaborators can still see the shared folder but cannot access the content. Inactive shared folders show a warning that you or collaborators can remove by turning off sharing or leaving the shared folder.

Full access is restored for all collaborators.

Shared libraries

The library becomes inaccessible for the owner and members. The library is not deleted but shows a warning. Admins can delete the library or remove members. Members can leave the shared library.

Full access is restored for all collaborators.

Automatic BibTeX exports and Overleaf integration

All automatic BibTeX exports and configured Overleaf integrations are disabled. BibTeX files won’t be updated. No files are deleted.

Turn on any existing automatic exports or add new ones by clicking on your profile picture in the bottom left and selecting Workflows and Integrations from the menu.

Note: If you are on our Enterprise or Institution plans, we will never automatically change available features for your users. To change your plan, contact our support team at support@paperpile.com and we'll work with you to migrate to another plan.

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