Credits, plugins and free features

Before you process your photographs, choose whether Arams should work in the cloud, use a plugin on your computer, or analyze and organize the photographs without retouching them. Each route has different cost or licence requirements.

Payment comparison table

Choose the route that matches the job you want to do:

What you want to do	Choose	What pays for it
Retouch photographs on Retouch4me servers	Cloud	Retouching credits provided by your account plan. A local plugin purchase does not cover cloud processing.
Analyze photo quality and faces	Analyze	Photo analysis credits, kept separate from retouching credits. Analysis helps you review photographs; it does not retouch them.
Retouch on your computer with a plugin you own	Local	A separately purchased, installed and activated plugin. It provides unlimited local processing for that plugin without per-photo cloud retouching credits.
Add automatic AI tags for searching	Automatic image tagging in Settings > General	Free. It does not use photo analysis credits, and you do not need to choose Analyze.

Prices, credit requirements and plan allowances can vary. Before you submit a cloud request, read its confirmation and check the relevant balance in your account. An AI Color Correction allowance does not cover every editing feature or the separately licensed Color Match plugin.

Free tagging versus analysis

Use automatic tagging when you want searchable suggestions and do not need cloud photo or face analysis:

1. Open Settings > General.
2. If Arams asks for the tagging model, download it.
3. Turn on Automatic image tagging.
4. After importing photographs, use the bell icon at the top to follow the tagging operation.

Before importing, confirm that Automatic image tagging remains enabled. Arams 1.10.2 · Windows · American English

The account area lists Retouching credits and Photo analysis credits separately. Your balances depend on your account. Turning on Automatic image tagging does not make Automatic face search or Automatic photo analysis free.

Choose Analyze only when you also want cloud photo or face analysis. It uses photo analysis credits. Analyzed counters and Analysis completed refer to that analysis, not to tag generation.

Arams completed real analysis of the two imported JPEGs; this confirms task completion, not the accuracy of individual AI judgments. Arams 1.10.2 · Windows · American English

Review tags and analysis results against the photographs themselves. Both are AI suggestions, and completing analysis is not required for automatic tags.

Local versus cloud examples

Use a plugin you own on this computer

For example, if you own Heal and want to keep processing on your computer:

1. Make sure Heal is installed and activated on this computer.
2. Open the retouching panel and select Local.
3. Enable Heal, choose a strength that suits the photograph, and create a preview.
4. Compare the preview with the original before applying the same settings to more photographs.

Unlimited local use applies only to the plugins you own. Seeing another plugin in the list does not mean it is installed, activated or included in your licence.

Select Heal in Local mode, then use Retouch preview for the selected photograph. Arams 1.10.2 · Windows · American English

Send a photograph for cloud retouching

Choose Cloud when you want server processing and your account includes the required capability. Select the photographs and tools, then read the upload notice and credit confirmation before continuing. Check the credit amount for this request because it can differ by tool, batch, preview or repeat run.

Cloud processing uploads the selected photographs and requires a network connection. Owning the same plugin for local work does not pay for the cloud request.

Combine local work with analysis only when needed

You can retouch with an owned local plugin and still run Analyze when photo or face analysis would help with culling. The two operations remain separate: local retouching uses the plugin, while Analyze uses photo analysis credits. If you only need searchable automatic tags, leave Analyze out of the workflow.

Check before you continue

• Confirm whether Local or Cloud is selected before retouching.
• For Local, confirm that each required plugin is installed and activated on this computer.
• For Cloud or Analyze, check the appropriate credit counter and read any confirmation for the current request.
• If processing is enabled during export, the selected processing route still determines its requirements.

Related topics

See local retouching, cloud retouching, photo and face analysis and color correction.