Free
€0
- Database search Try-it-out queries
- Conversation memory —
- Cortex Cowork —
- File read/write —
- Skills marketplace —
- Mobile dispatch —
Plans
§ I
Self-serve. Cancel any time.
Three tiers. Self-serve via Desktop Settings → Billing. Cancel any time through the billing portal.
Pro
€99 /month · or €899/year (25% off)
- Database search 14 LCA databases
- Conversation memory Yes
- Cortex Cowork —
- File read/write —
- Skills marketplace —
- Mobile dispatch —
Plus
€299 /month · or €2699/year (25% off)
- Database search 14 LCA databases
- Conversation memory Yes
- Cortex Cowork Yes
- File read/write Yes
- Skills marketplace Yes
- Mobile dispatch Yes
Annual billing is 25% off the monthly rate — Pro €899 / year, Plus €2699 / year. Prior-period proration applies when upgrading mid-cycle.
What each tier includes
§ II
Plain numbers.
Free is the way in. A handful of queries to feel what Cortex Chat does — ask a methodology question, look up one material, see how a candidate is sourced. Not sized for ongoing LCA work. No credit card required.
Pro (€99 / month) is the working tier for individual LCA practitioners. Search runs across all fourteen databases — the free reference sources return full data; commercial ones (Ecoinvent, CarbonMinds, HiQLCD, HiQLCD-AL, Agri-footprint) return discovery results until licensed (see Database licensing below). Conversation memory persists across sessions and syncs across devices. Pro does not include Cortex Cowork — Chat is the surface.
Plus (€299 / month) is for project work. Adds Cortex Cowork: the desktop agent that reads and writes files on your machine, runs multi-step workflows, and loads skills from the marketplace. Cowork sessions stay on the same machine as the desktop app; the agent never runs on a remote server. Plus also unlocks Cortex Dispatch — hand a task off from your phone, watch it run on your desktop Cowork.
A necessary clarification
§ III
Database licensing.
The subscription buys the software and search across all fourteen databases. It does not buy the database content. Two separate purchases.
Free out of the box: the public reference databases — EF, Tiangong, World Steel, USDA, EXIOBASE, OZLCI, NEEDS, BAFU, AusLCI. Query them on any paid plan, no extra license.
Commercial databases are licensed separately — including HiQ's own. HiQLCD and HiQLCD-AL are purchased from HiQ-AI. Ecoinvent, CarbonMinds, and Agri-footprint are third-party. None is bundled into the subscription; each is a paid authorization on top.
For a third-party database, two routes. Buy the authorization through Cortex — it unlocks on your account at sign-in. Or activate a license you already hold — send proof of purchase, pay a flat €500 activation fee, and the same dataset opens on the Cortex side. The €500 activates a license you bought elsewhere; it is not the database's price.
Without authorization — you can still discover. Cortex returns the dataset name, source, version, region, system model, and a link to the original record. The numbers stay withheld until access exists. Cortex never substitutes a literature estimate or a model-generated value to fill the gap.
Database pricing is quoted per database. lizj@hiqlcd.com.
API access
§ IV
For integrators.
Developers integrating Cortex into external tools access the platform via x.hiqlcd.com/api/cortex/* with an API key. Capacity is sized to the integration; ranges from individual exploration to high-throughput backend pipelines.
Pricing is tailored to the use case. To apply: info@hiqlcd.com.
Common questions
§ V
Can the subscription be cancelled?
Yes. Cancellation is self-serve through the customer billing portal, accessible from Desktop Settings → Billing → Manage subscription. The plan reverts to Free at the end of the current billing period.
Is there a discount for annual payment?
Yes — 25% off the monthly rate. Pro is €899 / year (vs €1188 at €99 × 12). Plus is €2699 / year (vs €3588 at €299 × 12).
Does Plus include Cortex Chat?
Yes. Plus includes everything in Pro (Chat, 14 databases, conversation memory) plus Cortex Cowork and Cortex Dispatch (mobile hand-off to your desktop Cowork).
What about team or enterprise plans?
Team and enterprise configurations exist and are provisioned by the HiQ team directly. Contact info@hiqlcd.com to discuss.
Start with one question.
Free is the way to feel out the product — a handful of queries on the house. For ongoing LCA work, Pro is the entry point. No credit card required to begin.