Three self-serve tiers and an institutional contract. Every tier browses the full catalogue of public listings; what paid tiers add is Prime listings not usually carried on the major public job boards, deeper AI feedback on your drafts, and broader application management. Free covers discovery and tracking. Plus adds Prime listings, deeper search, saved alerts, and AI feedback on the documents you write. Premium adds the fullest AI feedback on every document plus full packet management. The institutional contract is sales-led, for departments and programs.
Independent academic career consultants can charge several hundred dollars for a single document review — rates vary widely by consultant and document type. Scholiad is built for the in-between work: AI-assisted feedback on your CV, cover letter, research statement, and teaching statement — many small, structural rounds a month — at a price that supports that volume.
Use Scholiad alongside, not instead of, expert human review when stakes are highest.
Each plan unlocks a set of AI review features and gives you a monthly count for each — “3 of 5 remaining this month,” not a shared dollar pool. Counts reset on the first of the month. The Free tier includes a one-time AI sampler — so you can experience the matching and feedback tools before deciding whether to subscribe. Scholiad is designed to support your application work, not write for you: you write the documents, the AI reviews them.
Every feature, side by side. Each cell is that tier's actual value — a monthly count, a check, or an explicit locked. No cumulative-tier guesswork; no marketing chrome.
| Capability | Tier I Free | Tier II · Recommended Plus | Tier III Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| i. Discovery & matching | |||
| Prime listingsOpportunities sourced by Scholiad — not usually on major public job boards. Browsing public listings stays free; Prime listings unlock on Plus and Premium. sourced by Scholiad; not usually on major public boards | locked | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search ProfilesA saved research focus with its own CV and its own stream of matched jobs. Make one per sub-field — it is not an extra user account. Each Search Profile = a research focus + its own CV + its own matched-jobs stream. Keep one per sub-field or job type — they're yours, not additional users. | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Foundations & fellowshipsCoverage of grant, fellowship, and foundation funders across the humanities and social sciences. ACLS, NEH, Mellon, Folger, Newberry, Huntington… | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Professional societiesCoverage of scholarly-society job boards and calls across disciplines. AHA, MLA, APA, ASA, AAR… | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ii. AI review & recommendations Plus & Premium: per-feature monthly counts (reset on the 1st). Free: a one-time AI sampler (does not renew). | |||
| Quick AI match checkA fast, lightweight read on whether a single posting is worth your attention. Scan — lightweight per-posting check on potential matches | 30 · one-time | 100 / mo | 250 / mo |
| Deeper AI scoringA more thorough fit score for a posting, with the reasons behind the score. Review — deeper per-posting fit scoring | 3 · one-time | 15 / mo | 40 / mo |
| Deep AI assessmentThe most in-depth fit assessment, reserved for your strongest candidate postings. Appraisal — in-depth fit appraisal for top candidates | 1 · one-time | 5 / mo | 15 / mo |
| Most relevant match sortRe-orders your whole feed so the best-fitting postings rise to the top. Every posting stays reachable by browsing and filters. ranks your whole feed by relevance to your profile | locked | ✓ | ✓ |
| CV gap analysisReads your CV against a posting and points out missing or thin sections, with concrete suggestions you decide whether to use. | locked | 5 | 15 |
| CV tailoringSuggests how to reorder and reframe your existing CV for a specific posting. You keep authorship; it only advises. | locked | 5 | 15 |
| Cover letter feedbackStructural feedback on a cover letter you wrote — what is unclear, missing, or out of order. | locked | 5 | 10 |
| Handbook-grounded CV gapA CV gap analysis that also checks your CV against a department or field handbook's norms. | locked | 3 | 10 |
| Portfolio coherence auditReviews your whole set of drafts against one posting and flags places where they contradict each other or miss the posting's asks. reviews full set of drafts vs. one posting; flags contradictions & gaps | locked | 3 | 10 |
| Statement reviewStructural review of the statement drafts you write — research, teaching, diversity, personal, and research-proposal statements. structural review of the statement drafts you write — research, teaching, diversity, personal & research-proposal | locked | locked | 10 |
| Where to publish & presentDescribe your paper topic, or select your field from our discipline catalogue. Receive a grounded shortlist of journals, conferences, and calls for papers from Scholiad's vetted catalogue — with the angle to take and what each venue asks for. Cited and verifiable; verified signals and thematic fit to your research, not a ranking or a prediction of acceptance — it suggests venues, it doesn't write or submit for you. describe your paper or pick your field — get a grounded shortlist of journals, conferences & calls for papers from our vetted catalogue — verified signals, not a ranking | locked | locked | ✓ |
| iii. Application management | |||
| Deadline tracker & remindersA running list of your tracked deadlines, plus reminders that begin a set number of days before each one. reminders fire as a tracked deadline approaches | Tracker · reminders ~7 days out | Tracker · reminders ~14 days out | Tracker · reminders ~30 days out |
| Application packet exportBundles the documents you have written into one ready-to-submit packet per posting. bundle the documents you've written into one per-posting packet, ready to submit | locked | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support tierHow you contact Scholiad: Community self-help resources, standard email response, or priority-queue email response. | Community | Standard | Priority |
| iv. Alerts, saved searches & export | |||
| Saved searches & alertsSearches you save so new matching postings are emailed to you on a set cadence. | 1 · monthly | 3 · weekly | Unlimited · daily |
¶ Every tier browses the full catalogue of public listings, with all filters and date / deadline / recency sorts. Plus & Premium add Prime listings (sourced by Scholiad; not usually on the major public boards) and the relevance-ranked Most relevant sort.
¶ Plus & Premium counts reset on the first of the month; Free’s AI sampler is one-time and does not renew. Pay-as-you-go top-ups extend counts within already-unlocked features only. Tier V Department adds the AI-feature toggle, SSO, and multi-seat administration. Talk to the team about institutional pricing →
Academic rate Reduced-rate Plus for verified students and post-docs. Create an account to check eligibility →
Plain answers. If your question isn't here, write to us — we read everything.
Each AI review feature has its own monthly count. Plus gives you 5 CV gap analyses, 5 CV tailoring runs, 5 cover letter feedback rounds, and 3 handbook-grounded CV gaps — independently. The dashboard shows 3 of 5 remaining this month for each feature; we don't display dollar amounts at the point of use.
On Plus and Premium, counts reset on the first of the month; the Free tier's AI sampler is one-time and does not renew. Pay-as-you-go top-ups extend counts within already-unlocked features only — if a feature isn't unlocked at your tier, you'll need to upgrade to unlock it.
No. Scholiad is designed to support your application work, not write for you. You write the documents; the AI reviews them with structural feedback — the kind a writing-center reviewer or a friendly faculty mentor would give. Drafts and revisions are saved automatically.
The Free tier is free forever and is how you use Scholiad at no cost — 1 Search Profile (with its CV), a one-time AI match taste, 1 saved search with a monthly digest. There is no time-limited trial of Plus or Premium on top of that; the paid tiers are monthly or annual subscriptions with no lock-in. Cancel from your account at any time; upgrades are prorated, downgrades take effect at the end of the current cycle.
For Plus and Premium: major credit and debit cards, plus wallet options where our payment provider supports them. For Tier V Department: invoicing and bank transfer are arranged with your account manager, with purchase-order numbers welcome.
You can cancel from your account settings whenever you like — no email loops, no retention calls. Your matched feed and saved searches remain accessible in read-only form for 90 days, after which they are deleted. You may export your profile and saved entries as JSON or .ics at any time during that window. Alumni archive ($3/mo) is the long-term option for keeping read-only access permanently.
Yes, between any of the self-serve tiers — Free, Plus, and Premium. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated for the remainder of the current cycle. Downgrades take effect at the end of the current cycle, so you keep what you paid for. Switching between monthly and annual is treated the same way. Switching to or from Tier V Department happens via your account manager.
Plus is offered at a reduced rate for verified students and post-docs after a quick eligibility check with an institutional address (it takes about 30 seconds). Independent scholars and emeritus faculty: write to us — we handle access requests practically and without unnecessary friction. Non-profit and library rates are negotiated under Tier V Department.
Tier III Premium is individual self-serve at $39/month: one user, up to 5 Search Profiles, full per-feature monthly counts at their highest level, including statement review and the portfolio coherence audit. You sign up with a card and start immediately.
Tier V Department is a sales-led contract for departments, career-services offices, and graduate schools. It includes multi-seat provisioning, SSO (SAML, Shibboleth, OIDC), the AI-feature toggle (some institutions disable AI advisor features by policy — Scholiad respects academic-integrity policy decisions), onboarding support, multi-seat administration, security-practices documentation available on request (Scholiad runs on infrastructure that holds SOC 2 Type II certification; a Scholiad-level SOC 2 audit is on our institutional-readiness roadmap, and we are transparent about where we are in that process), a dedicated customer success manager, and annual fiscal-year-aligned billing. Pricing is custom-quoted by seat count and deployment options.
If you're an individual researcher, Premium is right. If you're procuring on behalf of a department, Department is right.
You can downgrade Plus or Premium to Free at any time; the change takes effect at the next billing cycle, and you keep your paid features until then. After landing a position, the Alumni archive ($3/mo) is the long-term read-only option.
Annual plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, as long as you haven't substantially used the AI features. Monthly and Alumni plans can be cancelled anytime — you keep access through the period you've already paid for (which isn't refunded or prorated), and an accidental first charge is covered by a 48-hour full-refund window. Refunds are issued through our payment provider to your original payment method. See our Refund & Cancellation Policy for the details.
It isn't a replacement. Independent academic career consultants offer judgment, field knowledge, and conversation that an AI doesn't — and a single document review can run several hundred dollars (rates vary widely by consultant and document type). Scholiad is built for the in-between work: many small, structural rounds of review across many documents, at a price that supports that volume.
Use Scholiad alongside expert human review when the stakes are highest. Scholiad complements expert review; it doesn't replace it.
Prices may be adjusted as the platform grows. When prices change, existing Plus and Premium subscribers are notified at least 60 days in advance and may cancel without penalty in that window. Current subscribers keep their rate through their active subscription period. See our Terms of Service for the full commitment.
Move to Tier IV Alumni archive, $3/month: read-only, but it preserves your scan archive, profile documents, and saved opportunities. No new AI features; no new scans; just continued access to everything you've already gathered.
It's not a one-way door. Switch back to Plus or Premium anytime; your archive remains intact, and active scanning resumes where you left off.
The Free tier is free forever — sign up and begin. Or talk to us about institutional partnerships — we approach procurement as a collaboration, not a barrier.