Getting Started on the Free Plan

Where to sign up: /signup/free/

Signing Up

1. Go to /signup/free/ or click "Get Started Free" on the pricing page
2. Enter your brand or company name
3. Enter your email address
4. Choose a password (8+ characters)
5. Click Create Free Account
6. Check your email and click the verification link

After verifying, you'll go through the onboarding wizard to set up your brand voice, connect your website, and configure your content preferences.

What's Included

| Feature | Monthly Quota |
|---------|---------------|
| AI Briefs | 4 (keyword + custom types) |
| Long-form Articles | 4 |
| AI Images | 16 (hero + inline images) |
| Social Posts | 16 |
| Social Platforms | Facebook & Instagram |
| Keyword Discovery | Monthly (3 seeds, 50 keywords) |
| Google Search Console Sync | Weekly |
| Maya Strategy Chat | Unlimited |
| Content Export | Copy, download, manual publish |

Quotas reset on the first of each month.

Creating Your First Brief

Briefs are the foundation of every article. They gather search data, competitive intelligence, and strategic direction before content generation begins.

Available Brief Types

| Type | What It Does |
|------|-------------|
| Keyword Brief | Enter a target keyword. ILLIXIS analyzes the SERP, top-ranking pages, search intent, and related terms. Best for SEO-focused content. |
| Custom Brief | Describe any topic in your own words. ILLIXIS builds the research around your chosen angle. Best for thought leadership or specific topics. |

Enrichment Level

Free plan briefs use basic enrichment which includes:

• SERP snapshot and People Also Ask data
• Google Trends signals
• Search volume, CPC, intent, and related keywords

Competitive analysis panels (competitor page analysis, keyword difficulty scores) appear as locked sections with a note about what paid plans add.

Steps

1. Go to Create > Content Briefs in the sidebar
2. Click Create Brief
3. Choose Keyword or Custom
4. Enter your keyword or topic description
5. Click Analyze — results appear in 3-5 minutes

Generating Articles

With a completed brief, generate a full article in one click.

1. Open a completed brief
2. Click Generate Article
3. Wait 1-2 minutes for the article to generate

Articles include automatic quality grading (A+ to F). Each article gets a hero image plus up to 3 inline images via AI image generation.

After generation, review the article in the Content Hub. You can regenerate sections or the full article if needed.

Publishing to Social Media

Turn each article into 4 social posts and publish them to Facebook and Instagram.

Connecting Your Accounts

1. Go to Settings > Integrations
2. Click Connect Facebook & Instagram
3. Log in with your Meta account and select a Facebook Page
4. If your Page has a linked Instagram Business Account, it connects automatically

Creating Social Posts

1. Open an article in the Content Hub
2. Click Create Social Posts
3. Social Studio generates platform-specific captions with hashtags
4. Review and edit captions as needed
5. Select Facebook, Instagram, or both
6. Click Publish or schedule for later

Social posts reuse your article's images (hero and inline) — each caption gets a different image for visual variety.

Exporting Content

If you don't use a supported CMS connector, the export tools let you move content to any platform.

On the article view page, find the Export Content section in the right sidebar:

| Button | What It Does |
|--------|-------------|
| Copy Article | Copies the full article as plain text to your clipboard |
| Copy as HTML | Copies the article as formatted HTML, ready to paste into a CMS |
| Copy SEO Fields | Copies the meta title, meta description, and slug |
| Download Article | Downloads a complete .html file with title, meta tags, and article body |
| Mark as Published | Updates the article status to "published" for tracking |

What Paid Plans Add

| Feature | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| More content volume | Up to 80 briefs and 50 articles per month |
| All brief types | Calendar briefs, trend signal briefs, link magnet briefs |
| Full enrichment | Competitor page analysis, keyword difficulty scores, semantic keywords |
| Premium AI quality | Higher-tier AI model for articles, unique quote graphics for social posts |
| Multi-platform publishing | 13+ social platforms via social publishing integration (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, TikTok, Pinterest, and more) |
| Email campaigns | Newsletters, sequences, automation triggers |
| Ad concepts | Generate ad copy for Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and more |
| Video production | AI video scripts, generation, voiceovers |
| Inline AI Editing | Select text and ask Maya to reword, shorten, expand, or rewrite it |
| Originality & accuracy checks | Plagiarism detection and AI fact-checking |
| CMS connectors | One-click publish to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Payload |
| Advanced analytics | AI-powered analytics tab with recommendations |

Upgrade anytime from the pricing page. Your existing content and settings carry over.

Common Questions

How do quotas work? You get a fixed number of briefs, articles, images, and social posts each month. Quotas reset on the first of the month. Unused quota does not roll over.

What happens when all 500 free spots are taken? New visitors see a waitlist page where they can enter their email. When a spot opens (if a free user upgrades or deactivates), waitlisted users are notified.

Can I upgrade to a paid plan later? Yes. Go to the pricing page at any time, choose a plan, and your account upgrades immediately. All your existing content, briefs, and settings are preserved.

What AI model generates my articles? Free plan articles use a high-quality AI model that produces well-structured content. Paid plans use a premium-tier AI model for maximum quality.

Can I connect my CMS on the free plan? CMS connectors (WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Payload) are a paid feature. On the free plan, use the export tools to copy or download your content and paste it into any CMS manually.

Related Features

• Keyword Briefs — Detailed guide to creating keyword-based briefs
• Custom Briefs — Creating briefs from your own topic descriptions
• Article Generation — How the content generation pipeline works
• Social Studio — Multi-format social content creation
• Content Calendar — Scheduling content across channels
• Keyword Discovery — Expanding your keyword universe