# Early Access

On the Agency plan and up, new features reach your account before they go out to everyone else. There is no separate waitlist or signup: it is tied to your plan, and Discord tells you what just landed. Nothing extra to switch on, nothing to apply for, and no rough build to test in exchange.

Early Access is a support perk, not a switch you flip. If your organization is on the Agency plan or higher, new capabilities, new employee skills, and new tool integrations reach your account first, ahead of the general rollout to every other plan.

Being early is mostly about being in the room. The Sistava community on Discord is where the team talks about what just shipped and what is being worked on next, alongside open channels for technical and general support. If your plan qualifies you hear about a release there, you can ask what it actually does, and you can say what would make it more useful to a business like yours, before the note goes out to everyone else.

It also sits on top of the parts of the product that are open to every account. The in-app Feedback panel lets anyone request a capability and vote on what other customers have asked for, and the public changelog lists every release once it is announced. Early Access does not replace either of those. You still request, you still vote, you simply hear the outcome sooner and have a much shorter path to the people building it.

You do not request it and you do not track a separate release calendar. The moment a change ships to early-access accounts, it shows up in your workspace like any other update, and the Discord community is where the team talks about what just went out and why, before the changelog entry goes public to everyone. That includes new employee skills, new tool integrations, and improvements to existing workflows, not a narrow slice held back for testing purposes.

The alternative most platforms offer is a public beta waitlist you sign up for and hope gets approved. Sistava skips that step entirely: Early Access is bundled into a plan you are already paying for, so there is no separate application, no approval queue, and no risk of being passed over. Your plan tier is the only gate.

## What Getting It Early Actually Means

It covers the same range of changes as the public changelog: new employee skills, new tool integrations, workflow improvements, and product features. Nothing about the feature itself is different for an early-access account; the only difference is timing.

Because it rides on the plan you already have, there is nothing to configure. An organization that upgrades to Agency starts receiving early releases from that point forward. One that downgrades below Agency goes back to the standard release timing, the same as any other plan-based perk.

## Where To Watch For It

Discord is the fastest source: the team posts about new releases there as they go out, ahead of the public changelog. It is the same community used for general support and product discussion, so no separate channel or subscription is needed.

The public changelog inside the app still lists everything that shipped, so nothing is exclusive to Discord. Early Access changes when you hear about a release, not whether you eventually see it if you are on a lower plan.

## How this differs from a public beta program

Most platforms run early access as a waitlist. You apply, you wait, you may or may not be picked, and quite often the price of admission is testing something unfinished and writing up what broke. That model puts the work on you and hands the platform a filter it alone controls.

Sistava does not run that queue. Early Access is attached to a plan you already hold, so there is no application to write and no approval to wait for, and what reaches you is finished work rather than an experiment you are expected to debug. Feedback is welcome and shapes what gets built next, but it is never the fee you pay to be included.

## How It Works

**Tied to your plan, not a separate opt-in**

When the team finishes a new feature, employee skill, or tool integration, it does not go to every customer on the same day. Agency plan and up accounts receive it first. There is no toggle to find in Settings and no form to fill out: if your organization's plan already qualifies, the feature simply appears.

The Discord community is the place to hear about it as it happens. New releases get discussed there before the public changelog entry goes out to the rest of the platform, so Agency and higher customers are typically the first to know what changed and why.

There is nothing to maintain on your side. No second account, no beta program to enrol in, no toggle that can be left switched off by accident, and no window you miss because you did not happen to check a page that week. The plan your organization is already on is the whole mechanism, which is also the reason it cannot quietly stop working.

## Use Cases

### Try a new employee skill before it is widely announced

When the team ships a new skill or capability for an AI employee, Agency and higher accounts get it as part of the normal rollout, ahead of the broader release.

### Adopt a new tool integration first

New app connections and tool integrations land on qualifying accounts before the wider release, so an agency running client work can start using a new connection sooner.

### Stay ahead of platform changes without extra tracking

Because Early Access rides on your plan rather than a separate feed, there is nothing to subscribe to or monitor beyond checking Discord, where the team already discusses what just shipped.

### An agency planning client work around what is coming

Hearing about a new tool connection or employee skill before the general announcement gives you time to decide whether to build a client workflow on it now or hold off, rather than finding out after you have already quoted the job.

## Comparison

| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Applying to a beta waitlist and hoping you get picked | Tied to the plan you already hold, with no application and no approval queue |
| Finding out a capability exists weeks after it landed | Hearing what shipped in the community first, with the team there to answer |
| Testing rough builds in exchange for getting in early | Finished releases, where feedback is welcome but never the price of entry |
| Watching a separate release calendar to keep up | Releases arrive in the workspace you already use, and the changelog lists them all |

## FAQ

### Which plan includes Early Access?

The Agency plan and any plan above it. Priority Support, the other support perk, starts one tier lower on the Founder plan.

### Do I need to apply or join a waitlist?

No. There is no signup, application, or approval step. If your organization is on a qualifying plan, early releases reach your account automatically.

### How do I find out when something new has shipped early?

Watch the Discord community, where the team talks about new releases before the public changelog entry goes out. Joining that community is free and open to anyone on any plan, and it is not a requirement: the in-app changelog still lists every release for everyone once it goes public. Discord is where the conversation happens first, not the only place a release exists.

### Is Early Access the same as being a beta tester?

No. You are not asked to test unfinished software, file structured bug reports, or sign anything extra to take part. What reaches you is finished work, and giving feedback afterwards is welcome but never a condition of being included.

### What happens if I downgrade below the Agency plan?

Your account goes back to the standard release timing along with everyone else. You keep every feature you already have; you just stop being first for what ships after the downgrade.

### Does Early Access cost anything on top of the Agency plan?

No. It is included in the Agency plan price along with everything else on that tier. There is no add-on fee and no separate line item for it.

### Can I still request features and vote through the Feedback panel while on Early Access?

Yes. The Feedback panel is open to every plan, including free accounts. Early Access changes when a shipped feature reaches you, not how you request or vote on what gets built next.

## Where Early Access fits

Early Access is part of How you run the account itself.

Sign in the way your company already does, decide who can do what, and keep the money side legible. Credits, plans, invoices, referrals, and the controls that decide who reaches which part of the workspace.

- [How you run the account itself](/en/features/account): Your workspace, your money, your people.

## Read the guide

- [Guide: Early Access](/en/guide/getting-started/community)

## More in Account & Billing

- [Monthly Credits](/en/features/account/monthly_credits): Every paid plan comes with a pool of credits that refills automatically at the start of each billing period. Credits are the single unit that pays for everything your AI employees do: thinking, tool calls, media generation, voice, and meetings. There is nothing to top up manually each month; your allowance is just there again when the new period starts.
- [Lifetime Credits (Free)](/en/features/account/lifetime_credits_free): Pick the Free plan and your workspace gets 2,000 credits in one grant, no card required. Those credits never reset and never expire; you spend them at your own pace across chat, tools, and media generation until they run out. It is a one-time bucket, not a monthly allowance, so it is meant for trying the platform before you commit to a paid plan.
- [Buy Credits](/en/features/account/credit_packs): Add credits to your workspace balance any time, on any plan, without changing your subscription. Pick from three one-time packs, pay by card through Stripe, and the credits land in your balance as soon as the payment clears.
- [Upgrade & Downgrade](/en/features/account/plan_upgrade_downgrade): Move to a bigger plan the moment you need more credits or a higher employee cap, and the change takes effect immediately. Move to a smaller plan when you need less, and it takes effect at the end of your current billing period so you keep what you already paid for. Both happen from Settings, Subscription, no support ticket required.
- [Promo Codes](/en/features/account/promo_codes): Redeem a promotional code for a one-time, lifetime grant of bonus credits on top of your plan's monthly allowance. Enter a code at signup or any time afterward from Settings, Subscription, Get Free Credits. Each grant shows up in your Credit Grants history with its source, date, and amount, and one code can be redeemed once per workspace.
- [Referrals](/en/features/account/referral_program): Share your personal referral link or invite someone by email, and you both get 1,000 free credits the moment they sign up. Track every invite from a dedicated Earn Credits page, and keep earning until you hit the 10-referral cap.
- [Data Retention](/en/features/account/data_retention): Sistava deletes operational data on a fixed schedule instead of keeping it forever by default. A cleanup job runs every day and removes rows past their retention window: short-lived debug data within a week or two, working memory after 30 days of inactivity, and usage and activity history after two years. Chat messages, documents your employees write, and persistent notes are kept indefinitely unless you delete them yourself. There is no setting to change these windows; they apply the same way to every workspace.
- [Google Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_google): Sign in to Sistava with your Google account instead of creating a separate password. Choose Sign up with Google on the signup page and your workspace is ready after one approval, with your name and photo carried over automatically from Google. Because Google has already confirmed your email address, there is no verification email to chase before your AI employees can start working.
- [Microsoft Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_microsoft): Sign up or sign in with your Microsoft account instead of creating a password. Sistava reads your Microsoft account's name, email, and profile photo to set up your account, and your Profile page shows Microsoft as your connected sign-in method. Because Microsoft has already confirmed the address belongs to you, the account counts as verified from the start and your employees can begin working straight away. Google sign-in and an ordinary email and password are the other two ways in.
- [Workspace Roles](/en/features/account/tenant_roles): Every workspace you create has an Owner, Admin, and Collaborator role, each with a fixed set of permissions over billing, the collaborator roster, and resource access. Owners can grant a non-owner collaborator extra access, or take some away, without changing their overall role. A Roles page shows your own effective access and the full permission matrix so nobody has to guess what they can do.
- [User Profile Picture](/en/features/account/user_profile_avatar): Upload a photo for your account so your teammates and AI employees see a real picture of you instead of initials. It shows up in chat, comments, and the collaborator list across every workspace you belong to. If you signed up with Google or Microsoft, your picture is pulled in automatically the first time you sign in, and you can replace it any time.
- [Two-Factor Authentication](/en/features/account/two_factor_auth): Add a second sign-in step to your Sistava account using any TOTP authenticator app, like Google Authenticator or Authy. Once enabled, a code from your app is required in addition to your password, so a leaked or guessed password alone is not enough to get in. Turning it on immediately signs out every other active session, so a session created before you enabled it cannot be used to bypass it.

## Explore

- [Every feature](/en/features)
- [Hire an AI employee](/en/market)
- [Pricing](/en/pricing)