With the move to online learning, we are seeing a tremendous increase in signups (4x increase), and many more feature requests as professors and students move to a new model. We have moved to a paid model so that we can meet the demands of our growing user base.
Where institutions would like to keep Piazza free for their instructors and students, they can sign up for an enterprise site license at the institute or school level, starting January 2021. With a paid license in place, students and professors will be able to continue using Piazza without any changes to their experience. Please email our team at team@piazza.com to engage on a site license.
Under our user paid model, instructors can purchase an instructor license to use Piazza. It's free to get started, and a credit card is not required when creating your class. Payment is due 3 weeks after class start date, to allow for add/drop window.
An instructor license is $379(USD)/term for 400 student max class size, $429/term for 700 student max class size, and $479/term for unlimited class size; K-12 classes and classes with up to 25 students do not require licenses. When you purchase an instructor license, all students in your classes for that term are covered and do not need to pay. Alternatively, a department license for up to 2,000 students is $9,000/year and up to 3,000 students is $12,000/year. This would allow for unlimited classes per student in that department to use Piazza at no cost to them.
To purchase an instructor or department license, you can visit the "Piazza License Portal" from the gear dropdown menu in the top right of your screen. Here, you can purchase an individual instructor license or multiple instructor licenses as well as a department license for your department. To see a step by step guide on purchasing and managing instructor or department licenses, click here.
Where you do not have a paid license, you and your students may continue using Piazza freely through our contribution-supported model. Starting August 1, 2021, premium features are no longer be available with the contribution-supported option and you will need to upgrade to our paid version—with an instructor, institution-wide, or department license—to access the following premium features: polls, statistics, and class locking capabilities. In the contribution-supported model, we're adding prompts in the product asking our users to make an optional financial contribution if Piazza has delivered value to them. Users who make a contribution will not see these prompts again for the remainder of that term. Please note: with feedback we received from our community, we will not be placing ads on Piazza.
Our hope with the contribution-supported model is that this gives institutions that don't yet have a license in place, the time they need to get a paid contract in place with our team.
Finally, we never want money to be the reason you can't use Piazza. If your class warrants special circumstances, please do not hesitate to write in to us and let us know how we can support you and your students with your unique needs. Our hope is to be supportive and a partner to you while we shift to a paid model.
Should you have any questions regarding our paid model, or if you think your university would like to purchase a site license to keep Piazza free for your students, please email us at team@piazza.com.