First Scan Free vs. Plus: What Cautellus Actually Costs

First Scan Free vs. Plus: What Cautellus Actually Costs

You got a weird text, pasted it into Cautellus, and now you're staring at a pricing page wondering if that free scan you just used is the whole product or a hook for something bigger. Fair question. I'd rather answer it straight than have you find out at checkout: it's a hook, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Here's exactly what's free, what isn't, and who actually needs to pay for the difference.

What the free scan actually gets you

One scam scan, once every 30 days, no card on file. Paste a text, a link, an email, or a screenshot into Cautellus's scanner, and it runs the full check — the same threat-database match, typosquat detection, and behavioral read explained in more detail here that a paid scan gets. You also get one AI image detection on the same one-time basis, plus a breach count — how many breaches your email showed up in, not the full report of what leaked in each one. No countdown, no card required to get that first look. It genuinely costs nothing.

What it isn't: a way to check five suspicious texts in the same week. It's one look, then a 30-day wait before the next free one. If you get one weird text every few months and want to check it before you click, that's the free scan, and it's enough. Keep reading before you assume you need more than that.

What Plus actually costs and what changes

Plus is $9.99 a month. For that you get unlimited scam scans instead of one, 50 AI image detections a month instead of one, a password generator, the SMS scam number lookup database, full data breach reports instead of just a count, email support, and the Chrome extension that checks pages and links before you click them. Video detection is listed as coming soon, so I'm not counting it as a reason to subscribe yet.

Most people get to Plus through a 7-day free trial — and this is the part I want to be direct about, because "free trial" gets used loosely everywhere else on the internet and I don't want you assuming ours works the same as a subscription box you forgot to cancel.

The 7-day trial, in full

Starting the trial requires a card. You are not charged during the 7 days. On day 7, if you haven't canceled, the card on file is charged $9.99 and the subscription continues monthly from there. Canceling before day 7 means you pay nothing — and canceling is self-serve, through your account's billing portal, not a phone call or an email you have to wait on.

That's the whole mechanic. If a site is going to make you hand over a card number before you've decided anything, you're owed that information up front, not buried three screens into a terms page. Card required. First charge on day 7. Cancel it yourself, any time before then.

Who shouldn't subscribe

I'll say the unpopular part out loud, because it's what makes the rest of this credible: if you get one suspicious text every few months, the free scan is genuinely enough. You don't need $9.99 a month for that. Use it when something worries you, and move on.

Plus starts earning its cost the moment "occasionally" stops being true, which happens faster than people expect. If you're the one your family forwards screenshots to, you'll burn through one free scan a month in a single bad week. If you're fielding a new "invoice," "vendor," or "urgent wire" email every few weeks, a one-shot breach report and a single monthly scan won't keep pace with what's actually landing in your inbox. If you've already been targeted once — a number that keeps calling back, a "recovery" DM after a prior loss — the number database and unlimited scans are built for exactly that repeat-contact pattern.

If none of that describes you, the honest answer is: don't subscribe yet. Bookmark the scanner, use your free scan when something actually worries you, and let your own usage — not a countdown timer — tell you when it's time. If you want to see how this stacks up against other tools before committing either way, our comparison of every major scam checker is a reasonable next stop, and if your instinct is to just ask a chatbot instead, here's the actual gap between that and a dedicated check.

What "unlimited" and "50 a month" mean day to day

Concretely: on Plus, you can paste as many texts, links, emails, and screenshots as you want, with no monthly counter working against you. The AI image detection cap — 50 a month — resets on your billing date, not the calendar month, and covers checking whether a photo, a "verified" screenshot, or a product image was AI-generated rather than real. The full breach report goes beyond a count and shows which specific breaches exposed your email, so you know what actually needs a password change versus what's old news.

None of this is a guarantee against every scam that exists — no scanner, ours included, catches everything, and I'd rather say that plainly than let a $9.99 line item imply otherwise. What you're paying for is more looks, more detail on each one, and tools that work before you're already mid-conversation with a scammer instead of after.

FAQ

Is Cautellus actually free? Not as a permanent state, no. There's one free scan every 30 days with no card required, and a 7-day free trial of Plus that requires a card and converts to $9.99/month unless you cancel first. Neither of those is "free forever," and I'd rather say that plainly than have you find out at checkout.

Does the free scan require a credit card? No. The one-time free scan and free AI image detection don't ask for payment information at all. Only starting the 7-day Plus trial requires a card.

What happens if I forget to cancel the trial? You're charged $9.99 on day 7 and the subscription continues monthly from there. Cancel any time before day 7 through your account's billing portal to avoid the charge entirely.

Can I cancel Plus after I've already been charged? Yes, any time — cancellation is self-serve through the billing portal, and you keep access through the end of the billing period you already paid for.

What's the actual difference between the free scan and the Plus trial? The free scan is a single look, no card, repeatable once every 30 days. The Plus trial is a 7-day window of full unlimited access that requires a card and turns into a paid subscription unless you cancel first. They're not the same offer.

Is there a cheaper way to get Plus, like a yearly plan? As of this writing, $9.99/month is the only Plus pricing on offer — there's no separate annual discount tier. Check the current pricing page before subscribing, since terms like this are the first thing that changes.

Use the free scan when something actually worries you. Subscribe when your own numbers, not a countdown timer, tell you it's time.