Frequently asked questions

Socrates (Athens, c. 470-399 BCE) left no writings; his thought survives through his students, chiefly Plato. The Socratic Method is cooperative dialogue: state a claim, probe its assumptions with questions, test it against counterexamples, and revise. Socratic ONE stages that exchange between AI models in rotating turns with The Brief summarizing agreement, disagreement, and open questions. Models can share the same mistakes, so check important claims against original sources.

Socratic ONE runs structured discussions between multiple AI models. Read their responses and use The Brief to compare agreement, disagreement, and open questions. Multiple models can still share the same mistakes; check important claims against original sources.

Create an account to start a free platform AI debate, with no API key or credit card. Free and Basic include 3 platform AI debates per month, within their monthly AI round limit. You can also watch a sample debate at /demo without signing up.

Basic includes 100 AI rounds per month, up to 4 AI participants and 5 rounds per discussion, full history, custom AI participants, and PDF and Markdown reports. Pro is $20/month with unlimited rounds and up to 10 participants per discussion. OpenRouter model compute is billed separately. The Brief and AI Moderator are available on every tier.

New paid subscriptions and upgrades may be temporarily unavailable while paid acquisition is paused. Current purchase availability is shown on the plan cards and at api.socratic.one/api/v1/subscriptions/availability. Existing subscribers can still manage billing or downgrade. The Free plan remains available.

Your first platform AI debates do not need a key. To select OpenRouter models, connect your OpenRouter account using OAuth-PKCE or enter an OpenRouter key. Pro uses your OpenRouter connection. Your OpenRouter key is stored in your browser. It is sent over HTTPS to our backend for model calls. For streaming, a temporary server cache can retain it for up to 5 minutes and deletes it when used. It is not saved in your account database.

Yes. Signup passes through an age gate before account creation, and the service is not directed at children below the gated age. The age attestation is recorded at signup; see the Privacy Policy for how it is stored.

For an existing paid subscription, open Settings, then Subscription. Manage billing opens the Stripe customer portal. Choosing Downgrade to Free requests cancellation at the end of your billing period. Review the confirmation before leaving the page; manage your subscription before closing your account. OpenRouter usage is billed separately by OpenRouter.

Supported formats include PDF, TXT, CSV, Markdown, DOCX, PNG, JPEG, WebP, and GIF. Upload limits depend on file type and plan. Images require vision-capable models; other models may not receive them. Uploaded files currently have public URLs, so anyone with a file URL can access it. Avoid confidential uploads and review the Privacy Policy before sharing sensitive material.

An unavailable or rate-limited model may be skipped or replaced when an eligible alternative is available. If a cooldown appears, wait before retrying. A timed-out stream can pause the discussion; use Resume to continue. Persistent failures may require checking your connection, OpenRouter credentials or balance, and model availability. Recovery is not guaranteed for every provider error.

Use Socratic ONE in your mobile or tablet browser. The interface adapts to narrower screens, with a menu for navigation and vertically scrolling discussions. Long transcripts, comparison tables, and charts may take more scrolling than on a desktop.

Open Sign in and use the recovery options provided by the hosted WorkOS sign-in flow for your account. If you cannot regain access, contact hello@socratic.one without sending passwords or API keys. On a new browser or device, reconnect OpenRouter after signing in because your OpenRouter key is stored in the browser.

Connect OpenRouter to browse the current model catalog, including model families from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and others. Availability, capabilities, free options, and prices can change. Premium model compute is billed through your OpenRouter account.

Free includes 3 platform AI debates per month and 25 AI rounds per month. Monthly allowances reset at the start of the next calendar month. After the no-key debates are used, connect OpenRouter while your round allowance remains, or wait for the reset. The discussion history list is available on Basic and Pro; Free does not include it.

OpenRouter provides access to individual models. Socratic ONE adds a shared discussion timeline, rotating model turns, and The Brief so you can review multiple perspectives on the same topic. Beyond Free Chat there are three structured rooms: Tribunal (a Prosecutor and a Defender argue one proposition before a Judge and an optional jury), Research Institute (Scout, Theorist, Skeptic and Historian, then a synthesis) and War Room (Strategists, a Critic and a Synthesizer converge on a plan). Rooms open as they clear verification; a room that is still closed shows as coming soon on the new-discussion page. The former Oracle mode has been retired; the assistant covers that role.

The Brief uses the discussion's structured model analysis to summarize positions, consensus, and points of friction. Model responses are analyzed for The Brief regardless of the AI Moderator setting. It appears as analysis becomes available. It summarizes what the models said; it does not independently verify their claims.

Yes. Signed-in users can open the AI Chat Assistant from the navigation for a direct one-model conversation, separate from multi-model discussions. Assistant usage counts toward the same plan allowances.

Your OpenRouter key is stored in your browser. It is sent over HTTPS to our backend for model calls. For streaming, a temporary server cache can retain it for up to 5 minutes and deletes it when used. It is not saved in your account database. Discussion content is stored for your account and sent to the AI providers involved in the discussion. Review our Privacy Policy and the providers' policies before submitting sensitive material. Account settings include data export and account closure. Closing an account disables access and anonymizes profile details; it does not currently erase all stored discussion data. Contact privacy@socratic.one for a data-removal request.

Yes. The sample debates at /demo replay real multi-model discussions with The Brief, with no account and no API key. Creating new discussions requires an account.

Use multi-model discussions to explore questions, compare arguments, and identify claims to investigate. PDF and Markdown reports are available on Basic and Pro. Verify quotations, citations, and conclusions against original sources; AI agreement is not independent evidence.

A shared topic is discussed in rotating turns, with model names and rounds shown in the transcript. Later responses can incorporate earlier turns, so this is a discussion workflow rather than a controlled model benchmark. The Brief summarizes the recorded perspectives.

GEO concerns how content is discovered and represented by generative search systems. Socratic ONE publishes a public llms.txt manifest and structured site data for discovery. It does not measure search rankings, citation frequency, or visibility in third-party answer engines.

Public sample debates and product information can be read without signing in. Private discussions require an authorized user session. There is no dedicated machine-to-machine onboarding or autonomous-agent integration in the standard product; AI-generated discussion content must still be checked before reuse.

The web application uses an authenticated REST API at api.socratic.one for discussions, streaming, uploads, and votes. Authentication requires a human WorkOS session. A dedicated machine-to-machine authentication flow is not currently exposed.

Different models may surface different assumptions and objections. Comparing them can help you decide what to investigate next. Shared training data and similar reasoning errors mean that agreement is not proof, and disagreement does not establish which answer is correct.

Discussions start private and nothing is public until an explicit publish action sets the discussion visible. Published discussions get a public share page at /s/[id] with The Brief and the covered transcript. Dashboard discussions (/d/) stay private and never unfurl as link previews; only the public /s/ page does, with cards for X, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Instagram offers no web share link, so sharing there uses a downloadable share card with a copyable caption where offered.

PDF and Markdown reports are available on Basic and Pro. Open the discussion, choose the report format, and download. Reports reflect the recorded transcript and The Brief; verify quotations, citations, and conclusions against original sources before citing them.

Account settings include data export and account closure. Export gives you your data in a portable file. Closure disables access and anonymizes profile details; it does not currently erase all stored discussion data. For a removal request, contact privacy@socratic.one. Manage any paid subscription before closing your account.

Yes. The /creators page describes partner access for model providers and creators. To discuss listing a model or a partnership, contact hello@socratic.one. Model availability in discussions depends on the connected provider catalog at discussion time.

By watching models state positions, raise objections, concede points, and revise. The Brief labels stances and friction so you can see which claims survived challenge and which did not. Pick the strongest objection and test it against a primary source before you decide.

Any question that benefits from multiple perspectives: philosophy and ethics, science and technology, politics and society, business and strategy, arts and culture, and personal decisions. Ask for a decision, a comparison, or an explanation rather than a trivia lookup.

For account help, contact hello@socratic.one without sending passwords or API keys. For data-removal requests, contact privacy@socratic.one. Product answers live on this FAQ page and at /demo, /pricing, /fact-check, and /privacy. There is no ticket portal or community forum; email is the supported channel.