Using HandyCPD for free: features and limits

The Free plan includes the core tools for turning learning notes into a record you can return to:

• Record an activity: use CPD logging and AI enrichment to help organise details and suggest a summary from your notes and readable supporting material.
• Explore what you learned: use the guided Reflection Engine to consider why the experience mattered and what you might do next.
• Keep evidence connected: store relevant files and links in the Evidence Library alongside your records.
• Review your activity: use basic analytics to look back at your CPD recording.

You choose which suggestions fit your experience, edit the wording and approve your own records. Free includes monthly recording allowances and 1 GB of Library storage, explained below. No card is required. Ads may appear on Free.

Create your account and get 30 days of Pro access with no card required. After your trial, continue on Free or upgrade to annual Pro.

The trial lets you explore Pro features and capacity. Free is the ongoing plan you can use afterwards, with the core tools above and smaller recording and storage allowances. You do not need to choose a paid plan to continue using Free.

Your account shows your current plan and usage. While trying Pro, think about how often you would normally record learning and how much evidence you want to keep. That gives you a useful basis for deciding which plan fits after the trial.

See current pricing and trial terms for the offer available when you join.

On Free, starting a record and filing it are counted separately:

• Start up to 2 new CPD seeds or drafts per calendar month. A seed is your starting note or material for an activity.
• File up to 2 CPD records per calendar month. Filing saves a record you have reviewed as filed.

For example, starting a record for one workshop uses one creation allowance. Filing that same reviewed record uses one filing allowance. Those are two stages of one record. Starting and filing two activities in the same month would use both monthly allowances in full.

The two monthly counters reset at the start of each calendar month in UTC. Check your account for your remaining allowance and reset date. The 1 GB Library allowance is your total storage capacity, rather than a fresh allocation each month.

Some features and extra capacity are available with Pro, including during the Pro trial:

• Learning Deck: revisit a filed activity through short AI-assisted recap cards. Where there is enough material, these can also draw on a filed reflection. See how Learning Deck works.
• Full analytics and CPD insights: Free includes basic analytics; the fuller analytics tools are available on Pro.
• More recording and storage capacity: Pro includes unlimited filed CPD records and reflections, plus 20 GB of Library storage. AI use remains subject to fair-use limits.
• An ad-free experience: Pro has no ads. Ads may appear on Free.

The Reflection Engine and AI enrichment described in the workshop example below are available on Free within its allowances. Learning Deck is a separate Pro feature for revisiting learning. If you try it during your Pro trial, you will need Pro access to continue using it afterwards.

This fictional example follows a professional who attends a workshop on giving constructive feedback. They have a few notes and a handout they are permitted to keep.

Start with what you actually noticed

Their starting note reads: “In the practice exercise, I gave general advice before describing what I had noticed. The handout suggested using a specific observation and inviting the other person’s perspective. I want to try that in my next feedback conversation.”

They create one seed with this note, add the workshop date and time spent, and attach the handout. The note describes their own experience; the handout provides context for the approach taught.

Use AI enrichment to organise the starting material

AI enrichment can suggest activity details and a summary using their note and any readable text from the handout. They check the suggestions against what they attended and learned, correcting anything that does not fit. A point in the handout is not evidence that they have already used it at work.

Check what HandyCPD can read when choosing supporting material.

Develop the learning with the Reflection Engine

Through guided reflection, they explore why their first response was general advice and how a more specific observation might help. They select relevant insights and review the draft in their own words.

Their next step becomes: “In my next feedback conversation, I will describe one specific observation, ask how the other person saw the situation and agree a next step together. Afterwards, I will note what I learned from that conversation.” This is a plan to try, with an outcome still to review.

Review and file the record

They check the date, duration, summary and reflection, leave out identifying details about other people, and file the record with its evidence connected. They now have an account of what they learned and a next step they can revisit.

If they do this while on Free, with no other usage that month, they have used one of their two creation allowances and one of their two filing allowances. They have one of each left. The handout uses part of their Library storage.

Free may fit if you want to record occasional selected activities and your new drafts, filed records and stored evidence stay within its allowances. You can use the workshop example to judge whether the tools add something useful to your own record-keeping.

Pro may help if you want to capture learning more frequently, work through a backlog or keep a larger evidence collection. You may also value revisiting activities with Learning Deck or exploring your development through the fuller analytics tools.

Try one activity before moving your wider collection. Compare how easily you can find the evidence and explain your learning with the system you already use. Our CPD spreadsheet or app guide compares a spreadsheet, building your own app and using HandyCPD.

Check current pricing if you need more capacity. Your recording habits and the tools you find useful can guide that decision.

Choose something recent: a workshop, a professional discussion, a paper or a video. Bring your own notes and relevant evidence, then work through that activity from start to finish. On Free, starting several separate test drafts uses your monthly creation allowance.

Before filing, ask: does this record explain what I learned, why it matters and what I want to do next? Can I find the evidence that supports it? Use your answers to decide whether HandyCPD helps you keep a more useful record.

The CPD Logging walkthrough shows the steps. For other starting points, try the research-paper workflow or the podcast and video reflection examples.

For examples across different roles, see who HandyCPD is for.