# Arco > Arco records or imports music lessons on iPhone, iPad, and desktop web, creates intelligent Lesson Notes, and gives students and teachers an AI practice assistant grounded in their own lesson history. Arco is a music-lesson recording and AI practice assistant. It captures lessons, transcribes them, generates structured Lesson Notes, organizes teacher-student history in Spaces, and lets students and teachers chat with an assistant that draws on both general musical knowledge and the user's own lessons. The product is live on iOS, iPadOS, and a full desktop web app. ## Key facts - Platforms: iPhone, iPad, and desktop web app. Library, audio, chats, Spaces, bookmarks, and settings sync across devices. - Languages: works across all languages for recording, transcription, Lesson Notes, and chat. - Plans: Free (2 monthly credits), Starter $9.99/mo (8), Pro $19.99/mo (30), Studio $39.99/mo (80). Annual plans are available. Founding Lifetime costs $499 once through Arco, with lifetime access and 1,200 non-expiring credits (no monthly refill); additional credits can be purchased. Founding members help shape Arco’s priorities through their input and feedback in 2026. 5- and 15-credit top-up packs are available and never expire while the account is active. - Credits: 1 credit per processed lesson (transcript + AI Lesson Notes) or 1 credit per Deep Dive message. Regular chat does not consume credits. - Journal: private, unlimited typed entries on every plan, plus voice transcription. Free includes 10 minutes of Journal voice transcription total for the lifetime of the account. Deleting notes does not restore used time. Paid plans include unlimited Journal voice transcription. Journal entries are never shared with Space members, and My Lessons chat may use relevant entries with attribution. - Google Drive backup is available on Pro, Studio, and Founding Lifetime plans. - Chat: a single thread routes per-turn between general musical knowledge ("Arco Knowledge") and the user's own lessons ("My Lessons"). Free searches the 5 most recent lessons in My Lessons chat; paid plans search the full lesson history. Every lesson remains directly accessible on Free. Deep Dive is a separate enhanced-reasoning mode. - Spaces: a Space is a shared lesson notebook for a teacher, student, parent, studio, or teaching relationship. Invite links let people preview and join a specific Space so assigned lessons can be delivered directly inside Arco after they join. - Exports: processed lessons can be exported as PDF or Markdown; web chats and Space progress reports can be exported as PDFs. - Institutions: music schools, conservatories, and teaching faculties can email hello@arco.app to work out a setup. There is no separate institutional plan or tier today; institutional use is served by the existing plans plus Spaces, with hands-on help from the Arco team. - App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arco-ai/id6757969709 - Contact: hello@arco.app ## Core pages - [Home](https://arco.app/): product overview, what Arco does, who it is for. - [Pricing](https://arco.app/pricing): plans, credits, top-ups, Google Drive backup, FAQs. - [User Guide](https://arco.app/guide): full guide to recording, importing, reviewing lessons, Journal, Spaces, chat, exports, lesson plans, reports, credits, privacy, and troubleshooting. - [Support](https://arco.app/support): help center, billing FAQs, Space questions, troubleshooting, account questions. - [Journaling with Arco](https://arco.app/articles/journaling-with-arco): article for students on using the private Journal, writing useful entries, recording feeling and body observations, and how chat uses Journal notes. - [Privacy Policy](https://arco.app/privacy) - [Terms of Service](https://arco.app/terms) - [Get started / sign in](https://arco.app/start): the live web app. ## What Arco is for - Music students who want to remember everything from their lessons and practice between lessons with intelligent help. - Music teachers (private studios, schools) who want Lesson Notes, lesson plans, Spaces for students, and lightweight progress reports without manual note-taking. - Musicians studying any instrument, voice, or genre. Default expertise is focused on violin (the founder's instrument) but the product handles all instruments and styles. ## What Arco is not - Not a music notation editor, DAW, or audio cleanup tool. - Not a generic transcription service; its value comes from lesson-aware Lesson Notes, Spaces, reports, and the AI assistant grounded in lesson history. - Not a public lesson library. Recordings, transcripts, chats, and Spaces are private to the user's account unless explicitly shared through Spaces or exported by the user. ## Sheet music photos Score-photo assistance is available on every plan in the web app. iPhone and iPad support requires the upcoming app update. Users on supported versions can attach one sheet-music photo in chat. Arco reads relevant notation, then answers under the existing selected source’s rules. Free and Starter include 2 successful photo analyses per UTC calendar month. Pro and Studio include photo assistance subject to temporary usage limits. Failed or unreadable attempts do not use an allowance. Text follow-ups remain regular chat and do not use another photo analysis. Deep Dive remains optional at its usual credit; top-ups do not increase photo allowances. Photos stay on the originating device/browser; chat messages and musical observations sync. A thumbnail’s “Use this photo again” action prepares a new reading and requires Send. Local storage is limited to 250 MiB per account and can be cleared in Settings. Photos remain across ordinary sign-out and are deleted locally with their chat/account. Browser storage may be evicted. No PDFs, multi-photo messages, automatic rereading, or cloud photo sync in this version. OpenAI store:false is not a promise of zero provider retention.