Frequently asked questions

Accounts & verticals

What is OpenBrief?

OpenBrief monitors public sources around whatever you're tracking, keeps the analyst's assessment and the evidence trail attached to each finding, and produces a sourced brief. One product, three ways to run it: GovCon subcontractor (track primes and contract vehicles), Corporate competitive intelligence (track named competitors for regulatory, legal, geopolitical, and reputational signal), and Government OSINT (track entities, regions, and themes). See who it's for on the homepage.

Which vertical should I pick, and can I change it later?

Pick whichever matches what you're actually tracking — you can change it any time from Settings (workspace owner only). OpenBrief runs two tracks: Government/GovCon (subcontractors tracking primes, and OSINT analysts tracking entities/regions/themes, sharing one dedicated Supply Chain & Sanctions Screening surface) and Commercial Competitive Intelligence (Regulatory & Legal). Changing your workspace's track only changes terminology and which surface shows in your sidebar — it does not change what data gets collected — the underlying collection engine (news, sanctions lists, court filings, regulatory notices, and more) already runs the same way for every workspace regardless of track.

Can I invite teammates to my workspace?

Yes. The workspace owner generates an invite link from Settings; whoever redeems it (via the signup page's invite link) joins your existing organization instead of creating a new one. Everyone in the same workspace shares the same watchlist, notes, briefs, judgments, and RFIs — that's how OpenBrief's shared team workspaces work, not a bug.

Billing & trials

What does OpenBrief cost?

Two plans, billed monthly per workspace (not per seat): Starter at $49/month (one tracked portfolio, the full signal engine, daily digest) and Team at $99/month (everything in Starter, plus teammates, Case Files, and Slack alerts). Both include a 14-day free trial.

Do I need a credit card for the trial?

Yes — the trial runs through Stripe Checkout, which collects payment details up front (standard for a subscription trial) but doesn't charge your card until the 14-day trial period actually ends. You can cancel any time before then from the Stripe Billing Portal without being charged.

How do I cancel, or switch plans?

From Settings → Billing, click "Manage billing" — that opens Stripe's own hosted Billing Portal, where the workspace owner can cancel, switch between Starter and Team, update the payment method, and download past invoices. OpenBrief doesn't reimplement any of this itself; Stripe's portal is the real mechanism.

What happens if a payment fails?

Stripe automatically retries a failed payment on its own schedule. The workspace owner gets a real email when this happens, and again once it resolves. Your workspace and data stay intact through this — nothing is deleted for a failed payment; only an actual subscription cancellation ends access.

Data & sources

What data sources does OpenBrief use?

Public, mostly keyless sources: USAspending.gov, GDELT, U.S. Treasury OFAC's sanctions list, SEC EDGAR, CourtListener, the Federal Register, global news RSS feeds, USGS/NASA event data, and more — the full current list is in the Privacy Policy. A few optional sources (ACLED, ReliefWeb, OpenCorporates, Reddit, X) only activate if you add your own free or paid credentials in Settings; nothing about the core product depends on them.

Does OpenBrief use AI, and is my data used to train models?

Two features call a large-language model (the Situation Assessment paragraph on a brief, and the Top Trending Intelligence digest) — both are given only real, already-collected material for that subject and are instructed never to invent facts. Everything else in the product is deterministic, no model call involved. Your data is never used to train any model, and it's never sold. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.

Is my watchlist visible to anyone outside my workspace?

No. Watchlist entries, notes, briefs, and judgments are visible to everyone in your own organization (that's the point of a shared team workspace) but never to any other organization, and never sold or shared externally.

How do I get my data out?

Settings → Export my data downloads a full JSON file of everything your organization owns — watchlist, notes, brief snapshots, Case Files, judgments, indicators, RFIs, alert history, and workspace settings. Not a curated sample, the real full export.

What happens to my data if I delete my account?

Deleting your account from Settings signs you out of every session immediately and disables your login for good — your email and password stop working right away. If you're the sole member of your workspace, its data (watchlist, briefs, judgments, everything) is kept for 30 days in case the deletion was a mistake or made under duress, then removed. If you share your workspace with teammates, you're simply removed from it — the shared data stays intact for whoever's left, since it belongs to the team, not to any one member. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.

Still stuck?

Email support@openbrief.io — a real person reads it, not a ticket queue.