Signing In & Licence
Sign in once — a purchased licence arrives on its own and stays on your device; or begin the full trial.
Updated
ChapterMuse asks for two things when you first open it. Your account identifies you, and your licence decides which tier of features you have. They're separate on purpose — you can sign out and back in without touching your licence, and your licence stays on the device. The licence itself is a small signed key that the app checks on your own machine: once it's there, it works offline, has no renewal date, and doesn't need our servers again.
✦Quick start
- 1On the sign-in screen, enter your ChapterMuse email (or username) and password.
- 2If your account has a licence, it unlocks by itself a moment later — nothing to type.
- 3New account? Your 30-day full trial starts automatically the first time you sign in — no payment card.
- 4You land on your bookshelf, ready to write — Studio licences open on Story World instead.
Your Account
- Sign in with your ChapterMuse account
- An account can activate up to three computers. The app remembers its computer identity outside the library, so restoring books does not consume another place
- Manage computers on your website account page. Removing one frees a place and requires it to sign in and activate again at its next online check; its local books are kept. Offline access continues until that check
- Each account has its own local database, attachments, search index and cached settings. Signing in to another account opens its separate library after restarting the app. Close other ChapterMuse windows first so their changes can be saved. Signing in never transfers library ownership
- Cloud backup only uploads the signed-in account’s own library. Other accounts on the computer cannot open or back up its books. Existing books are preserved in place and associated with their previously known account; older libraries with no known owner are preserved and never automatically assigned to a new account
- New to ChapterMuse? Create a free account from the sign-in screen
- A welcome email arrives from hello@chaptermuse.com after website signup. Your app trial still starts at your first desktop sign-in
- Forgot your password? Use the website sign-in page to request an email from support@chaptermuse.com. Reset links expire in 30 minutes and work once
- On the website Account page, choose Change password and enter your current password, then enter and confirm a new one. The modal also links to Forgot your password if you need an email reset
- Changing or resetting your password ends existing online sessions on every device. Sign in again with the new password; your local work and perpetual licence stay available
- To permanently delete your account, open the website Account page, choose Delete account, enter your current password, type I UNDERSTAND exactly, and accept the separate final confirmation. Cancel Cloud through Manage or cancel subscription if you want to keep your account
- Before deletion, download your .musekey licence and save local .muse backups. Account-linked licences and remaining AI credits are removed with the account; deletion is not an automatic refund and future licence recovery is not promised
- Deletion removes your online account, hosted manuscripts, beta shares and profile. Your forum content is erased with anonymous placeholders preserving other members’ replies. Your sent private messages are removed, not other people’s messages. Copies or quotations already held by other people cannot be recalled automatically
- Subscription cancellation and hosted-file cleanup run with persistent retries after account deletion. Local manuscripts and downloaded perpetual licence files remain untouched. Required Stripe payment records and routine backup retention are explained in the Privacy Policy
- Repeated sign-in attempts are temporarily limited across the website and desktop app. Wait 15 minutes before trying again if you reach the limit
- Your identity is stored securely on your device so you stay signed in between sessions
- Sign out any time from the account menu (your avatar) or Settings — your work stays right here on your computer, and so does your licence
- Signed out, or never signed in on this computer? A licence carries the email it was issued to, so the app still knows you by name — only the online features (AI tokens, Cloud backup) wait for a sign-in
Your Licence
- UK reference prices including VAT: Light £24, Writer £36, and Studio £48
- Bought a tier? Signing in delivers the licence automatically — it is verified on your device and cached there
- Feature permissions are verified with the licence signature and remain available offline; editing a local settings cache cannot upgrade a licence
- Purchase confirmations and Cloud payment or subscription-ended messages arrive from support@chaptermuse.com. You can reply there for help
- Your licence is also a file — ChapterMuse.musekey — downloadable any time from your account on chaptermuse.com. Keep it with your .muse backups
- Double-click a .musekey file and ChapterMuse opens and activates that computer: no sign-in, no connection, nothing to type
- Already in the app? Settings → Account → Manage licence → Add licence file does the same thing
- ChapterMuse gives .musekey its own icon when it installs, so your licence is easy to spot among your backups
- Use every feature during the 30-day trial; afterwards the app becomes read-only until a licence unlocks it
- Your books remain readable and exportable after the trial even without a licence
- The licence lives on the device, so it survives a data wipe or restore
✦
Keep a copy of your licence: your account page on chaptermuse.com has a Download licence file link, which saves ChapterMuse.musekey. Store it with your .muse backups — the two together are your whole writing life, portable. Double-clicking the .musekey activates any future machine, and it names the email it belongs to, so years from now you'll still know whose it is.