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FAQ

Common questions, grouped by topic. If your question isn’t here, contact support via the chat icon at bottom-right of the dashboard.

Accounts

Why are there two platforms?

Picora has two independent deployments: picora.me (overseas, on Cloudflare) and picora.cn (mainland China, on Aliyun / Tencent). They have separate user databases, separate billing, separate file storage. You can have an account on either or both — they don’t sync.

This separation is required for compliance (GDPR ↔ PIPL), latency (CN users should hit CN edges), and resilience.

Can I migrate my data from picora.me to picora.cn (or vice versa)?

Not directly. The platforms are isolated by design. You can:

  1. Export your data from one platform
  2. Re-upload to the other manually

We’re considering an opt-in migration tool for v0.20+.

How do I delete my account?

See Security → Account deletion.

Email rate limiting {#email-rate-limiting}

Picora’s anti-abuse policy for code-based emails (registration / password reset / OTP login):

LimitWindow
1 email per email address60 seconds
5 emails per email address1 hour
10 emails per email address24 hours
20 emails per IP1 hour
50 emails per IP24 hours
100 emails globally1 minute (circuit breaker)

After the 3rd request from the same IP within an hour, captcha is required (Turnstile overseas / Aliyun captcha mainland). Failed verifications increase difficulty.

Billing

What’s the difference between trial and pro?

trial is a one-time $4.99 / ¥9 activation (pay once, permanent — not a subscription). It includes 100 MB image storage, light audio + Markdown allowance, but no video hosting. pro is a $4.99 / mo · ¥9 / 月 subscription that unlocks video hosting and significantly larger quotas. See plan comparison.

When am I charged?

Subscription bills monthly or yearly (your choice at signup). The first charge happens immediately on subscribe; subsequent charges happen on the same calendar day each cycle (or the last day of the month if your signup day doesn’t exist, e.g., Feb 31).

Can I get a refund?

Within 14 days of first paid subscription: yes, full refund on request. After that: only for billing errors or service unavailability. See Subscription management — Refund policy.

Why does my Lemon Squeezy charge appear with EU VAT?

Lemon Squeezy is the merchant of record for EU users — they’re legally required to collect VAT. The displayed price excludes VAT; the final charge includes it for EU residents.

How do I get an invoice for my company?

  • Lemon Squeezy: invoice is auto-emailed and downloadable from receipt link
  • Polar: similar, see your billing email
  • WeChat / Alipay (mainland): contact finance@picora.cn within 90 days for 增值税专用发票

Can I change between Lemon Squeezy and Polar?

Yes, but you must cancel one and re-subscribe via the other (no mid-cycle gateway switching). See Payment.

Quota & bandwidth

What happens if I hit 100% bandwidth mid-month?

For images: requests beyond limit get throttled (no hard cutoff in v0.10). For videos: playback auto-degrades to 360p. At 120%, video playback is suspended (HTTP 451). For Markdown: no bandwidth quota.

See Bandwidth & degradation for details.

Why is my bandwidth usage so high?

Common causes:

  • Search engine crawlers fetching public images
  • Social media link previews (each Twitter / WeChat share fetches the OG image)
  • Hotlinking from blogs you don’t control
  • Your own page reloads with cache-busting query params (e.g., ?v=12345 per visit)

Check the usage dashboard for monthly trends and hour-by-hour spikes.

Are deleted resources freed from quota immediately?

Yes. Deleting a resource decrements quota:img_storage:{userId} (or video/audio/doc equivalent) within 1-2 seconds.

Bandwidth quota resets when?

On the 1st of each calendar month, UTC. Note: this is platform-wide, not based on your subscription start date.

Resources & uploads

Why can’t I upload videos / audio / Markdown?

These resource types require a paid plan (pro / pro_plus). Trial users only get image hosting.

What’s the maximum image size?

It depends on your plan and your storage quota:

  • trial: total 100 MB across all images (no per-image limit explicitly, but practically <100 MB)
  • pro: typically <10 MB per image (driven by best practices, not API limit)
  • pro_plus: similar

For very large images (e.g., RAW photos), we recommend external storage and only thumbnails on Picora.

Can I bulk upload?

Yes, drag multiple files at once on the dashboard, or call the API in a loop with rate limiting (60 uploads / minute for upload tier).

Can I overwrite an existing image with the same URL?

No. Picora generates a new ID for every upload. To “overwrite”, delete the old one and upload the new one — the new one will have a different URL.

For Markdown documents, the same content uploaded twice returns the existing ID (idempotent via source_hash).

Integration & MCP

How does AI workflow integration work?

Picora exposes 12 MCP tools that AI assistants can call to upload, list, get, and delete resources. Two integration modes:

  • stdio (v0.13): npm install -g @picora/mcp and add to Claude / Cursor config
  • HTTP OAuth (v0.14): add https://mcp.picora.me URL to Claude / Cursor config and click authorize

See AI Workflows for setup.

Can I use my API Key for MCP?

stdio MCP uses either API Key (simpler) or the bundled tool’s own auth flow. HTTP OAuth MCP must use OAuth — API Keys are not accepted for mcp.picora.me.

This separation is intentional: MCP HTTP runs on a different domain with stricter security model. See API Keys for the full distinction.

Why can’t I access Picora from Tauri app like Moraya?

Earlier versions had CORS issues; v0.12.0 fixed them. If you’re still hitting CORS errors, ensure your Picora is up-to-date and your tool client uses an API Key (CORS is bypassed for API Key auth).

Privacy & security

Is my data encrypted at rest?

Yes. R2 / OSS / COS all encrypt data at rest. Picora doesn’t add an additional layer of application-level encryption (which would prevent CDN caching).

Can Picora staff see my private images?

Operationally we don’t access user content. Database queries are scoped per user. There’s no UI for staff to browse user content.

For abuse / legal reasons (DMCA / police requests), staff can access a specific resource; we maintain audit logs for any such access.

What happens to my data if I cancel?

After plan downgrade to trial:

  • Data retained for 90 days
  • After 90 days, video / Markdown content beyond trial limits may be marked for deletion (with email warning first)

After account deletion: data permanently removed within 24 hours (see Security → Account deletion).

Is Picora GDPR / PIPL compliant?

Yes. Both deployments comply with their respective regulations:

  • picora.me (overseas): GDPR
  • picora.cn (mainland): 个人信息保护法 (PIPL)

You have rights to access, export, and delete your data. See Security.

Support

Where do I get help?

Where do I report bugs?

Use the chat support or email above. Include:

  • Description of expected vs actual behavior
  • Reproduction steps
  • Request ID (visible in network tab error response or in error toast)
  • Browser / OS / Picora plan tier

Where can I see what’s coming next?

Changelog for shipped features, and iteration plans for upcoming work.