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Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by matthewgapp on Monday July 13, 2026 @05:26PM (#48899125)
Fair question. The short version is: the desktop app and CLI are free and always will be; optional cloud & AI services will cost money.

Working w/ .xlsx files shouldn't cost money, and we think people should be able to use their own AI.

We expect to charge orgs/enterprises for a cloud product around governance, and for AI where/when it makes sense. We also plan to make some money when large companies use Nobie for training or to power their products.

Right now, though, we’re entirely focused on making the desktop app and CLI hands down the best xlsx experience in the world. The paid cloud product comes later.

Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by matthewgapp on Monday July 13, 2026 @07:50PM (#48900523)
Also, we've designed the product so it costs us zero dollars to run :)

having zero marginal cost is nice and allows us to do things that others can't

Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by htrp on Monday July 13, 2026 @08:30PM (#48900816)
Is this because your free customers bring their own ai/tokens?
Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by njaremko on Monday July 13, 2026 @08:43PM (#48900913)
Yeah, we're not providing subsidized AI to people. It costs us nothing to give people a great, computer-use friendly, native spreadsheet app
Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by bathtub365 on Monday July 13, 2026 @09:29PM (#48901188)
How does that work, do you not pay the developers who build and maintain this software?
Re:Show HN: Nobie – an Excel-compatible runtime for agents a... by njaremko on Monday July 13, 2026 @09:43PM (#48901284)
I'm one of those developers :)

I linked in this thread, and Matt replied above in this thread, but we charge companies making >$100M in revenue for using Nobie to provide a service to users, or for using it to help train models.