CYPHER Learning drafts your courses with AI, on fees you cannot cancel

Customers report faster course building and better completion

The AI runs on an allowance, and your team answers for what it writes

CYPHER meters its AI in units it calls “credits”, from a yearly allowance. A learner tutorial uses about 2 “credits”. Adding a PDF to the Agent knowledge base uses 200 on average and a video uses 220. A voiceover adds 1,700. CYPHER’s own figures for a whole task differ. Its administrator article puts the top at around 800. Its instructor article puts a full course at up to 500. Its estimate for a course from a PDF is 900, depending on the size of the PDF. Ask for the cost of your own course in writing.

It suits teams that build their own courses for staff and outsiders

Prices come on request, and the fees cannot be cancelled

Prices come on request. CYPHER tells buyers to contact it for pricing. It sells two packages called Enhanced and Enterprise. Enterprise is everything in Enhanced and more.

On AWS Marketplace, CYPHER sells a 12-month contract at $12,000 for a minimum of 100 users. Buyers with more than 250 users contact CYPHER. There, a charge above what you bought is $10.00 per user per hour. CYPHER bills on active users. Kerridge reports that the platform counts active users rather than everyone who has added a course. Files that are not for course delivery get 1TB, with a charge beyond that.

The licence includes access to CYPHER Agent and its AI allowance. An average Agent query uses about a dozen “credits”, which CYPHER puts at about $0.05 to $0.15. On AWS Marketplace, CYPHER Copilot creates a gamified, multimedia course with assessments in 10 minutes for under $10 per course. Set that beside the 900 “credits” for a course from a PDF. Then ask for your own course cost.

Support comes in tiers, and a Dedicated Customer Service Manager is available. Onboarding, data migration, managed services and custom development are separate services. Support runs 24/7 on Central Time (US), mainly through forums and email.

You are locked in for the term. Under CYPHER’s terms, fees are payable annually in advance and fixed for the initial term. All fees are non-cancellable, non-refundable and payable regardless of actual usage. CYPHER may suspend access immediately, without liability, if it reasonably suspects the customer exceeds licensed usage.

On renewal, fees become the then-current fees or the previous highest annual fees plus 7%, whichever is lower. So a renewal fee cannot pass that 7% cap. Order forms renew automatically for successive twelve-month periods unless the order form provides otherwise. Either party can decline renewal with written notice at least ninety days before the term ends.

If CYPHER ends the contract for the customer’s breach, the customer pays unpaid fees for the rest of the term. If the customer ends it for breach, CYPHER gives a prorated refund. Licences added during a term run to the end of that term.

If it goes wrong, the remedy is small. CYPHER makes commercially reasonable efforts for 99.9% monthly availability. For each full hour of downtime it reduces the bill by 2% of the monthly fee, up to 50%. The customer must ask in writing within 15 days. These bill reductions are the customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for downtime and cannot be redeemed for cash.

CYPHER typically supports 99.9% uptime, while its service promises may vary by plan. CYPHER’s total liability is capped at the fees paid under the order form in the twelve months before the event. New York law governs the agreement, with binding ICC arbitration in New York. CYPHER may update the agreement. Material changes take effect no earlier than 30 days after notice. Other changes take effect on posting.

Fifteen questions to settle with CYPHER before you sign

1. How much allowance does one of our typical courses use, and what does extra allowance cost? Good answer: A written figure per task and a written price for more.
2. CYPHER’s FAQ gives each learner 10,000 “credits”. Its administrator help article gives instructors and learners 1,000. Which applies to us? Good answer: One figure in the order form, with the quota we set.
3. Do unused “credits” carry into a renewal, or do they expire after one year? Good answer: A written rule for unused allowance at each renewal.
4. Will you cap the renewal below 7%, or fix the fee for a multi-year term? Good answer: A written figure for each renewal year.
5. If the platform fails us, can we leave early, and what do we still owe? Good answer: A written exit right and a stated sum.
6. What does an hour count in the $10.00 per user per hour charge on AWS Marketplace? Good answer: A written definition and a worked example at our headcount.
7. What is the minimum number of users on a direct contract? Good answer: A written figure, not the AWS Marketplace one.
8. In your FAQ, customer data stays outside model training. Your agreement licenses aggregated, deidentified usage data for machine learning. Which governs us? Good answer: A written answer that covers feedback and usage data.
9. Which coming-soon features will be live during our term? Good answer: A dated list in the order form.
10. Does the newer reporting tool now cover skills and course progress? Good answer: Yes, with the date it went live.
11. Can we pull audit logs tied to user IDs ourselves, without a support request? Good answer: A named report or export we can run.
12. Which help with our data under the addendum costs extra? Good answer: A rate card in the order form.
13. If our training records hold health data or ID numbers, what do your terms allow? Good answer: A written answer that covers our data.
14. Your buyer FAQ puts the European Accessibility Act as met and your privacy FAQ puts it in progress. Which is current? Good answer: A dated accessibility report that settles it.
15. Is the 2024 WebSock Global Strategies patent case still open, and could it affect our service? Good answer: A written answer from CYPHER’s lawyers.

Alternatives to CYPHER Learning, and the case for waiting

If CYPHER Learning does not fit, look at 360Learning and Coursebox, or wait.

360Learning is the one to check if you want AI data promises in a contract. At CYPHER, the promise on training sits in its privacy FAQ. There, customer data is not used to train or fine-tune the models. CYPHER’s agreement then licenses aggregated, deidentified usage data for machine learning. At 360Learning, the promise sits in its support article on AI data. There, customer data is not used to fine-tune or train the underlying OpenAI models. It is also not used to improve Microsoft or third-party products. Prompts are stored for up to 30 days, in Microsoft Azure data centres in Europe.

360Learning’s US contract carries a second promise. Input data and results will not be used to train the AI system provider’s models. They will not be accessible to other customers or the provider. A 360Learning author can draft a course with AI. The draft stays in the edit screen so the author can review and adapt it before sharing. Ask for the same promises in your order form.

Coursebox is the one to check if you want AI course building beside the system you already run. A site administrator installs CYPHER Agent from CYPHER’s App center, so it runs inside the CYPHER platform. Coursebox courses launch inside any LTI 1.3 LMS, with grades and progress sent back to its gradebook. That needs Pro or above. LTI is a standard for opening one tool inside another.

Over LTI 1.3, Coursebox sends completion data back to Workday automatically. Dynamic SCORM and LTI courses stop working on cancelling, even in another system. Ask Coursebox which plan you need.

Waiting is a real choice. CYPHER fees are paid annually in advance, and they are not cancellable or refundable. Ask CYPHER for a pilot on one real course first. Get the AI allowance for that pilot in writing. If your current system already holds your records, ask whether CYPHER Agent can be bought without moving them. Our market guide weighs waiting against every product in this market.