Last Call: Founding Member Closes on Sunday Night
Founding Member, the permanent badge that carries Pro at no cost for life, closed at the end of Sunday 6 September 2026. Anyone with an artbase account by then keeps it. Pro is now a normal paid plan.
Update, 11 September 2026. This has happened. Founding Member closed on the night of Sunday 6 September 2026 and is not coming back. Everyone who had an account by then keeps the badge and Pro at no cost. Pro itself is now on sale: what it costs and what is in it. The rest of this post is kept as it was written at the time.
Short one. Founding Member closes at the end of Sunday 6 September. Have an artbase account by then and you keep it: the badge on your profile, and every feature of the paid Pro plan free for life. Sign up on Monday and you do not.
Why there is a date on it
Founding Member was a thank-you to the people who turned up before there was much here to turn up to. The gallery was thin, half the features were promises, and they signed up anyway. That group cannot stay open indefinitely without the word founding quietly losing its meaning, and artbase is now growing quickly, well past the handful it started with.
So Sunday night, and then it is finished. No wave two, no anniversary revival, no quiet extension because the weekend was slow. If we say it closes on a date and then it does not, nothing else we announce is worth much either.
What you actually get
- The badge. Permanent, on your profile, marking you as someone who was here in the first couple of months.
- Pro, free for life. Every feature that ends up in the paid Pro plan, at no cost, for as long as the account exists. No card, no trial, nothing to cancel.
- A username worth having. artbase is new enough that most of the short handles are unclaimed, and your username is also your portfolio link.
Worth saying plainly: Pro is still being built. You are not unlocking a stocked feature list this weekend. You are locking in the price of one, forever, at nothing.
After Sunday
artbase stays free to join. That part does not change. What changed is that accounts made from Monday do not carry the badge, and Pro is now a normal paid subscription.
If joining has been on your list, this is the weekend for it. Go to artbase.au, take the username you want before somebody else does, and get some work up with real tags on it so it lands where people are actually looking. Then say something specific on somebody else’s piece, because that is how the place works.
Never heard of us? What is artbase is the plain version: how it works, what it costs, what we do and do not do with your art. The platform tour is the longer read if you want to see the thing before you commit a username to it.
See you on the recent page.
Frequently asked questions
When does Founding Member close on artbase?
It closed at the end of Sunday 6 September 2026. Accounts created by that Sunday night carry the badge; anything after that does not.
What does Founding Member include?
A permanent badge on your profile and every feature of the Pro plan, at no cost for as long as the account exists. There is no card to enter and no trial period, because it is attached to the account rather than to a subscription.
Is there a member limit on Founding Member?
No. There was no cap on numbers and no queue to get through. The only thing that closed it was the date: the end of Sunday 6 September 2026.
Is artbase still free after 6 September 2026?
Yes. Signing up at artbase.au is free, and it was free before the deadline too. What changed is that Pro is now a normal paid subscription, priced in your local currency, instead of something new members get for life.
Do I need to upload artwork before Sunday to qualify?
No. The badge attached to the account, so creating one before the deadline was enough on its own.