LPC Free vs LPC Pro — What the Paid Tier Actually Adds

What the free tier actually includes

LPC, formerly LuckPermsChat, is our free chat formatter, and free means free: no trial, no paywall. It is open source, and it keeps receiving compatibility and security updates; all new features go into LPC Pro.

What it does, it does simply. One chat-format line in config.yml, with prefixes, suffixes and groups read from LuckPerms (which it requires), standard and RGB colour codes, a different format per group, per-world or per-server formats through LuckPerms context, nine built-in placeholders, and any PlaceholderAPI placeholder in the format.

• RGB colour codes — Standard and RGB colour codes in messages, gated by the lpc.colorcodes and lpc.rgbcodes permissions.
• Group, world and server formats — A different chat format per LuckPerms group, and per-world or per-server formats using LuckPerms context.
• PlaceholderAPI integration — Nine built-in placeholders ({prefix}, {suffixes}, {displayname}, {message-color} and more) plus any PlaceholderAPI placeholder in the format.
• One dependency — LuckPerms is required — it is where the prefixes, suffixes and groups come from. PlaceholderAPI is optional.
• Wider version range than Pro — Free LPC supports Spigot and Paper 1.7.10–26.2; LPC Pro supports 1.17–26.2.

Pro vs free at a glance

This is the same comparison the LPC Pro product page publishes, row for row. The pattern is easy to summarize: the two tiers share the formatting and compatibility core, and everything on top of it — moderation, community features, Discord — is Pro-only.

One spec difference the table doesn't capture: free LPC supports Minecraft 1.7.10–26.2, while LPC Pro supports 1.17–26.2. If your server runs anything older than 1.17, Pro is not an option for that server — the free tier is the one that covers legacy versions.

What each Pro feature actually does

Table rows undersell some of these, so here is what each Pro-only system does in practice.

AI moderation is the headline. Messages appear instantly and are analyzed asynchronously in the background, so chat gains no latency; anything that fails the check is deleted after detection, with staff alerted and automatic warnings or reputation penalties applied. The AI also teaches the local swear filter new words over time, and logging records toxicity scores and categories for flagged content. Two caveats worth knowing before you buy: the AI analysis requires an OpenAI API key that you supply — Pro handles rate limiting and response caching — and the word filter, anti-spam, anti-caps and anti-advertising checks work without any key.

• Discord bridge — Bi-directional Minecraft ↔ Discord sync through webhooks or DiscordSRV, with embeds showing player heads and join/leave notifications.
• Chat bubbles — Floating text above players using native TextDisplay entities — no resource pack — with per-rank colors, backgrounds, and scales, a /toggle bubbles opt-out, and a 1.19.4+ version requirement.
• Chat games — Six built-in games — Math, Unscramble, Trivia, Reverse, Type Race, Emoji Guess — with auto-scheduling, command-based rewards, statistics, and leaderboards.
• Achievements — Players unlock milestones for chatting, mentioning others, voting in polls, and building reputation, each granting exclusive chat tags with progress shown in a GUI.
• Staff tools — Mutes for players, channels, or the whole server; warnings with auto-escalation; staff notes with join alerts; a report GUI; spy mode; raid protection; slowmode; and clear chat.
• Chat shop — Players buy colors, tags, nicknames, and perks in a category-based GUI using Vault economy or the built-in points system, with permissions granted automatically on purchase.

How the upgrade works

Upgrading means replacing the LPC jar with the LPC Pro jar — run one or the other on a server, never both — and setting up the Pro features in its own configuration. Everything free LPC does (group formats, colour codes, placeholders) is covered by Pro's formatting layer.

The commercial terms are simple: €14.99 (price at time of writing) as a one-time purchase with free lifetime updates — no subscription, and nothing to cancel. If you ever stop using Pro, you uninstall the jar and your configs remain plain files you own.

One operational warning, straight from the LPC FAQ: don't run LPC and LPC Pro in the same server process — they conflict on chat events. Pick one per server. Running Pro on some servers of a network and free LPC on others works fine, because those are separate processes.

Should you upgrade? Honest verdicts

Start with the case for staying put. If formatting is all you need — colour codes, group formats, placeholders — free LPC covers it, and it keeps getting compatibility and security updates; only new features are Pro-bound. Likewise, if your server sits on a version older than 1.17, free LPC is the only tier that supports it.

The upgrade earns its price when chat becomes a moderation or engagement problem rather than a formatting one. If your team spends real time policing chat, the AI filter, the staff suite, and raid protection are the point of Pro. If you want chat itself to be an activity — games, achievements, bubbles on 1.19.4+, a perk shop players spend currency in — none of that exists in free. And if your community lives partly on Discord, the bi-directional bridge keeps both sides in one conversation.

If your comparison is Pro against other chat plugins rather than against the free tier, read LPC Pro vs EssentialsChat vs VentureChat next.