If you've tried to create a second portfolio on a Starter account and hit a limit, that's the plan working as designed — Starter accounts include one portfolio, and adding a second requires an upgrade to Pro or Premium.
Nothing has gone wrong on your account, and everything in your existing portfolio is unaffected.
This article walks through what the cap is, how to lift it, and what changes (and doesn't) when you do.
How portfolios work across the plans
Portfolios are a way to organise inventory into separate ledgers — a personal stack and an IRA stack, say, or your stack and a household member's, or different storage locations. Each plan includes a different number of them:
Starter: 1 portfolio.
Pro: 3 portfolios.
Premium: 10 portfolios.
The single portfolio on Starter is enough for most users — it covers everything they own in one ledger, with the optional ability to filter and sort within it. If your stacking life genuinely needs separate ledgers, that's what Pro and Premium are for.
The deeper read on what a portfolio represents (and why you might or might not want more than one) is in What a portfolio is.
Why someone needs a second portfolio
Before reaching for an upgrade, it's worth confirming the reason — sometimes the alternative is a better fit, sometimes the upgrade really is.
Common, valid reasons to want a second portfolio:
You're tracking metal that belongs to someone else (a spouse, a parent, a child) alongside your own, and you want the two stacks kept distinct in totals and reports.
You're tracking retirement metal separately, like a precious-metals IRA, where mixing it into your day-to-day stack would obscure the picture.
You're tracking business metal separately from personal metal for accounting or tax reasons.
You're tracking storage locations separately — vault, home safe, deposit box — to make insurance or inventory exercises easier.
Common reasons that don't actually need a second portfolio (and where a within-portfolio organising tool will serve you better):
You want to label individual coins with a nickname, a reference, or a date. That's what nicknames, references, and date annotations on individual items are for — they don't need a separate portfolio. See Adding a nickname to a specific item, Adding a user reference, and Adding a date annotation.
You want to filter by metal or product. Built-in filters on the Holdings page handle this. See Filtering and sorting your holdings.
You want different views of the same data. The view modes (grouped, item, card) plus the existing filters cover most "I want to look at this differently" needs without splitting the data.
If your reason is on the first list, an upgrade is the right path. If it's on the second, you can probably solve the problem inside the single Starter portfolio.
How to upgrade
Once you've decided to upgrade:
From the left nav, click Settings.
Open the Subscription tab.
Choose Pro or Premium, monthly or annual.
Complete the Stripe Checkout.
A quick note on which to pick:
If you need exactly two or three portfolios, Pro is enough.
If you might want more than three eventually, or you want any of the other Premium-only features (Annual Report, Bulk Import), Premium is the more durable choice.
You're not locked into the first decision — you can move between Pro and Premium later, in either direction. See Upgrading your subscription and Downgrading your subscription.
What changes immediately after the upgrade
When Stripe confirms the payment and the app updates:
The portfolio cap on your account moves to 3 (Pro) or 10 (Premium).
The "Create new portfolio" option, previously gated, becomes available.
Your existing portfolio is untouched — same name, same inventory, same transactions, same totals.
Your data is unchanged — no migration, no reformatting, nothing to redo.
Pro and Premium also unlock other capabilities beyond the portfolio cap; for the full comparison, see The three plans compared.
How to add the new portfolio
Once you're on Pro or Premium:
Open the portfolio selector at the top of the app.
Choose Create new portfolio (or the equivalent option in the selector menu).
Give the new portfolio a name. Use something the future-you will recognise — "Spouse's stack," "IRA," "Home safe," that kind of thing.
Save.
The new portfolio starts empty. From there, you can either:
Start recording fresh transactions against it. The portfolio selector at the top of the Add Purchase and Add Sale forms determines which portfolio each new transaction lands in. See Recording your first transaction.
Move existing transactions from your original portfolio into the new one by editing them and changing the portfolio field. See Editing a transaction after the fact.
For the full walk-through, see Creating a new portfolio.
What stays the same
Your existing portfolio and everything in it. No data is moved or modified by an upgrade.
Your sign-in and account details. Same email, same password, same everything.
Your spot price and FX feeds. Same data, same cadence.
Your settings. Display currency, weight unit, profile preferences — all preserved.
Your reports. Anything previously generated stays where it is.
In other words, the only thing that changes is the ability to create additional portfolios. Everything else continues exactly as it was.
If you'd rather not upgrade right now
You can stay on Starter indefinitely — the single portfolio model is fine for the great majority of users. If your real need is organization within a single ledger, the per-item annotations, filters, and view modes mentioned above usually do the job.
If you do want a second portfolio eventually but not today, you can return to the upgrade at any time. The pricing doesn't change based on when you upgrade, and there's no penalty for staying on Starter longer.
Where to go next
What a portfolio is: The conceptual read on what a portfolio represents.
Creating a new portfolio: The walk-through for the create flow, once you're on a plan that allows it.
Switching between portfolios: How the global portfolio selector works once you have more than one.
Portfolio limits explained: The per-tier cap in detail.
Upgrading your subscription: The full upgrade flow.
The three plans compared: Side-by-side feature comparison.
Editing a transaction after the fact: Useful for moving existing transactions into a newly created portfolio.