Vendor lock-in
Also called lock-in · platform lock-in
The cost of leaving a tool, measured in work you would have to redo rather than in money you would have to pay.
In more detail
Lock-in is not a clause in a contract; it is the accumulated weight of prompts, settings, saved projects and habits that live inside one vendor's account and cannot be exported. The price of the tool is visible up front. The price of leaving it only becomes visible when you try.
Example
A generator that stores your prompts in its own dashboard, applies its own house style you cannot see, and exports only finished MP4s has locked in three things: your prompt library, the settings that made outputs consistent, and the intermediate files. A tool that runs on your API key and writes prompts into a document you hold has locked in none of them.
Why it matters
Lock-in is what turns a vendor's decision into your problem. A price rise, a removed feature or a shutdown is an inconvenience if your prompts and keys are portable, and a rebuild if they are not. The question worth asking before subscribing is not whether the tool is good but what specifically you would still have on the day you cancelled.