The free or "Basic" component of their freemium offering, however, places severe restrictions, such as on saving models and importing texture maps, which are undisclosed in the company's own descriptions of their plans.

[4][5][6] Clara.io was announced in July 2013,[7] and first presented as part of the official SIGGRAPH 2013 program later that month.

[8] By November 2013 when the open beta period started, Clara.io had 14,000 registered users.

[2] Clara.io claimed to have 26,000 registered users in January 2014,[9] which grew to 85,000 by December 2014.

Clara.io was permanently shut down on December 31, 2022,[10] but the site is currently still partially functional to logged-in users.