Trial experience get started (elastic#3951)

Proposal to fix elastic#3611.
This is a fully experimental draft to explore ways of composing the
requested content.

---

LLM usage disclosure: I fed the issues description from
elastic#3611 to Claude 4.5 Sonnet
in Cursor, then reviewed the content manually and fixed Vale linting
issues. I also ran the docs through the Elasticsearch experimental MCP
server to check for consistency and accuracy.

---------

Co-authored-by: Lisa Cawley <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: shainaraskas <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Janeen Roberts <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Janeen Mikell Roberts <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Kaarina Tungseth <[email protected]>

Author: 5 people

deploy-manage/deploy/_snippets/trial-limitations.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+During the free 14-day trial, Elastic provides access to one hosted deployment and three {{serverless-short}} projects. If all you want to do is try out Elastic, the trial includes more than enough to get you started. During the trial period, some limitations apply.
+
+**Hosted deployments**
+
+* You can only have one active deployment at a time.
+* The deployment size is limited to 8GB RAM and approximately 360GB of storage, depending on the specified hardware profile.
+* {{ml-cap}} nodes are available up to 4GB RAM, or up to 8GB when using Reranker.
+* Custom {{es}} plugins are not enabled.
+* We monitor token usage per account for the Elastic Managed LLM. If an account uses over one million tokens in 24 hours, we will inform you, then remove access to the LLM. This is in accordance with our fair use policy for trials. 
+
+**Serverless projects**
+
+* You can have three active {{serverless-short}} projects at a time.
+* Search Power is limited to 100 and Search Boost Window is limited to 7 days. These [settings](/deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/project-settings.md#elasticsearch-manage-project-search-ai-lake-settings) apply only to {{es-serverless}} projects.
+* Scaling is limited for {{serverless-short}} projects in trials. Failures might occur if the workload requires memory or compute beyond what the above search power and search boost window setting limits can provide.
+* We monitor token usage per account for the Elastic Managed LLM. If an account uses over one million tokens in 24 hours, we will inform, then remove access to the LLM. This is in accordance with our fair use policy for trials. 

deploy-manage/deploy/elastic-cloud/create-an-organization.md

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ A deployment lets you explore Elastic solutions for Search, Observability, and S
 
 For more information, check the [{{ech}} documentation](cloud-hosted.md).
 
-**Three {{serverless-short}} project**
+**Three {{serverless-short}} projects**
 
 {{serverless-short}} projects package {{stack}} features by type of solution:
 
@@ -53,45 +53,28 @@ When you create a project, you select the project type applicable to your use ca
 
 For more information, check the [{{serverless-short}} documentation](serverless.md).
 
-
 ### Trial limitations [general-sign-up-trial-what-limits-are-in-place-during-a-trial]
 
-During the free 14 day trial, Elastic provides access to one hosted deployment and three {{serverless-short}} projects. If all you want to do is try out Elastic, the trial includes more than enough to get you started. During the trial period, some limitations apply.
-
-**Hosted deployments**
-
-* You can have one active deployment at a time
-* The deployment size is limited to 8GB RAM and approximately 360GB of storage, depending on the specified hardware profile
-* Machine learning nodes are available up to 4GB RAM, or up to 8GB when using Reranker
-* Custom {{es}} plugins are not enabled
-* We monitor token usage per account for the Elastic Managed LLM. If an account uses over one million tokens in 24 hours, we will inform you and then disable access to the LLM. This is in accordance with our fair use policy for trials. 
-
-For more information, check the [{{ech}} documentation](cloud-hosted.md).
+:::{include} ../_snippets/trial-limitations.md
+:::
 
-**Serverless projects**
+### Get started with your trial [general-sign-up-trial-how-do-i-get-started-with-my-trial]
 
-* You can have three active {{serverless-short}} projects at a time.
-* Search Power is limited to 100. This setting only exists in {{es-serverless}} projects
-* Search Boost Window is limited to 7 days. This setting only exists in {{es-serverless}} projects
-* Scaling is limited for {{serverless-short}} projects in trials. Failures might occur if the workload requires memory or compute beyond what the above search power and search boost window setting limits can provide.
-* We monitor token usage per account for the Elastic Managed LLM. If an account uses over one million tokens in 24 hours, we will inform you and then disable access to the LLM. This is in accordance with our fair use policy for trials. 
+Start by checking out some common approaches for [moving data into {{ecloud}}](/manage-data/ingest.md).
 
-**Remove limitations**
+### Remove trial limitations
 
 Subscribe to [{{ecloud}}](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/add-billing-details.md) for the following benefits:
 
 * Increased memory or storage for deployment components, such as {{es}} clusters, machine learning nodes, and APM server.
 * As many deployments and projects as you need.
 * Third availability zone for your deployments.
-* Access to additional features, such as cross-cluster search and cross-cluster replication.
-
-You can subscribe to {{ecloud}} at any time during your trial. [Billing](../../../deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/serverless-project-billing-dimensions.md) starts when you subscribe. To maximize the benefits of your trial, subscribe at the end of the free period. To monitor charges, anticipate future costs, and adjust your usage, check your [account usage](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/monitor-analyze-usage.md) and [billing history](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/view-billing-history.md).
-
-
-### Get started with your trial [general-sign-up-trial-how-do-i-get-started-with-my-trial]
-
-Start by checking out some common approaches for [moving data into {{ecloud}}](/manage-data/ingest.md).
+* Access to additional features, such as {{ccs}} and {{ccr}}.
 
+You can subscribe to {{ecloud}} at any time during your trial.
+[Billing](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/serverless-project-billing-dimensions.md) starts when you subscribe.
+To maximize the benefits of your trial, subscribe at the end of the free period.
+To monitor charges, anticipate future costs, and adjust your usage, check your [account usage](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/monitor-analyze-usage.md) and [billing history](/deploy-manage/cloud-organization/billing/view-billing-history.md).
 
 ### Maintain access to your trial projects and data [general-sign-up-trial-what-happens-at-the-end-of-the-trial]