How Billing Works
Technical details for those who want to understand exactly what's happening behind the scenes.
What are credits?
Credits are our unit of billing. They're based on the number of characters in R1N's spoken responses—the text that gets converted to speech.
The conversion rate is 62 characters = 1 credit. This means 1,000 credits equals roughly 1.5 hours of typical conversation.
Your questions and messages don't cost credits—only R1N's responses do.
When are credits deducted?
Credits are deducted in real-time, after each R1N response. As soon as R1N finishes speaking, the character count is calculated and credits are deducted from your balance.
For example, if R1N says something that's 124 characters long, that's 2 credits (124 ÷ 62 = 2).
You can see your current balance in the app at any time.
What if I run out mid-conversation?
If your balance hits zero during a conversation, the session will end gracefully. R1N will let you know that you're out of credits.
You won't be charged for anything you can't afford—we check your balance before processing each response. If you don't have enough credits for a response, it simply won't be generated.
You can purchase more credits anytime and continue where you left off.
Why charge by characters instead of time?
Our costs come almost entirely from text-to-speech—converting R1N's text responses into spoken audio. This is charged by the character, not by the minute.
Charging by time would penalize you for:
- Taking time to think before responding
- Natural pauses in conversation
- Stepping away briefly
- Network delays or buffering
With character-based billing, you only pay for what R1N actually says. A 30-second pause costs nothing.
Why does credit usage vary?
Different conversation styles use credits at different rates:
- Quick back-and-forth with short responses uses fewer credits
- Deep discussions where R1N gives longer, detailed responses use more
- Reflective conversations with lots of pauses use fewer credits than active rapid exchanges
The “1,000 credits = ~1.5 hours” estimate is based on typical conversational patterns, but your actual usage may be higher or lower depending on how you interact.
Is there a transaction history?
Yes. Every credit deduction is logged with:
- Timestamp
- Character count
- Credits deducted
- Session ID
- Balance after transaction
Purchases are also logged separately. This data is available if you ever need to review your usage or dispute a charge.
Technical Notes
Rounding: Credit calculations use floating-point precision internally. Your displayed balance may show slight rounding.
Credit cap: There's a maximum balance limit to prevent abuse. Most users will never hit this.
Processing: Deductions are processed asynchronously to avoid interrupting your conversation. In rare cases, there may be a brief delay between a response and the balance update.