Usage & Balance: Your Tab, Your Top-Ups

Picture it: somewhere out there, a little server is humming along in a digital house. It's a good server. A hungry server. And every message you send is basically you opening its fridge. Here's how the groceries get paid for — the whole deal, in plain language.

The deal (new as of July 2026)

This place used to run purely on Kade's wallet and an optional tip jar. It grew — more people, more voices, phone calls, pictures, video — and the honest way to keep it alive without anybody profiting off anybody is simple:

• You start with $10 of credit, loaded by Kade. That's the house welcoming you in.
• Model usage is currently charged at twice the configured provider rate. The extra helps cover the rest of the platform. Metered extras such as pictures, videos, and phone calls also draw from your balance at their recorded rates. Ordinary chat speech is included in Kade's voice plan. The server-cost line estimates provider cost separately from what your balance was charged.
• When your balance runs dry, things pause until you top it up. Send whatever amount through the PayPal button below — put your name in the PayPal note so Kade knows whose balance to load — and it gets added to your account, usually the same day.

That's the whole model. No subscriptions, no monthly bill, no surprise charges — a prepaid tab you control completely. Your balance pays for your usage and contributes toward keeping the platform running.

See your own tab and balance

On the website, open Usage & Balance directly, or choose Feed the Server from Home. On iPhone, look under Settings → Usage & Balance. Your remaining balance and estimated server cost are separate figures.

Topping up

How long a top-up lasts depends on the models, conversation lengths and features you use. Check your recent usage before choosing an amount, and read the current estimate before confirming a metered creation.