Running cost, line by line
What every line on the Running cost screen counts, how it's priced, and why it's an estimate you don't pay. Needs an account
Running cost lives at Profile → Account → Running cost. It says, in its own words, "What it costs to run this app for you — the bill behind the screens, not a charge to you." Nobody is billed.
The total
This month's figure, in US dollars, with the month named above it. Under a cent it says "under 1¢", never $0.00, which would read as free.
Platform
- Browsing sessions. Using the app without an account, each day's first visit costs a small sign-in fee on our side. Signed-in travellers pay none of this line. It's "estimated from published rates".
- Share of fixed costs. The platform's fixed monthly costs divided by an assumed number of travellers, shown as the sum itself: "USD 5.30/mo ÷ 1,000 assumed travellers". We show the working so it can't pass as a measurement.
Photos
How many photos were downloaded and how big they were, such as "10 photos · 45.3 MB downloaded". Photos already on your phone aren't downloaded again, so "17.8 MB served from this device" is shown as money avoided and isn't added to the total.
Database and compute
The count of requests the app made to our servers, priced at a tiny fixed rate each.
AI and weather lines
With AI features on, each AI answer appears as its own line, priced from what that answer reported. Weather forecasts appear as a count of requests, priced at zero because the provider's free tier covers them. See See what the AI did and what it cost.
How it's worked out
- Counted on your phone, then priced from published cloud rates, read on a date the screen states.
- Free allowances are shared by everyone using the platform, so they aren't applied. That makes this the cost of one more traveller, not a copy of an invoice, and it errs on the high side.
- The counts are kept on your phone and sent to our servers each month with a random install ID, filed under your signed-in account. Never your name or email, or what you searched for.
- It resets on the 1st of every month, and the last twelve months are kept as a list.
- Signing out doesn't clear it, because it's what this phone cost. Start Over on This Device does.
Why show it?
Because a free app has a real bill, and AI is the largest part of it. Seeing it is part of why the fair use limits make sense.
Something missing or wrong on this page? Tell us. A person reads every message. Updated 11 October 2026.