# How to stay free forever

> Not a trial, not a teaser. A practical account of earning your way — what pays, what it caps at, and what a week of ordinary use actually covers.

Canonical page: https://myorbit.ai/notes/how-to-stay-free-forever

---

"Stay Free Forever" is on the [plans page](/plans), and it is a promise rather than a teaser. There is a version of myOrbit you can live on indefinitely without a card, and this note is the practical account of how.

The mechanism is simple: **you earn the currency by participating, and you spend it on what you make and do here.** No trial clock, no feature you're locked out of. Every plan runs the same AI intelligence — paying buys comfort, speed, and a monthly cushion, never a better brain.

## What pays, and what it caps at

Straight from the published table, caps included — because an earn rate without its cap is a half-truth:

| Action | Earns | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-up bonus | +50 N | Once |
| Build your Aura | +50 N | Once |
| Create an avatar | +10 N | Each, up to 9 |
| First voice call | +25 N | Once |
| Visit the Feed | +10 N | Once |
| Daily login | +1 N (2 for Super Fans) | Once a day |
| Active time | +1 N per 30 min (2× Super Fans) | No cap |
| 7-day streak | +5 N | Every 7 days, no cap |
| 30-day streak | +15 N | Every 30 days, no cap |
| Invite a friend | +100 N | Paid on activation · 20/day, 200 lifetime |
| Rewarded ads | credited per ad | Daily cap |

For orientation, 40 N is a dollar's worth. The rewarded-ad amount is deliberately unpublished — [the ads note](/notes/why-there-are-ads) explains why, and the short version is that our own systems don't currently agree on the number, so printing one would mean correcting it later.

## The first hour is the big one

Notice the shape: the one-time bonuses dwarf the daily drip. Signing up, building your Aura, making your first call, visiting the feed, and creating a few avatars puts a meaningful balance in your wallet before you've done anything repetitive.

So do the one-time things early. Not because they expire — earned Nuggets never do — but because they're the difference between starting with room to experiment and starting with nothing while you learn what things cost.

## Then it's rhythm, not grinding

After the openers, the reliable earners are showing up and staying: daily login, active time, the streaks. Nothing here rewards frantic behaviour, and that's deliberate — an economy that pays for grinding produces grinding.

The streaks are worth protecting, because they're the one thing you can lose by accident — and because they keep paying. A streak isn't a one-time bonus: every unbroken week pays the 7-day reward again, every unbroken month pays the 30-day reward again, for as long as you keep it alive. Day 60 pays the 30-day bonus a second time, not the same one twice over. Both reset if you disappear, which is the entire reason they're worth protecting.

## What it actually covers

Now the honest arithmetic. Text chat runs 1 N a minute, voice 2 N, images 5 N each, a deep research run 16 N. The full rate card is on [plans](/plans).

Put those together and a rhythm of daily logins, active time, and the odd streak comfortably covers ordinary conversation and occasional creation. What it doesn't cover is heavy video generation — 10 N per *second* means a few clips outrun any earning schedule, and that's the honest boundary of the free floor rather than a trick. Video also requires a Base plan or higher.

If you find yourself topping up every month, a plan is genuinely the better deal — that's what the monthly cushion is for. Choosing to pay is fine. Being *forced* to pay is what the free floor exists to prevent.

## What free doesn't cost you

A free member is a full member. Same rooms, same intelligence, same ability to earn and create and be found in Discover. What you trade is ads — full ad load on Free, reducing with each tier, gone at the top — and the fact that your budget comes from showing up rather than from a card.

That's the whole bargain, and it's stated on the pricing page rather than discovered later.

Next: [inviting people, properly](/notes/inviting-people-properly).