Lerk AI pricing, explained

Is Lerk AI free?

Partly, and it's worth being precise about which part. Creating an account, browsing the catalog on Explore and chatting are free, but a free account can send only a limited number of messages every 24 hours. The limit resets on a rolling basis, so you can come back the next day and carry on the same conversation, with its memory intact.

Verifying your email adds a one-time gift of welcome stars: 120 stars, enough for 2 photos at today's photo price. It's a single gift per device, not a monthly one, and it's there so you can try photos or the studio before deciding anything.

What a free account can't do is buy stars on their own. Star packs are for subscribers, so once the welcome stars are spent, photos, videos and new characters need a plan. If you mostly want to chat and don't mind the daily limit, you may never need one. The getting-started guide shows what to try first.

The plans and what they cost

There are two paid plans, VIP and Lerker. Each can be billed monthly or once a year, and both include unlimited messages, a star allowance every month and a discount on bundles, the curated photo and video sets of a companion.

Paying yearly works out cheaper per month: about 50% less than twelve monthly payments, on both plans. The catch is the usual one: the full year is charged up front, and purchases are generally non-refundable, so it makes most sense once you know you'll keep using Lerk AI.

What the store lists for each plan

These are the lines on the plan cards in Lerk AI's store, quoted as they appear:

• VIP: “3,500 Stars Every Month”, “Image and Video Generation”, “Unlimited Premium Messaging”, “Premium AI Models”, “4x Memory Recall (Vs Free)” and “20% Off All Bundles”.
• Lerker: “Everything in VIP, plus:” “7,500 Stars Every Month”, “10% Bonus Stars on Every Pack”, “Priority Generation Queue”, “6x Memory Recall (Vs Free)”, “Advanced Customization” and “40% Off All Bundles”.

The memory lines compare with a free account: companions on a paid plan can recall much further back in a conversation. How memory works on Lerk AI explains what that means in practice. On both plans, a companion can also message you first after you've been away, which free accounts don't get.

VIP or Lerker: which one fits?

This is our view as the people who make both plans, so take it as the maker's guidance rather than a verdict. The honest short version: the right plan depends on how many stars you'll use, not on how much you chat, because both plans already include unlimited messages.

• Mostly chatting? VIP covers it. Unlimited messages and the deeper memory are the parts most people notice day to day, and Lerker doesn't add more messaging on top.
• Making a lot of photos and videos? Lerker's larger allowance (7,500 stars a month against VIP's 3,500), priority in the generation queue and the bonus on star packs are aimed at you.
• Buying bundles? The bundle discount is 20% on VIP and 40% on Lerker, which adds up if bundles are a regular thing for you.

One thing the plan cards don't spell out: counting stars alone, the monthly VIP plan gives about 175 stars per dollar and the monthly Lerker plan about 150. So if stars are all you're after, VIP is the more efficient buy, and Lerker earns its price through the extras above. You can start on VIP and move up later if you find you're running short.

What are stars?

Stars are Lerk AI's credits. They pay for photos and videos, for photos a companion sends in chat, for creating your own characters and for bundles. They have no value outside Lerk AI and can't be exchanged back, except where the law requires it.

Stars come from three places:

• The welcome gift, once, after you verify your email.
• Your plan's monthly allowance, if you're on VIP or Lerker.
• Star packs, bought separately by subscribers when the allowance runs low (Lerker members get bonus stars on each pack, per the store).

You see the price in stars before you spend any: the photo button in chat shows what a photo costs before you ask, and the studio shows the cost before you start. If a generation fails or is blocked by a safety check, its stars come back automatically. Photos and videos on Lerk AI covers how each one works.

What things cost in stars

Videos are priced by length and quality, anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 seconds. A few example lengths:

Bundles are priced one by one in the app, and subscribers get their plan's discount on each. Messaging works differently from all of the above: a free account has a limited number of messages every 24 hours, and on VIP or Lerker messages are unlimited.

How the monthly allowance works

The allowance is easy to misread, so here it is in plain words. Each month your plan adds a fresh allowance of stars. Whatever you haven't used by then doesn't pile up: it's replaced by the new month's allowance. Lerk AI's Refund Policy puts it this way:

“Subscription-included Stars are a separate monthly allowance: unused allowance is replaced at the next monthly allocation and does not roll over, including on annually billed plans.”

A few things follow from that, all from the same policy:

• Yearly plans still get the allowance month by month. You pay for the year once, but the stars arrive in monthly instalments, not as one large balance.
• Allowance stars are spent first. Stars you bought in a pack are only used once the month's allowance is gone, and purchased stars don't expire.
• Cancelling keeps your plan to the end of the paid period. The remaining allowance ends when the subscription does.

For a sense of scale, at today's star prices a month's allowance covers about 58 photos or 5 short HD videos on VIP; about 125 photos or 12 short HD videos on Lerker, or any mix of the two (a short HD video being the 5 seconds minimum). That's arithmetic from the live prices, not a separate promise.

Paying by card or crypto

Card payments go through a secure payment processor, so your card details never reach Lerk AI. On your statement the charge shows as “Lerk Studios”, never what you bought, and receipts mention only stars and your plan. Our safety guide covers payments and your statement in more detail.

Crypto is accepted too, for star packs and for the yearly VIP and Lerker plans.

Card subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel, which is standard for subscriptions but worth knowing before you choose yearly.

Renewal, cancelling and refunds

Cancelling

You can cancel at any time from your account, and the next renewal stops once you confirm. You keep the plan until the end of the period you've paid for; the unused part of that period isn't prorated or refunded, and earlier charges aren't refunded just because you cancelled later. Cancelling a subscription doesn't delete your Lerk AI account: that's a separate request.

Refunds

Because what you buy is delivered straight away, Lerk AI's purchases are generally final. The Refund Policy lists the cases where a full or partial refund may be considered, decided case by case:

• a duplicate charge, or a charge for a different amount than the one shown at checkout;
• a payment made without the account holder's permission;
• a plan or star pack that never reached your account because of a technical or billing error;
• a paid feature that was unavailable because of a confirmed fault on Lerk AI's side that couldn't be put right;
• anything the law in your country requires.

Forgetting to cancel before a renewal, unused stars or time, or not liking how an AI-generated result turned out generally don't qualify. To ask, email support@lerk.ai with your account email, the charge date and amount and what went wrong, preferably within 14 days of the charge. Never send a full card number or your password. Stars from a failed or blocked generation are returned automatically and don't need a request.

Keeping costs predictable

A few habits make it easy to know what you'll spend:

1. Start free. Chat for a few days on a free account and use the welcome stars before choosing a plan.
2. Pick the plan for your star use, not your chat use. Messages are unlimited on both.
3. Check the price before you send. Every photo and video shows its cost in stars first, and longer, higher-quality videos cost noticeably more than short HD ones.
4. Go yearly only once you're sure. It's cheaper per month, but it's one charge for the year.
5. Remember the allowance resets. Use it within the month rather than saving it up.

For how the rest of Lerk AI holds up, from chat modes to the companion creator, read the full Lerk AI review.

Frequently asked questions