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Each Expert’s pricing is set by its creator. The detail page shows the pricing status, the price, and how many trial turns you have left.

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Two pricing models (not four)

An Expert’s billing type has only two possible values, and it is derived from the price rather than picked from a dropdown by the creator:
A common misconception worth correcting: there is no such thing as a metered Expert on the marketplace.You may have seen a “metered” tier elsewhere — that belongs to the developer API mapping layer (the Platform API and MCP tools do expose a METERED enum name), but no such shape exists in the Expert marketplace. Worse, that enum name is actively misleading: passing METERED to the MCP set_billing tool writes a price of 0, which makes the Expert completely free rather than metered.So to determine how an Expert charges, check exactly one thing: is its price zero?

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Unlocking does not make conversations free

This is the layer most worth understanding clearly: the unlock fee and the per-conversation credit spend are two separate bills. After unlocking an Expert you no longer pay for access to it, but every turn still deducts credits at your selected model’s rate, because compute cost is incurred in real time. The same applies to free Experts: the Expert costs nothing, the conversation still consumes credits.
So “free Expert” precisely means the creator charges nothing — not “using it costs nothing.” Your balance still decreases when talking to a free Expert; what decreases is the model-cost portion.This also explains a frequent confusion: why does my balance keep dropping after I bought the Expert? Because that is not the Expert charging you, it is the conversation consuming compute.

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Trial turns

A paid Expert can offer free trial turns so you can talk to it before deciding to buy.
Trial turns are cumulative per user and never reset. Deleting the session, logging out, or switching devices will not refill them — the counter is bound to the pair “your account × this Expert.”Once exhausted, sending another message returns HTTP 403 with a trialExhausted flag, and the UI routes you to the purchase entry point. IM channels (Feishu, WeChat, and so on) receive the same verdict and append a web purchase link to the message — IM channels cannot complete a purchase, so you must return to the web app.

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Price constraints

Creators set prices within these bounds, which for you means you will never see a quote outside this range:

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Checking an Expert’s pricing model

1

Browse the marketplace

Every card in the Expert marketplace labels the billing type and price.
2

Open the detail page

The detail page gives full pricing information: billing model, price, whether a trial is enabled, and your remaining trial turns.
3

Start using it

  • Free Expert — start chatting immediately (conversations still consume credits)
  • Paid with trial — start chatting, purchase after the trial turns run out
  • Paid without trial — purchase first, then chat

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Comparison

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Boundaries and failure states

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FAQ

Digital purchases are non-refundable. That is exactly what trials are for — use up your trial turns before deciding.
It depends on the selected model’s rate and the conversation length (including context). The UI shows actual consumption after each turn. To estimate, use the token_split algorithm in Billing Formulas together with the current rate in the model selector.
Creators can change the price when publishing a new version. Existing purchasers are unaffected — an Expert you bought does not expire because of a price increase, and you never owe a difference.
No. Self-purchases are excluded from creator revenue as an anti-gaming measure.
Yes, the rules are identical (the same invoke path). Once the trial is exhausted you must purchase on the web — payment cannot be completed inside IM.
Verified 2026-08-11. Sources: services/core/src/db/service/expert.ts (billingType derived from billingAmount), services/core/src/routes/mcp/tools/index.ts (set_billing maps METERED to price 0), services/core/src/routes/agent-proxy/ (trial-exhausted 403 plus trialExhausted). For the creator’s view, see Pricing and Billing.