How to Use Secrets AI: Complete Beginner's Guide (2026)

The first impression when you land on Secrets AI is that setup should be straightforward. And it is — under 60 seconds to a working account, a full character library immediately accessible, and 200 free Moments to spend. What surprises most new users in the first week is how differently the experience feels by week four: the memory depth, the relationship continuity, and the media generation capabilities all depend on choices made in those first few sessions.

This guide walks you through every step — from creating your account through managing your Moments budget — with the practical decisions explained so you don't burn your starting credits learning the hard way. For a full platform overview, see the complete review.

Step 1 — Create Your Account

No app download required. Open any browser — Chrome, Safari, or Firefox all work — and go to secrets.ai.

1. Click the sign-up button on the homepage
2. Enter your email address and create a password
3. Confirm via email if prompted
4. Done — you're logged in

The entire process takes under 60 seconds. No real name is required. No phone number. No social media login. Your account is effectively anonymous from the moment of creation.

What you start with:

• 200 Moments (one-time starting credit — these do not replenish on the free plan)
• Full character library access — all ~94 pre-built characters are immediately browsable
• 20 messages per day — the free daily limit
• 500-character maximum per message on the free tier

The 200 starting Moments are your test budget. See Step 5 for how to spend them strategically rather than depleting them before you've experienced the platform.

Step 2 — Choose Your First Character

The character library has approximately 94 pre-built options plus the option to create your own. For your first session, browsing the pre-built library is the faster path — you can always create a custom character later.

When choosing a pre-built character, look at:

• The personality description (confidence level, tone, playfulness)
• The scenario types listed for that character
• The visual style that appeals to you

Or build a custom character (your first one is completely free):

• Ethnicity: 9 options
• Body type: 6 options
• Skin tone, eye color, hairstyle: multiple choices each
• Voice: 6 options
• Personality traits: confidence, playfulness, dominance, intelligence (adjustable sliders)
• Profession: 5 preset categories
• Personality presets: 5 options
• Hobbies and free-text details: this field matters more than most users realize

The free-text details field is where the most valuable customization lives. Writing "enjoys hiking and cooking, talks about her day a lot, gets enthusiastic about books" produces a noticeably more distinctive companion than leaving it blank or writing a single generic line.

Step 3 — Start Your First Conversation

When you open a conversation, the platform provides suggested conversation starters — a mix of casual and suggestive options. Using one of these is fine for a first session, but starting with something specific to the personality you've built produces better initial engagement.

Key things to do in your first few messages:

• Establish the tone you want — the AI calibrates to your conversational style within the first 3-5 exchanges
• Be specific in your responses — detailed responses produce more contextually rich AI replies than short ones
• Introduce a detail the AI can use later — mention a preference, a hobby, or a context for the conversation; on paid tiers, this becomes part of the memory that persists

Free users get 20 messages per day. That's enough for a meaningful first conversation but not unlimited exploration. Text messages cost only 1–2 Moments each, so the daily message cap — not Moments — is the main constraint at the free level.

Step 4 — Explore Media Features

Generate Images

Images are available on paid tiers, and each costs 25–50 Moments depending on the generation model selected. Four images are automatically generated when you first create a custom character. To generate additional images within a conversation:

• Tap the image generation option in the chat interface
• Optionally add a prompt describing the scene or pose
• Wait a few seconds for the result

Standard and Premium/Advanced generation models are available; Advanced produces sharper detail, particularly in facial rendering.

Create Videos

Video generation is available from the Lite plan ($5.99/month) and above:

1. Select an existing companion image or generate a new one
2. Add a text prompt describing movement, action, or scene
3. Wait approximately 2 minutes for processing
4. View and save the clip

Short 3-second clips cost approximately 50 Moments. Full-length clips cost up to 600 Moments each. If you have 200 starting Moments on the free plan, do not spend them on a full video — you'll exhaust your entire starting budget on one clip. Test images first.

Video quality is rated 4.1/5 by reviewers. The video generation deep dive covers quality assessment, cost math by tier, and tips for better outputs.

Try Voice Calls

Six voice options are available. Voice calls cost 100 Moments per minute. Voice quality is rated 4.3/5 — the highest-rated sensory feature on the platform. For a 200-Moment free budget, 2 minutes of voice testing is feasible, but it will consume a significant portion of your starting credits.

Step 5 — Manage Your Moments

This is where most new users make expensive mistakes. With a starting budget of 200 Moments:

Recommended first-session spend:

• Save Moments on text — each message costs only 1-2, so a full conversation costs 20-40 Moments
• Generate 2-4 images (100-200 Moments) to test image quality
• Try voice briefly if you're evaluating that feature (100 Moments/minute)
• Do not generate a full video until you're on a paid tier with a monthly allocation

Once you've confirmed the platform suits you, upgrading to Plus ($9.99/month) gets you:

• Unlimited daily messaging
• 3,000 Moments/month
• 30-day memory recall
• Full image and video access

You can also buy Moments top-up bundles at any tier. Bundle pricing starts at 1,980 Moments for $5.99 and scales to 118,800 Moments for $249.99. Premium and Ultimate subscribers receive 10% and 15% bonus Moments on top-up purchases.

The pricing guide has the full Moments cost-per-action breakdown and tier comparison.

Step 6 — Enable Privacy Features

Private Mode is opt-in, per-conversation. Before starting a conversation you want encrypted:

1. Find the Private Mode toggle in the conversation settings
2. Enable it before sending your first message
3. The session is now end-to-end encrypted and excluded from AI training data

Private Mode is not retroactive — enabling it mid-conversation does not encrypt messages sent before activation. If privacy is a concern, get in the habit of enabling it before each session.

The billing descriptor is already discreet by default — charges appear as "Sun Clinical Laboratories" on bank statements. If you want maximum billing privacy, cryptocurrency payment is accepted with a minimum $20 transaction.

Tips for New Users

Practical guidance from extended platform use:

• Start with the free tier to test conversation quality and character selection — don't commit to a paid plan before you've confirmed the experience suits you
• Build a detailed character profile — the free-text personality and hobbies fields produce distinctively better conversations than defaults
• Don't spend all 200 starting Moments on video — use them for images and text to evaluate quality before video generation
• Enable Private Mode from the start of sessions you want private — not retroactively
• The Plus plan ($9.99/month) is the sweet spot for most users: unlimited messages, 3,000 Moments, 30-day memory, full media access
• Add secrets.ai to your home screen for app-like access on mobile (no native app exists, but the PWA shortcut is close)

Common Issues and Solutions

Messages not sending

Check your daily message limit — free users hit the 20-message cap. If you've reached it, the limit resets after 24 hours. Upgrading to Plus removes the daily cap entirely.

AI seems forgetful

This is expected on the free tier. Free memory covers only the last 2–3 exchanges. Upgrading to Lite ($5.99) extends recall to approximately 14 days; Plus ($9.99) extends to 30 days with topic and tone awareness; Premium ($19.99) provides unlimited emotional timeline memory. Memory depth is the most significant quality difference between tiers.

Slow responses

Response speed varies with server load. Peak usage hours tend to produce slower generation times. Trying at off-peak hours (late night, early morning) typically produces faster responses. This affects both text generation and media creation.

Can't generate video

Video generation requires the Lite plan or higher — it is not available on the free tier. Additionally, video requires Moments: short clips cost ~50, full clips up to 600. Confirm your tier and Moments balance before troubleshooting further.

Forgot password

Use the password reset option on the login page. A reset link is sent to your registered email address. Sessions are browser-based and persist automatically, so this is only needed if you've cleared cookies or logged out.

FAQ