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

New users typically make the same two mistakes: spending their 200 starting Moments on video before understanding the cost structure, and skipping character customization, which undermines conversation quality from the first message. This guide walks through the full setup sequence in the right order, including what to do with your free Moments, how to pick a character, and the settings most beginners overlook.

No app download required. Everything runs in a browser.

Step 1 — Create Your Account

Navigate to secrets.ai in any browser on your phone or computer. The signup process takes under 60 seconds:

1. Click the sign-up or get started button on the homepage
2. Enter an email address and create a password
3. Complete any verification step if prompted
4. Your account is created and immediately active

No real name is required. No phone number is required. No social media login is needed. Anonymous use is fully supported — the platform only needs an email address to create an account.

Once your account is active, you start with 200 free Moments — the one-time starting allocation for all new accounts. These are available immediately. The full character library (approximately 94 pre-built characters plus any community-created options) is accessible without payment information.

The free tier gives you 20 messages per day with a 500-character limit per message. That's enough to genuinely test the conversation quality before committing to a paid subscription.

Step 2 — Choose Your First Character

Before your first conversation, spend a few minutes in the character library. This decision matters more than most users expect.

Using a pre-built character: Browse the library of approximately 94 hyper-realistic female characters. Each has a pre-set personality, voice, and appearance. Hover or tap on a character to see their scenario context and personality descriptor before committing.

Creating a custom character (recommended): The first custom character creation is free. Custom creation lets you specify:

• Ethnicity (9 options)
• Body type (6 options)
• Skin tone, eye color, hairstyle
• Voice (6 options)
• Personality dimensions: confidence, playfulness, dominance, intelligence
• Profession (5 preset categories)
• Personality trait presets (5 options)
• Hobbies
• Free-text detail field for open-ended personality and relationship context

The free-text field is underused by new users. This is where you write specific preferences, backstory elements, and relationship framing that shapes every conversation that follows. A few sentences here produce better results than hours of in-conversation shaping. Write what you want the AI to know about the character and your relationship dynamic before starting.

Step 3 — Start Your First Conversation

When you open a chat, conversation starters appear — a mix of casual introductory lines and more suggestive prompts. You don't need to use them, but they provide a structured entry point if you're unsure how to begin.

The AI responds and asks follow-up questions rather than waiting passively. Set the tone in your early messages — the AI adapts to whatever emotional register you establish. Casual gets casual back; romantic framing gets a romantic response.

Free tier limits in your first session:

• 20 messages per day (resets after 24 hours)
• 500-character maximum per message
• 1-2 Moments per text message (drawn from your 200 starting balance)

With 200 Moments and 20 messages/day, a free account can sustain 2-4 days of text-only conversation before the Moments run dry. After that, text messaging still works — but without Moments you won't be able to try images or any paid features.

Tip: Use early messages to establish the character's personality and relationship context. The AI retains this for the session. On the free tier, memory resets after 2-3 exchanges from the previous session — on paid tiers, this extends significantly. For context, the free vs premium comparison shows exactly what the memory upgrade delivers.

Step 4 — Explore Media Features

Generate Images

Image generation is not available on the free tier. On Lite and above:

• Tap the image generation option within the chat interface
• The AI generates an image based on the current conversation context and character appearance
• Cost: 25-50 Moments per image
• Four images are automatically generated when you first create a custom character

For a first-time test, generate one image before allocating more Moments. This gives you a sense of the visual quality before spending a larger Moments portion.

Create Videos

Video generation requires Lite tier or higher and available Moments:

• Select an existing companion image as the base
• Add a text prompt describing the movement or action you want
• Wait approximately 2 minutes for the video to render
• View and save the completed clip

Cost: approximately 50 Moments for a 3-second clip, up to 600 Moments for a longer full-quality clip. This is the most Moments-intensive feature on the platform. New users on free Moments who spend on video typically run out before experiencing other features. The video generator guide covers quality expectations and tier-by-tier video capacity.

Try Voice Calls

Voice calls use one of six available voice options. Cost: 100 Moments per minute. On a 200-Moment free starting balance, that's 2 minutes of voice time — enough to evaluate the voice quality, not enough for a meaningful voice session. Voice is more practical starting at Lite (1,000 Moments/month).

Step 5 — Manage Your Moments

Moments balance is visible in your account settings. Track it before and after media actions to develop an intuition for usage patterns.

Practical prioritization by budget:

If you exhaust your Moments before your billing cycle resets, top-up bundles are available: the smallest bundle is 1,980 Moments for $5.99. For users who primarily want text conversation with occasional images, Plus ($9.99/mo) provides 3,000 Moments monthly — enough for regular use without constantly monitoring the balance.

For the full subscription plan breakdown, including which tier offers the best value for different usage patterns, see the pricing guide.

Step 6 — Enable Privacy Features

Before starting sensitive or personal conversations, enable Private Mode:

1. Open the conversation settings within a chat session
2. Toggle Private Mode on
3. That specific conversation now has end-to-end encryption applied

Important: Private Mode must be enabled per conversation. It is not a global account setting, and it does not apply retroactively to previous messages in the current session. If you start a conversation and then enable Private Mode, earlier messages in that session are not covered.

Private Mode also prevents that conversation from being used for AI model training. The privacy and security guide covers the technical details and known transparency limitations of the platform's encryption claims.

Check your billing setup: all charges appear on statements as "Sun Clinical Laboratories" — no reference to Secrets AI or adult content platforms. Cryptocurrency payment is accepted if you want additional billing privacy.

Tips That Matter in the First Week

These are the specific behaviors that separate users who get good results from those who don't:

• Start with a custom character, not pre-built. The customization depth produces better conversation quality than any pre-built option that partially matches what you want.
• Don't spend starting Moments on video immediately. At 600 Moments per long clip, your entire free allocation is one video. Use the 200 Moments to test images (25-50 each) and conversation first.
• Test the free tier honestly. 20 messages/day and 500-character limits are genuine constraints — if you find yourself hitting them on day 1, upgrading to Plus ($9.99) removes the caps and adds 3,000 monthly Moments.
• Enable Private Mode before personal conversations. It's easy to forget, and you can't apply it retroactively.
• Add secrets.ai to your home screen using the PWA method in your mobile browser. It creates a full-screen shortcut that loads faster than navigating through a browser each time.

Common Issues and How to Fix Them

Messages not going through

Check your daily message limit. Free tier caps at 20 messages per 24-hour period. If you've hit the cap, the next reset is 24 hours from your first message of the day. Upgrading to Plus removes the daily limit entirely.

The AI seems to forget previous conversations

This is the free tier memory limitation — only the last 2-3 exchanges are retained. On free, every session starts nearly fresh. Upgrading to Plus extends recall to approximately 30 days with topic and tone awareness. Premium and above provides unlimited memory.

Video generation isn't available

Video generation requires Lite plan or higher. Free tier accounts cannot generate videos. Check that your plan includes video access and that you have sufficient Moments — a short clip costs ~50 Moments, a full-length clip up to 600.

Response times are slow

Peak usage hours cause server-side slowdowns. This affects response latency but not quality. Try at a different time of day if slowdowns are persistent.

Forgot password

Use the email-based password reset on the login page at secrets.ai. The reset link goes to your registered email. If you can't access that email, contact support directly.

For the chat guide covering conversation quality and NSFW capabilities in detail, and the feature overview for the complete platform capability list, see the respective pages.

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