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

Picture the first five minutes: you have heard about Secrets AI, you open secrets.ai in your browser, and you are looking at a character library you have no context for. Where do you start? Which character do you pick? What is a Moment and why does it matter? This guide walks through the complete setup process in the order that actually makes sense — from account creation through your first conversation and into the features that take the experience from basic to genuinely good.

The feature overview covers the technical depth of each capability. The pricing page explains Moments costs in detail if you want to understand the budget before you start.

Step 1 — Create Your Account

Setting up a Secrets AI account takes under 60 seconds. There is no download required — everything runs in your browser.

1. Open any browser and navigate to secrets.ai
2. Click the Sign Up button
3. Enter an email address and create a password
4. Confirm via email link if prompted

That is the complete process. No real name required. No phone number. No social media login. You will start with 200 free Moments credited to your account immediately, and the full character library is accessible from the moment you sign in.

For maximum account privacy, use a purpose-created email address. If you later decide to upgrade to a paid tier, cryptocurrency payment (minimum $20) and virtual debit cards are available options that keep your payment separate from primary financial accounts.

Step 2 — Choose Your First Character

The character library contains approximately 94 pre-built companions spanning realistic and anime visual styles. You can browse the full library without spending any Moments — character previews are visible at no cost.

You have two paths:

Choose a pre-built character: Browse the library and select based on appearance and the displayed personality description. Each pre-built character comes with a defined background and relationship context.

Create a custom character (first one is free):

• Ethnicity: 9 options
• Body type: 6 options
• Skin tone, hairstyle, eye color
• Voice: 6 options
• Personality: confidence, playfulness, dominance, intelligence (adjustable)
• Profession: 5 presets
• Personality archetype: 5 presets
• Hobbies and interests
• Free-text details field

The free-text details field is worth spending time on. Entering specific preferences, backstory elements, or relationship context here produces noticeably more personalized conversation than leaving it blank or using only preset options.

When you create a custom character, 4 images are automatically generated and included at no extra Moments cost. This gives you an immediate visual foundation for the character.

Step 3 — Start Your First Conversation

Conversation starters are provided when you open a character — roughly half are casual openers, half are suggestive. These exist specifically to get past the blank-page awkwardness of starting a conversation.

A few things to know for your first session:

• Free users get 20 messages per day maximum. Use them thoughtfully.
• The AI adapts to the tone you establish early. If you engage with emotional depth and detail, the AI will match that register.
• Being specific produces better responses. "Tell me about your day" gets a generic response. "Tell me about the moment today that made you laugh" gets something more interesting.
• The AI asks follow-up questions — respond to them rather than immediately redirecting. This builds the kind of conversation continuity that makes the experience feel less like prompting a machine.

Step 4 — Explore Media Features

Generate Images

Image generation is available from the Lite tier upward ($5.99/month). Free users cannot generate new images after the initial auto-generated character images.

• Tap or click the image generation option within the chat interface
• Cost: 25–50 Moments per image
• 4 images are auto-generated at character creation (included, no extra cost)
• Group image generation (multiple characters in one frame) is supported

Two generation models are available: standard and Advanced/Premium (higher quality, available on upper tiers).

Create Videos

Video generation is one of Secrets AI's most distinctive features. The workflow:

1. Select or generate a companion image as the source
2. Write a text prompt describing the desired motion or action
3. Wait approximately 2 minutes for generation
4. View and save the output

Cost: 50–600 Moments per clip depending on clip length. Short 3-second clips cost approximately 50 Moments; longer clips approach 600 Moments. Recommendation for new users: start with a short clip to evaluate quality before spending 600 Moments on a longer one. Full video details are covered in the video generator guide.

Try Voice Calls

• 6 voice options available, each with distinct tone and character
• Cost: 100 Moments per minute
• Quality rated 4.3/5 — natural and adaptable rather than flat

Voice calls are the second most Moments-intensive feature after long video clips. Budget accordingly if you are on a lower-Moments tier.

Step 5 — Manage Your Moments

Moments are the operational currency for all media features. Understanding how they drain helps you avoid hitting zero unexpectedly.

On the free tier, your 200 starting Moments last for approximately 4 standard images, or 2 minutes of voice, or a mix of smaller interactions. They are spent in one moderately active session if you explore media features.

You can track your Moments balance in account settings. Additional Moments can be purchased in bundles (from 1,980 Moments for $5.99 to 118,800 for $249.99) or you can upgrade to a paid tier to receive a monthly allocation. The Plus tier at $9.99/month provides unlimited messaging and 3,000 Moments per month — the practical sweet spot for most new users.

Unused Moments do not roll over between billing cycles, so using remaining Moments on images toward the end of a billing period is more efficient than letting them expire.

Step 6 — Enable Privacy Features

Two privacy settings deserve specific attention:

Private Mode: Enables end-to-end encryption on a per-conversation basis. Also opts that conversation out of AI training data. Must be enabled at the start of each conversation you want protected — it is not a global default. Available on all tiers.

Billing: All charges appear as "Sun Clinical Laboratories" on bank statements. No AI or platform name references appear in billing. Cryptocurrency payment is available for additional financial privacy.

The Field Guide: Tips for New Users

Based on testing and reviewer consensus, these habits improve the experience significantly:

• Start with the free tier to test conversation quality and the interface before spending anything
• Do not spend all 200 starting Moments on video — test images first (lower cost, good quality indicator)
• Create a detailed character profile — the more specific your free-text details, the better the personalization
• Free memory is very limited (2–3 exchanges) — if conversation continuity feels broken, this is why
• Plus at $9.99 is the practical entry point for a usable daily experience: unlimited messaging, 30-day memory, full media access
• Add secrets.ai to your home screen on mobile for an app-like experience without a download

Common Issues and Solutions

Messages not sending

Most likely cause: you have hit the daily message limit on the free tier (20 messages). The counter resets daily. If you are on a paid tier and messages are not sending, try refreshing the page — this is occasionally a display issue rather than a platform error.

AI seems forgetful

The free tier has extremely limited memory (2–3 exchanges only). If the AI is not recalling information you provided earlier in the conversation, this is the cause. Upgrading to Plus unlocks 30-day recall with topic and tone awareness. Manual memory saves (10 Moments each) can pin specific information regardless of tier.

Slow responses

Peak hours cause generation delays across all features. If responses are taking longer than usual, trying at a different time of day typically resolves this. There is no documented peak hours schedule — in practice, off-peak times are early morning or late night relative to US Eastern time.

Cannot generate video

Video generation requires at least the Lite plan ($5.99/month). Free users cannot access this feature regardless of Moments balance. If you are on Lite or above and video is not working, check your Moments balance — a 3-second clip costs ~50 Moments and a longer clip costs up to 600.

Forgot password

Use the password reset option on the login page at secrets.ai. A reset link is sent to your registered email address. No backup recovery methods (phone, security questions) are documented.

FAQ