Start

Minutes and billing

How minutes are counted, what each mode costs, what the plans include, and where to see your usage.

On this page

Scribiz counts usage in one unit: a minute of source video. Minutes apply to hosted processing, and to the command-line tool when you sign in to a Scribiz account. If you run the command-line tool with your own Gemini key, no Scribiz minutes are used. See Authentication.

Minutes are counted for jobs: the web tool, the API and the remote MCP server. The command-line tool uses them when you sign in with scribiz login, and none with your own Gemini key. The Mac app is not out yet.

What a job costs

A job is charged for the length of the source video times the multiplier for what ran.

What ran	Minutes per minute of video
Platform captions	0.1
Listen	1
Watch	1
Both	2
Auto	The multiplier of the path it took
A stored result for the same video	0

Captions follow one rule: a tenth of a minute for each minute of video. With an account that comes out of your minutes, and captions stop when your minutes run out. Without an account, captions are limited to 30 lookups a day from one connection. Their tenths also count toward the day's 10 minutes, but only Listen and Watch stop when those are used.

The MCP server without a key shares the day's 10 minutes with the web tool, and has its own daily limit shared by everyone without a key. When a model reads a link there, it is charged by the length of the video that was actually read.

Asking a question about a video, with POST /v1/ask or the ask_video tool, costs 0.1 minutes per question, on top of reading the video the first time. The summary and chapters are included in the mode's multiplier.

Examples:

Video	Mode	Minutes used
12 minute lecture with captions	Auto	1.2
12 minute lecture, no captions	Auto, resolved to Listen	12
12 minute lecture	Both	24
3 minute Reel with burned-in text	Auto, resolved to Both	6
Any video someone already ran	Any	0

Scribiz shows the cost before it spends anything. POST /v1/context answers with a quote: estimate.minutes is what the job charges if it runs as quoted, and 0 when everything is stored. The charge itself is made when the job ends, from what actually ran. A job that fails or is canceled is not charged. A repeat of the same request is quoted and charged as stored, with no work started.

For a long job, Scribiz stops before a step that would cost minutes you no longer have. The run ends with the error QUOTA and is charged only for what ran.

The CLI and the Mac app

The command-line tool is on npm. It runs with a Scribiz account or with your own Gemini key, and one credential is saved at a time.

Signed in with scribiz login. The tool uses your account's minutes, the same balance as the web tool and the API. A free account has 30 minutes a month. scribiz whoami shows how many are left, and when they are used up the tool says when they come back.
Your own Gemini key, from scribiz setup or GEMINI_API_KEY. Google bills that key, and no Scribiz minutes are used.

GEMINI_API_KEY in the environment wins over a saved sign-in. See Authentication. The Mac app is not out yet.

Plans

Plan	Minutes	Longest video	Notes
Anonymous	10 Listen or Watch minutes per day, 30 caption jobs per day, 5 questions per day	15 minutes	No account. One running job. A Turnstile check may run before Listen or Watch. The MCP server without a key uses the same 10 minutes.
Free	30 per month, no rollover	2 hours	Two running jobs. The month is a calendar month in UTC.
Pro	600 per month, no rollover	6 hours	Two running jobs. A period runs a month from the day the plan started.
Mac Lifetime	A one-time 300 minutes, plus the free plan's 30 per month	2 hours	The Mac app and every 1.x update.

The longest video is the limit for a hosted job. The command-line tool with your own Gemini key does not use Scribiz minutes, so the plan's limit does not apply to it. Signed in to an account, it uses that account's minutes. Minutes, caps and times are in UTC.

Prices are on the pricing page.

Top-ups

Top-up minutes never expire and work anywhere minutes work. They are used after your plan's minutes for the period run out.

Lifetime

Lifetime covers the Mac app, which is not published yet. It does not add a monthly allowance beyond the free plan's, because hosted minutes cost money every time they run. The one-time 300 minutes is a starting balance. Run the app with your own Gemini key for more.

When you run out

On the web, the result page says so.
The API answers 402 with the code quota_exceeded, the engine code QUOTA, and the minutes needed and left. See Errors and limits.
The command-line tool stops with QUOTA and exit code 3, and says when your minutes come back.
MCP tools return an error result with the code QUOTA. Without a key, captions and videos already processed still work, and the error says when the allowance resets (00:00 UTC).
A result that is already stored still opens for free. Captions cost 0.1 minutes per minute of video on an account, so they stop too. Without an account, captions stop at 30 lookups a day.

See your usage

The dashboard shows your minutes.
GET /v1/me returns the same numbers for code. See Endpoints.
Each job reports minutes_charged when it ends.

Paying

Note

Plans and top-ups will be bought on Stripe's payment page once something is on sale, and the server decides what is on sale: the pricing page shows it, and so does GET /v1/billing/offer. The offer gives each price as Stripe has it, in US dollars, and a plan is on sale only when all its prices are set up there. While nothing is on sale, POST /v1/billing/checkout answers 501 with billing_not_configured, and Scribiz grants minutes to accounts by hand.

How tax works will be stated here when checkout opens.

Checked against the Scribiz build on 2026-10-05.