AI minutes are the single meter behind Soontra's heavy AI work. Instead of separate counters for transcription, generation, and agent tasks, everything draws from one monthly pool — and everyday conversation with Astrono never touches it.
What are AI minutes
Every plan includes a monthly allowance of AI minutes:
- Starter — 600 AI minutes per month
- Creator — 4,800 AI minutes per month
- Enterprise — 20,000 AI minutes per month
- Free — 0 (the 7-day trial includes 120)
Minutes are spent only on work that genuinely crunches through material or takes action at scale — indexing, agent runs, generation, and exports. If a piece of heavy AI work doesn't finish, you aren't charged for it.
Indexing costs by file type
Indexing a file when you upload it (or later) costs:
- Video — 1 AI minute per video minute
- Audio — 0.25 AI minutes per audio minute
- Image — 0.25 AI minutes flat
- Document — 0.05 AI minutes per page
- Spreadsheet — about 0.05 AI minutes
So a 10-minute video costs 10 AI minutes to index, and a 40-minute podcast costs 10. See how AI indexing works for what those minutes buy you.
Astrono: chat unlimited, agent runs cost minutes
- Chat and Research mode — 0 AI minutes, unlimited. Asking questions, brainstorming, and refining drafts never moves the meter.
- Agent mode — each plan-execution costs about 12 AI minutes, because Astrono plans a task, carries out the steps across your workspace, and verifies its own work.
The split is covered in detail in Research mode vs Agent mode.
Generation and export costs
- Image generation — 1.5 AI minutes per image
- Video generation — 15 AI minutes per video
- Video export — 0.5 AI minutes per output minute
Check usage and buy more
Open Settings → Usage to see your AI minutes and storage broken down for the current cycle.
If you run low, you can top up at $5 per 60 AI minutes on any paid plan — no plan change required. If you're consistently running out, moving up a tier is usually the better deal; compare allowances in plans and pricing.