Which Subscription Tier: Free / Plus / Pro / Max

Soniva's subscription is not a "channel to buy credits in bulk" — it's the gate to unlock cloud AI voices, plus a monthly grant of credits on top. This page lays out what each of the four tiers can do, and where their boundaries lie.

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The Four Tiers at a Glance

Translation doesn't consume credits. It runs on a separate char-count quota, a ledger independent from the reading credit pool. See "Translation quota is a separate system" below.

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The Free Tier: What's Actually Free

Free isn't a "trial" — it's a complete form you can genuinely use long-term. The reason it's free is concrete: it calls the reading engine already built into your own device, so Soniva incurs no upstream API cost at all.

• The voice is up to your system: Apple voices on Mac/iPhone, Microsoft voices on Windows, Google voices on Android/Chrome. Quality depends on your device and is usually below cloud AI voices, but it's plenty for "read this text aloud."
• No limits on count or duration, and it consumes no credits.
• Works indefinitely without logging in. When logged out, sessions are kept only in the current browser — switching devices or clearing browser data loses them. Once logged in, past sessions auto-sync to the cloud and are visible across devices. Sync needs no subscription — just login.
• Pre-render translation is available on Free too: 5,000 chars/day (1,000 when logged out), no credits deducted.

What Free genuinely can't do: use cloud AI voices (except the 5 free previews per brand per day), and top up credits (topping up requires a subscription first).

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Why Using Cloud AI Voices Requires a Subscription

Because every cloud render has Soniva using its own accounts to pay Alibaba Cloud, Volcano Engine, ElevenLabs, and others real money. That's a completely different cost structure from system built-in voices.

The subscription fee covers "the service itself": servers, database, account system, cross-device sync, and the engineering that unifies 8 brands' voice libraries into one interface (each vendor's signature/auth protocol, billing basis, and per-request length limits all differ — that work is what the subscription pays for).

The credit side is transparent: rate = official upstream price × 1.15, and $1 = 760 credits when topping up. Together that's roughly 1.5× the official upstream price; see the rate table. If your volume makes that difference meaningful, just enter your own API key (BYOK) and Soniva deducts zero credits.

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The Only Difference Between the Three Paid Tiers Is Grant Size

Plus / Pro / Max offer identical features — all voices and all model tiers from all 8 brands, with no "this premium voice is Max-only" gating.

The only difference is monthly granted credits:

The higher the tier, the more credits per dollar — a small concession to heavy long-term users.

One Thing That Must Be Said Clearly: Granted Credits Cost More Per Credit Than Top-Ups

Topping up gives 760 credits/$1, while granted credits work out to 200–300 credits/$1. The subscription doesn't buy credits — it buys the eligibility to use cloud AI voices. The bundled credits just let you start using it the day you subscribe, without a separate top-up.

So if you calculate that "Plus + top-ups" beats "going straight to Max," then it genuinely is the better deal, and you should feel free to do it — we won't restrict you for it. The reason to pick Max should be "I don't want to manually top up every month," not "Max's credits are cheaper."

So choosing a tier is simple: estimate how many characters you read per month and which brand you tend to use, look up the credits you'll need on the scenario conversion table, and pick the tier that covers it. If unsure, start with Plus and upgrade anytime — an upgrade immediately grants the difference in credits, no need to wait for next month.

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Translation Quota Is a Separate System and Doesn't Touch Credits

Pre-render translation and the translation workbench use text models from DeepSeek / Alibaba Cloud / Volcano Engine / Zhipu GLM. Their cost structure differs completely from speech synthesis (far cheaper), so they run on a separate char-count quota that doesn't interact with the credit pool:

Image translation (OCR) counts as a fixed per-image amount of quota, and how much depends on the brand: DeepSeek converts to 1,500 chars (since 2026-09-04, derived from its own ¥4 / 1M chars text rate against a real per-image cost of about ¥0.006); the other brands still convert to 3,000 chars. So a logged-out account exceeds the 1,000 chars/day cap on the very first image and needs to log in first. Images are never stored on the server; they live only in the current session's memory.

Subscribers' monthly translation quota is split per provider (DeepSeek's text tier is the most generous; Pro gets 1M chars/month). Once used up, you can enter your own translation API key in Settings to keep going.

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Upgrade, Downgrade, Cancel

Upgrading (Plus → Pro → Max)

Available anytime, by prorated difference (poration): effective immediately, and the credit difference between the two tiers is granted immediately.

Downgrading

Self-service downgrade mid-cycle isn't supported. To move to a lower tier, cancel the current subscription in the customer portal first, wait for the current billing cycle to end naturally, then subscribe to the new lower tier.

Why this design: allowing downgrades anytime would open a loophole like "use Max to burn through 12,000 credits, switch back to Plus the same day, then get another 2,000 credits the next day."

Cancelling

You can cancel anytime in the customer portal; the period you've already paid for runs to its natural end, and there's no renewal after that.

After cancelling:

• Monthly granted credits stop, and any unused granted credits for the current period clear at the end of it.
• Credits you bought via top-ups aren't affected and stay usable for a year.
• System built-in voice and BYOK remain free and available.

For the exact entry point and why you're redirected to a payment platform, see Subscription Payment, Invoices & Payment Methods.

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FAQ

Q: After subscribing, what if my granted credits run out? Top up a fresh amount anytime — buyable instantly, credited instantly, see Top-Up Rules. Or upgrade to a higher tier. Or switch back to system built-in voice / your own API key — neither consumes credits.

Q: If I don't use this month's granted credits, do they roll over? No. Subscription-granted credits clear at the end of each billing cycle and don't carry over. So pick a tier based on actual usage, not "hoard it." (Credits you bought via top-ups are valid for a year and unaffected by this rule.)

Q: Why does topping up require a subscription first? To keep the credit pool always attached to a real account and deter bulk-registration abuse.

Q: Can Free use the free previews of cloud voices? Yes. Alibaba Cloud / Doubao / MiniMax / Tencent Cloud / Baidu / Microsoft each provide 1 representative voice + 1 fixed script; you can play it even without logging in. Limit is 5 per brand per day (counted by IP, counted separately across the 6 brands), and the script can't be changed — it's there to let you hear the real output before paying, not a way to farm free usage.

ElevenLabs and Cartesia don't have this whitelist because their voice lists already come with official pre-made preview audio that plays directly — and there's far more of it.

Q: Any annual or team plan? Not yet. A team-orientation tier (Business) is still in the planning stage and won't appear on the pricing page until pricing is finalized.

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Related Documents

• Full Credit Rate Table
• What a Given Credit Budget Buys
• Top-Up Rules and Credit Validity
• Subscription Payment, Invoices & Payment Methods