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

Setting up Secrets AI takes under three minutes. The platform is browser-based — there is nothing to install. This guide walks through every step from first visit to an active conversation, including character setup, media features, Moments management, and privacy settings. Newcomers who follow this sequence will avoid the most common setup mistakes that waste starting credits.

For reference on what each plan costs and unlocks, see the subscription pricing breakdown. For a broader assessment of whether the platform suits your needs, the full review covers overall verdict.

Step 1 — Create Your Account

Open any browser on your phone or computer. Navigate to secrets.ai.

Click "Sign Up" on the landing page. The form asks for:

• Email address
• Password

That is all. No real name, phone number, date of birth entry, or social media connection is required at signup. The process completes in under 60 seconds, and you arrive in the platform with:

• 200 Moments as a one-time starting credit
• Access to the full character library immediately
• 20 messages per day on the free tier

Your first decision after account creation: explore the existing character library or create a custom character. Both are available immediately. Creating a custom character uses no Moments for your first one — subsequent custom characters cost 1,000–1,500 Moments each.

Create your free account at Secrets AI →

Step 2 — Choose or Create Your First Character

Using the Pre-Built Library

The library contains approximately 94 hyper-realistic AI companion characters, with some anime options. Each character arrives with a defined personality, backstory, and visual appearance. Browse by scrolling through the grid — character thumbnails give a sense of appearance, and tapping any character shows their personality summary before you start chatting.

If you have not used an AI companion platform before, starting with a pre-built character is the recommended approach. You skip the customization decisions and get directly into testing whether the conversation quality meets your expectations before spending time on character design.

Creating a Custom Character

For users who want specific aesthetics or personalities, the first custom character is free. The builder covers:

Appearance:

• Ethnicity: 9 options
• Skin tone, eye color, hairstyle
• Body type: 6 options

Voice:

• 6 distinct voice profiles

Personality:

• Confidence, playfulness, dominance, and intelligence (adjustable)
• 5 personality trait presets
• 5 profession presets

Details:

• Hobbies and interests
• Free-text field for open-ended personalization

The free-text details field is the most underutilized feature by new users. Specific preferences, quirks, and backstory details added here shape the AI's behavior in early conversations in meaningful ways. Vague inputs produce generic companions. Specific inputs produce distinctive ones.

Step 3 — Start Your First Conversation

When you open a chat, the platform offers conversation starters — a mix of casual and suggestive options to remove blank-page awkwardness. You can use them or ignore them and open with whatever you want.

The AI responds naturally, asks follow-up questions, and adapts its tone to yours. Setting the conversational register early matters: the AI mirrors and builds on whatever dynamic you establish in the first few exchanges.

Free tier constraint: 20 messages per day. If you hit the cap, the next messages become available at the same time the following day. This cap is why using a pre-built character for your first session is efficient — you learn the platform's conversation quality without spending Moments on character creation first.

Practical tip: Be specific in your responses. The AI performs better when given concrete details — "I had a stressful meeting with my manager" produces more meaningful engagement than "I had a rough day."

Step 4 — Explore Media Features

Generate Images

Image generation is available on paid tiers (not free). To generate an image:

1. Tap the image generation option within the chat interface
2. Select a preset or enter a custom prompt
3. Wait for generation (typically seconds)
4. The image appears in the chat — downloadable from there

Cost: 25–50 Moments per image. Your first custom character automatically generates four images at creation. Subsequent image generation draws from your Moments balance.

Note: image generation quality is good but not perfect. Occasional anatomical rendering issues (particularly hands) appear in some outputs — this is a known limitation of current AI image generation technology.

Create Videos

Video generation is Secrets AI's most distinctive feature. The workflow:

1. Select an existing companion image in your gallery
2. Add a prompt describing the desired movement or action (be specific — "walking across a room slowly" works better than "moving")
3. The AI processes the request in approximately 2 minutes
4. The completed video clip appears in your gallery

Cost ranges from ~50 Moments for a 3-second clip to ~600 Moments for a longer sequence. Video generation is not available on the free tier. Lite tier provides access to short clips (3 seconds). Plus and above unlock longer-form video.

The video generation guide covers quality assessment, cost math, and tips for best results in detail.

Try Voice Calls

Voice call access is available on paid tiers. Select the voice call option within a character's chat. Cost is 100 Moments per minute with your choice of six voice profiles. The voice adapts emotionally to the conversation's register — it is not flat, robotic audio.

Voice calls deplete Moments quickly compared to text. If you are on a Moments budget, prioritize establishing which voice and character dynamic you prefer before spending heavily on voice sessions.

Step 5 — Manage Your Moments Balance

The most common mistake new users make is spending their 200 starting Moments impulsively on a single video before understanding the cost structure. The smart approach:

• Text messages cost 1–2 Moments each — effectively free relative to your balance
• Images cost 25–50 Moments — moderate spend, spend thoughtfully
• Videos cost 50–600 Moments — highest cost, plan before generating
• Voice calls cost 100 Moments per minute — depletes quickly

With 200 starting Moments, you can generate 4–8 images, have one 2-minute voice call, or have several hundred text exchanges. You cannot generate any videos of meaningful length — save that for a paid tier.

Check your Moments balance in account settings before any media generation session. If you run low, top-up bundles start at 1,980 Moments for $5.99. Consider upgrading to Plus ($9.99/month) for 3,000 monthly Moments plus unlimited messaging — the math typically favors the plan over repeated small top-ups.

Step 6 — Enable Privacy Features

Two privacy actions worth taking early:

Enable Private Mode: Available as an option at the start of each conversation. This activates end-to-end encryption for that session and opts the conversation out of AI training data. It must be turned on per session — it is not a global account setting. Get in the habit of enabling it before conversations you want kept private.

Understand the billing: Charges appear on bank statements as "Sun Clinical Laboratories" — there is no reference to Secrets AI, AI companions, or adult content. If billing privacy matters to you, this is already handled. Cryptocurrency payment is also available (minimum $20) for complete financial anonymity.

Tips for New Users

A few things experienced users know that newcomers typically learn the slow way:

• Test the free tier's chat quality before upgrading. Twenty messages per day is enough to evaluate whether the conversation style fits your preferences.
• Do not spend starting Moments on video. At 600 Moments per full video and only 200 starting credits, this is the single most common way to exhaust the starting balance without learning the platform.
• Create a detailed character profile. The more specific your customization inputs, the more distinctive and engaging the AI's behavior becomes.
• Memory improves dramatically on paid tiers. The free tier's 2–3 exchange recall makes ongoing relationship simulation impossible. If memory continuity matters to you, Plus ($9.99) is the minimum viable tier.
• Add the site to your home screen. On both iPhone and Android, using the browser's "Add to Home Screen" option creates an app-like shortcut. For the choosing a plan decision, knowing your usage pattern first makes the tier choice much easier.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Messages not sending: The most likely cause is hitting the daily message cap (20 on free, 100 on Lite). Check your count in account settings. If the cap is not the issue, check your internet connection and try refreshing the page.

The AI seems to forget things: On the free tier, this is expected — memory resets after 2–3 exchanges by design. Upgrading to Plus or higher extends recall to 30 days and beyond. If you are on a paid tier and experiencing unexpected memory gaps, manually save key facts using the memory save feature (10 Moments each).

Slow response times: Peak usage hours cause server-side delays. If responses are consistently slow, try off-peak hours. Generation features (image and video) are more delay-prone than text responses during high-traffic periods.

Video generation not available: Video generation requires at minimum the Lite plan. Free tier users cannot access video generation regardless of Moments balance.

Forgot password: Use the email-based password reset on the login page. No phone verification is required.

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