Field note 09 / Pricing
How much does Knute cost? A free app, and credit packs that pay for cloud AI
What is free, what the three credit packs pay for, what happens when credits run out, and why it is priced this way.
The short answer
How much does Knute cost?
Nothing, unless you want cloud AI. The iPhone app is free to download and ordinary product features are free. There is no required subscription. The only purchases are three optional one-time App Store credit packs, and they fund one thing: third-party cloud-model usage. Credits never expire, and the app shows the price before you buy.
A note from the founder
I built Knute to charge for what the models cost, not for the advice.
Every part of Knute that I control is free: the app, the account, the ESPN connection, the daily pass, the autonomy levels, the log of every move. The one cost I do not control is the bill from the cloud models that do the reasoning. So that is the only thing you can pay for, and you pay for it in the open. A pack states the exact US-dollar amount of AI usage it funds, separately from the App Store price, and the app shows both before you confirm. This note is the plain description of what is free, what credits are, and what happens when they run out.
01 / Free
What is free?
The app is free in the U.S. App Store. You create an account with an email and a password, verify the address, connect your ESPN team and pick an autonomy level for each league without buying anything. Ordinary product features are free, and no purchase is required to keep using them.
02 / Credit packs
What are the three credit packs?
Knute sells three fixed-capacity consumable credit packs through Apple In-App Purchase. They are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. Each is priced in the App Store, and the app shows Apple's localized price separately from the exact US-dollar amount of AI provider cost the pack funds; a newer offer may include store fees in its purchase price. You can buy one to ten of the same pack in a single App Store purchase, and buy again whenever you choose.
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01
What credits pay for
Only third-party cloud-model usage. With your account-level permission, league context, roster data, chat content and any rankings or photos you attach are sent through OpenRouter to the model that handles the request. Those requests draw down the balance; the providers are named on the privacy page.
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02
What credits are
A prepaid balance held in your authenticated Knute account, so it follows you across devices. Purchased credits never expire, are nontransferable, cannot be cashed out and are not cash or an App Store balance. A purchased pack keeps the usage value it promised, even if a later offer is priced differently.
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03
Refunds and recovery
Apple processes the payment, so a refund request for an App Store charge goes through Apple; a refund or revocation may remove the corresponding unused value. If a purchase says it is waiting to sync, do not buy it again: relaunch Knute and refresh Credits, and the signed transaction is retried. Offer codes are redeemed only through Apple's own sheet from Settings.
03 / An empty balance
What happens when credits run out?
Available credits and any spending controls you set govern new third-party model requests. When the balance is empty, a request that needs a cloud model stops, and the app says so in plain words: the cloud-credit balance is empty, add credits to continue, or use an on-device model if one is available. Supported on-device Apple Intelligence can remain available without credits. Nothing already purchased is lost, and there is no automatic charge to refill.
04 / Not charged
What you are not charged for
A subscription. None is required. Credit packs are one-time purchases. The terms also describe an optional monthly subscription, Knute Proactive, for news-driven team monitoring where it is available; it includes no AI usage, does not enable a team or raise its permissions, and is not needed for anything on this page.
The product itself. Connecting a team, choosing Advisor, Co-pilot or Autopilot, reading the move log and switching everything off cost nothing.
Promotional credit. Complimentary credit, when a campaign is active, requires no purchase, rating, review, referral or social action. It is a finite amount with no cash value, never unlimited cloud use.
05 / Questions
Questions people ask about Knute pricing
How much does Knute cost?
The iPhone app is free to download and ordinary product features are free. The only purchases are three optional one-time App Store credit packs that fund third-party cloud-model usage. Each pack is priced in the App Store, and the app shows the localized price and the exact US-dollar amount of AI usage it funds before you buy.
Is Knute free?
Yes. Ordinary product features are free, and no purchase is required to download the app, create an account or connect a team. Optional one-time App Store credit packs fund third-party cloud-model usage.
Is there a subscription for Knute?
No subscription is required. Credit packs are one-time purchases, not subscriptions, and credits never expire. The terms describe an optional monthly subscription, Knute Proactive, for news-driven team monitoring where it is available; it includes no AI usage and is not needed to use the app.
What are Knute credits?
Credits are a prepaid, fixed-capacity balance of third-party cloud-model usage held in your Knute account. They pay only for cloud-model requests, they never expire, they stay with your account across devices, and they are not cash, not an App Store balance and cannot be cashed out.
What happens when my Knute credits run out?
New third-party cloud-model requests stop, and the app tells you the cloud-credit balance is empty and that you can add credits or use an on-device model if one is available. Nothing you already bought is lost, and you can buy another pack whenever you choose.
If that is the deal you want, get Knute on the App Store, connect your ESPN team, and buy a pack only when you decide the cloud models are worth it.