Pricing

Extentos is free to start, and a good deal of it needs no account at all. Two lines matter, and they fall in different places: the account line — a free account unlocks the browser simulator, project scaffolding, and the managed AI gateway; everything else is anonymous — and the money line — the managed AI gateway is the one surface that meters real provider spend. Even the money line starts with a free credit grant. Here's the whole picture, and exactly where each line falls.

Free, no account at all

These work with no signup, no email, no payment — anonymously, keyed only to an install id:

• Discovery & reference MCP tools — getPlatformInfo, getCapabilityGuide, getCodeExample, searchDocs. Everything an agent reads to learn the platform.
• Validation & guidance MCP tools — inspectIntegration, validateIntegration, getPermissions, getProductionChecklist, getCredentialGuide. All the correctness gates and setup guidance. The full list is the MCP tools reference.
• LocalSimTransport — Extentos's on-phone in-memory simulator (no DAT SDK, no network, no backend).
• Real-hardware testing through RealMetaTransport — you bring your own Meta Developer Center registration (a one-time, free, ~15–30 min setup with your personal Meta credentials). Testing the DAT-native primitives on glasses touches no Extentos account.

These never expire, never charge, and require no Extentos account. (Two things that look like they'd be here aren't: minting a browser-simulator session and running generateConnectionModule both need a free account — see below — because each provisions an account-bound backend resource.)

Free, with a free account

Three things need an Extentos account — and the account is free (no card, no payment). The first time your agent hits one, the backend returns an auth_required response with a verification URL, your agent surfaces it, you sign in once, and from then on it just works:

• The browser simulator at extentos.com/s — createSimulatorSession mints an account-scoped session. It runs on Extentos's backend (WebSocket hub, voice STT/TTS proxy, event-log persistence), the one piece that costs per-session infrastructure.
• Project scaffolding — generateConnectionModule mints your account-bound project key (baked into the build so production gateway usage attributes to your account), so it needs the account too.
• The account-scoped project tools — assistant config, credentials, connection-page writes, analytics. These read and write your dashboard project, so they need to know whose it is. You can skip them entirely: everything they set has a code-side equivalent, including the assistant model (AssistantProvider.Managed(model = …) wins over the dashboard).

Details:

• Free email-only account. Google OAuth (one click, ~5 seconds) or email + password. Sign-in is the entire commitment.
• Signing in also opens your managed-gateway free credit — every account starts with $2 of free AI-gateway credit (see the next section).
• Simulator session minting is unlimited and free. No session quota, no cap on creating sessions. (What a session runs — managed AI usage inside it — draws down your gateway credit like anywhere else; see below.)
• Everything anonymous still works. The account gates only these three surfaces and the managed AI gateway — discovery, validation, guidance, the on-device sim, and real-hardware DAT testing stay anonymous.

The flow happens through your agent without manual token-paste — the device-code mechanic (RFC 8628) handles the handoff, the same pattern gh auth login and vercel login use.

Metered: the managed AI gateway

If your app uses the Phase 4 assistant runtime, its voice AI runs through Extentos's managed gateway on Extentos's provider key by default — no API key in your app. That convenience is the one thing Extentos meters and bills, because it's real provider spend Extentos fronts.

Billing is live. It's a prepaid credit model — you're never surprised by an invoice:

• Every account starts with $2 of free managed-gateway credit. Sign in and it's already there.
• After the free credit, usage draws down a prepaid balance you top up in the dashboard's Billing hub (buy any amount; optional auto-reload). When the balance reaches zero, managed-gateway sessions stop until you add credits — prepaid means Extentos never fronts more than you've paid, and you never get a bill you didn't expect.
• Priced at the provider's list price, no markup — token counts for token-billed models, or connected minutes for per-minute voice models (xAI Grok voice). Extentos's margin is the provider's volume discount, not a surcharge on you.
• All managed usage counts toward your balance — simulator, dev, and real hardware alike. There's no free-in-the-simulator loophole; the $2 is one unified allowance across every environment, and the dashboard shows it deplete in real time.

There is no bring-your-own-key option. The assistant runs on the Extentos managed gateway, always. Extentos holds the provider account; you draw down credit. This is not a roadmap item — it is the design.

Not metered at all: apps that don't use the managed gateway. A DAT-native app (photo capture + TTS, no AI), or one that calls its own AI provider from handler code (handler-code BYOK), touches no billed Extentos surface — its Extentos runtime cost is zero.

Real-hardware and production cost

Running your app on actual Meta Ray-Ban glasses uses Meta's Device Access Toolkit and your own Meta Developer Center registration — free, one-time, ~15–30 minutes. The DAT path (RealMetaTransport) doesn't bill anything to Extentos.

The only runtime cost from Extentos on a shipped app is managed-gateway AI usage, if you use it. Ship a DAT-native app, or one that calls its own AI from handler code, and Extentos's runtime cost to you is zero. Ship a managed-gateway voice app and the AI usage draws down your credit balance (the $2 free credit, then prepaid credits above). There's no per-seat, per-app, or subscription fee to ship either way.

Frequently asked questions

Can I try Extentos without signing up?

Yes — a good deal of Extentos works with no account. Install the MCP server, run discovery and validation, do on-device simulation through the local in-memory sim, and test on real Meta Ray-Ban glasses, all anonymously. A free account links in only for the browser simulator, the generateConnectionModule scaffold step (it mints your account-bound project key), and the managed AI gateway — the signup ask fires via the same device-code flow the first time one of those is used.

Do I need to pay to ship to production?

Not for a DAT-native app (camera, audio, sensors, voice triggers, display) or one that calls its own AI provider — those bill nothing to Extentos. If you ship the managed-gateway voice assistant, its AI usage is billed: the $2 free credit per account, then prepaid credits. It's prepaid, so there's no surprise invoice — and no per-seat or subscription fee to ship.

How much is free before I pay for the gateway?

$2 of managed-gateway credit per account — granted the moment you sign in, shared across the simulator, dev, and production. That's roughly a few days of active voice-assistant dogfooding. You watch it deplete live in the dashboard; when it runs out, managed-gateway sessions pause until you add credits. Everything outside the managed gateway stays free regardless.

Is the on-device LocalSimTransport ever gated?

No. LocalSimTransport runs entirely in-memory on the developer's phone or emulator and never reaches an Extentos backend. Always free, no account.

What exactly counts toward managed-gateway usage?

Only calls made through the assistant runtime on Extentos's key — measured per the provider's billing unit: tokens (audio + text) for token-billed models, connected minutes for duration-billed voice models like xAI Grok — priced at the provider's list price. Every environment counts — simulator, dev, and real hardware all draw down the same balance (the $2 free credit is one unified allowance, not per-environment). See the gateway page.

What if my development environment has no browser?

The device-code flow is designed for exactly that case. The CLI prints a URL and a short user-code (e.g. ABCD-1234); open the URL on your phone or another signed-in machine, approve the code, and the CLI on your headless machine picks up the link — the same pattern gh auth login and vercel login use.

What if I already have an account from a previous machine?

Same flow, simpler — the /activate page shows "Approve this terminal for [your email]?" with one click. No second signup; it just tells your existing account about the new install.

Related

• The managed AI gateway — how AI billing and metering work
• Security — what's collected, what never is
• Quickstart with an agent — install and first run
• Changelog — when credit billing and other features shipped

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