Credits vs subscription: what adult AI tools really cost
Adult AI tools bill in two ways. A subscription charges you every month whether you posted or not — and some still sell a second currency (tokens, gems) on top. A credit pack is a one-off pile of renders. You buy it when you have a set to make. It sits there when you do not.
Updated 20 August 202610 min read18+
If you run a fans page, you do not generate every day like a chat user. You batch a week, you wait on DMs, you spike when a custom pays. That usage pattern is why a no-subscription studio exists.
Every price below was checked on 20 August 2026 against the page it names. Recheck before you spend. Adults 18 and over.
Subscriptions are built for companion apps. Candy.ai's public checkout (candy.ai/subscriptions) is one Premium plan: £13.99/month, or £3.99/month billed annually. It includes unlimited text and 100 tokens a month; images, voice, and video spend those tokens, and reviewers who bought packs in 2026 report ~$9.99 per extra 100 tokens at 2-4 tokens per still.
Promptchan (promptchan.com/upgrade) is a subscription *plus* gems: Plus $14.99 / 100 gems, Premium $23.99 / 400 gems, Pro $33.99 / 800 gems — custom characters and video gated to Pro. SoulGen (soulgen.ai/pricing) sells Pro at $12.99 for one promo month or $90.99/year with 100 credits a month; the free tier is blurred output.
Credits are built for a studio. OnlyNudes has no monthly plan. You buy a pack once, renders debit when you press Generate, the price is on the button, no watermark on any pack, you own the output.
| Pack | Price | Credits | Bonus | Cost / credit | Photos (20 cr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5 | 500 | 0% | $0.0100 | 25 |
| Basic | $10 | 1,100 | 10% | $0.0091 | 55 |
| Extra | $20 | 2,400 | 20% | $0.0083 | 120 |
| Pro | $50 | 6,250 | 25% | $0.0080 | 312 |
| Power | $100 | 13,000 | 30% | $0.0077 | 650 |
| Studio Pack | $250 | 35,000 | 40% | $0.0071 | 1,750 |
| Output | Credits | Starter | Extra | Studio Pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo | 20 | $0.20 | $0.17 | $0.14 |
| Character preview (you buy 4) | 2 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.01 |
| 3s clip | 60 | $0.60 | $0.50 | $0.43 |
| 5s clip | 100 | $1.00 | $0.83 | $0.71 |
| 10s clip | 200 | $2.00 | $1.67 | $1.43 |
Assume a Fanvue seller, not a chatter: photos for the wall and PPV, short clips as teasers, character already saved.
Light — two sets a week. 120 photos + 40 seconds of clips a month = 3,200 credits. On OnlyNudes: Extra + Basic packs, $30 once. On Candy: the sub plus roughly $38 in token packs, on a checkout with no seller workflow. On Promptchan: $24-$34 plus gem top-ups. On SoulGen: the 100 monthly credits overflow immediately.
Daily — a set a day, teasers every other day. 240 photos + 75 seconds of clips = 6,300 credits. OnlyNudes: Pro + Starter, $55, or sit on a $100 Power pack for about two months. This is the first volume where "unlimited" ads start to make sense — and also where unused subscription weeks hurt, because creators do take weeks off when chat is quiet.
Heavy — customs plus a full PPV calendar. 450 photos + 310 seconds of clips = 15,200 credits. OnlyNudes: Power + Extra, $120/month, or a prepaid Studio Pack that covers ~2.3 months (≈$109/month). At this volume, run the numbers twice: a real unlimited plan can beat credits if you never pause. Credits win the month a page dies, a payout gets flagged, or you only render customs.
| How you buy it on OnlyNudes | You pay | Leftover credits |
|---|---|---|
| Extra + Basic | $30 | 300 |
| Pro pack | $50 | 3,050 |
| Studio Pack (unit cost) | $22.86 of a $250 pile | the rest of the pile |
The same basket elsewhere: on Candy, ~400 tokens of stills (three $9.99 packs on top of the sub) plus a video token burn they do not publish. On Promptchan, Pro territory plus gems — video is not on the lower tiers. On SoulGen, past one Pro month before failed generations.
This is the part subscription landing pages underplay.
- SoulGen sells "remove blur" as a Pro benefit — the free tier is a preview, not a postable file. Post a free-tier test by accident and you posted a marked file.
- Candy.ai is a girlfriend app. Commercial posting on a fans site is not the story on that checkout. Read their terms before you sell a Candy still — several companion apps restrict commercial use or watermark cheaper tiers.
- Promptchan has a free tier and a public gallery. Before you build a page on it, get answers to: is the output yours to monetise, and is the girl you need locked behind Pro?
- OnlyNudes states it in the public credits doc: no subscription, no watermark on any pack, you own what you generate, commercial posting allowed, 18+.
Be honest, because the opposite article never is. A subscription wins when:
- You generate at high volume every day and will not stop for a month.
- The product is also the chat companion you wanted — Candy is good at that job.
- The unlimited plan's live quote beats your credit math and you will use the unused days.
- You need a feature OnlyNudes does not sell: anime-first models, long talking-head video, in-app girlfriend chat.
A subscription loses when you are still finding the character, you post in bursts around PPV drops, you run more than one experiment page, you take weeks off, or the "unlimited" tier still meters the good model in gems. Most people reading this are in the second list — paying $14-$34 a month to a chat app and wondering why they still do not have a week of consistent sets.
| OnlyNudes | Candy.ai | Promptchan | SoulGen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Credit packs, no sub | Monthly Premium + tokens | Monthly + gems | Monthly Pro + monthly credits |
| Public price | $5-$250 one-off | £13.99/mo (less prepaid) | $14.99 / $23.99 / $33.99 | $12.99/mo promo, $90.99/yr |
| Image meter | 20 credits | Tokens (reviewers: 2-4) | Gems | 1-2 credits |
| Video | 20 cr/s, 3-10s | Tokens, unpublished | Pro tier only | From 10 cr / 5s |
| Watermark | None | Check their terms | Confirm before you sell | Blur removed on Pro |
| Character lock | Saved reference | Companion character, chat-first | Custom characters on Pro | "Looks Like" costs extra |
| Built for sellers | Yes | No — built for chat | Mixed: gallery + chat | Mixed |
| Unused month | Credits sit there | Card still charges | Card still charges | Credits reset monthly |
If a competitor changes a public price, the row is stale — click the price link before you argue with the table. Deeper tool-by-tool notes live in the best-tools ranking and the switching guides.
FAQ
Is there a no-subscription NSFW image generator for creators?
Yes. OnlyNudes sells one-off credit packs and charges per render — 20 credits a photo, 20 credits a second for clips. Packs are on the credits section.
What is the cheapest way to generate a first Fanvue week?
The $5 Starter pack is 25 photos, or a mix of stills and one 5-second clip. The Fanvue week-one plan fits in a $20 Extra pack.
Why not just use the $4/month annual Candy.ai plan?
That headline number is the 12-month prepaid Premium. It still includes only 100 tokens a month, and Candy is a girlfriend product. Cheap chat is not cheap inventory.
Do OnlyNudes credits expire?
The public credits document describes a one-off purchase with no recurring charge and does not advertise an expiry countdown. If that ever changes, it will show up there first.
When should I buy the $250 Studio Pack?
When you already know you will post through a couple of months, or you render for more than one page. Unit cost drops to $0.14 a photo. Do not buy it to "feel committed" on day one — buy the $20 Extra, confirm the girl holds, then step up.
Buy renders, not months
Pick a pack, make the first set tonight, and let the meter stop when you stop. No renewal date, no watermark, files you own.