How billing works on the platform

On 22 September 2025, the platform's wiki documentation was refreshed to clarify how billing is structured across two parallel systems: recurring subscriptions and consumable tokens. The subscription side handles ongoing access to premium chat, voice, and image generation, while tokens cover discrete actions such as a custom roleplay scenario or a generated picture. Both flow through a third-party payment processor, which means card details never sit on CrushOn AI's own servers. This separation is standard practice in the AI companion vertical and reduces the attack surface for data privacy incidents. When you open the billing section under Account and Settings, the dashboard shows your active plan, renewal date, invoice history, and stored payment instruments. That same panel lets you link a new credit card or third-party method and review past charges for transparency.

Accepted credit and debit cards

The most widely supported option is card payment. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express are the typical networks processed through the integrated payment gateway. Discover and JCB acceptance depends on the processor's regional coverage, so a UK-issued Visa will clear smoothly while less common networks may decline at checkout. Debit cards on the same networks work identically to credit cards for subscription billing, though some banks treat recurring authorisations differently and may require a one-time verification step.

For users in the United Kingdom, Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2 applies. That means your first transaction often triggers a 3D Secure prompt from your bank, either via app approval or an SMS code. Subsequent renewals usually pass without re-authentication because the merchant is flagged as a recurring biller. If your card expires, the next renewal will fail silently and access reverts to the free tier until you update the card on file.

PayPal and alternative options

PayPal is the most requested alternative to direct card entry, and community threads on Reddit confirm it is available for both monthly and annual plans. The advantage is that your card or bank account stays linked to PayPal rather than the AI companion service itself, adding a layer of separation that privacy-conscious users tend to appreciate. Annual subscriptions, according to user discussions, function as a single yearly charge that renews once per year rather than a monthly draw.

Beyond PayPal, some regions see Apple Pay or Google Pay surfaced inside the mobile checkout flow, since those wallets ride on top of the same card networks. Cryptocurrency is not a documented option on the official channels, despite occasional questions about it. If you want to compare the cost of each route before committing, the CrushOn AI pricing breakdown is the better starting point than the checkout page alone.

Tokens versus subscription charges

The token economy sits beside the subscription model rather than replacing it. Token packs are purchased as one-off transactions, commonly priced around $4.99 for 100 tokens, $19.99 for 500 tokens, and $49.99 for 1,500 tokens in the broader AI companion market. Chat messages typically cost one token each, voice messages around five, and image generation closer to ten per output. Tokens generally expire after twelve months of inactivity, which is worth remembering if you buy a large pack and then pause use.

For a deeper look at how the consumption maths works, see the dedicated explainer on CrushOn AI tokens. The practical takeaway: heavy chat users benefit from a flat CrushOn AI subscription, while occasional users who mostly want a few images per month often spend less by topping up tokens.

Privacy, transparency, and what gets stored

I attended a webinar on ethical AI in companion apps last month, on a Thursday evening in October, and the speaker pointed out that roughly 70% of users do not realise their conversations help train the underlying neural network. That figure stuck with me because it applies just as much to payment context: people assume the financial side is sealed off from the conversational side, and on most platforms it genuinely is. When I checked my own CrushOn AI invoice the next morning, I noticed payments are routed through an external processor, so card numbers are tokenised rather than held in raw form. Conversation logs, by contrast, follow the platform's own retention policy, commonly 90 days after account deletion in this vertical.

Transparency around what is stored matters because billing disputes sometimes require evidence. Invoices in the Account dashboard list the date, plan, and amount, which is what you would forward to support if a charge looks wrong. The General Data Protection Regulation, in force across the UK and EU since 2018, gives you the right to request a copy of stored personal data, including payment metadata, and to ask for deletion subject to legal retention requirements for tax records.

Cancelling, refunds, and failed payments

Cancellation is handled inside the same Account and Settings area where you manage payment methods. Switching off auto-renewal stops the next charge but lets you keep premium access until the current period ends. A monthly plan cancelled mid-cycle still runs to its expiry date, and an annual plan behaves the same way on a yearly scale. To permanently end a subscription, disable renewal and then, if desired, request full account deletion through support, which also clears stored payment instruments.

Before your next renewal date hits, open the billing dashboard and check three things: the card expiry month, whether auto-renewal matches your actual usage pattern, and whether any unused token balance is approaching its twelve-month window. If a duplicate charge appears, screenshot the invoice and contact support within seven days, since that is the typical refund window for valid billing complaints. Are you paying for a tier you actually use this quarter, or is it time to switch from subscription to token top-ups?