Costs and budget

SayOVA itself is a one-time purchase. Talking is billed by your provider, with your own key, for what you actually use — and SayOVA shows you exactly what that is, so there are no surprises.

What a conversation costs

Provider	Model in SayOVA	Approximate cost
Google	Fast (gemini-3.8-live)	1–2 ¢ per minute
Google	Thorough (gemini-3.8-live-extended-thinking)	1–2 ¢ per minute, plus about ½ ¢ of thinking for a hard question
OpenAI	Fast (gpt-realtime-2.1-mini)	2–5 ¢ per minute
OpenAI	Best (gpt-realtime-2.1)	6–11 ¢ per minute

A typical question with a short answer costs well under a cent with Gemini. Longer conversations cost a little more per minute, because the model hears the whole conversation so far with every answer. Listening to a voice sample costs less than 1 ¢, once per voice.

During a conversation

With Settings → Show cost on (the default), the running cost appears under the orb next to the time: 1:24 · ~2 ¢ · Wi-Fi. The history shows each conversation's cost too.

Usage statistics

Open them with a tap on the line under the orb on the home screen, or under Settings → Usage & costs:

• This month — cost, talk time and number of conversations, and with a budget, how much of it is used.
• The last two weeks — talk time per day as a chart.
• Earlier months — each month's cost and talk time.
• All time — everything together, with the average per conversation and per minute.

The statistics are kept on the watch apart from the history: they stay complete when the history is short or switched off, and contain nothing of what was said — only dates, time and cost.

Note: all amounts are estimates from the usage your provider reports and its published prices, in US dollars. Your provider's bill is what counts — check it at Google AI Studio or the OpenAI platform.

The monthly budget

Set one under Settings → Monthly budget: off, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 or $50. Then:

When	What happens
From 80%	The home screen shows the month's cost against the budget in amber, the statistics show a bar, and a short note appears if you cross the mark during a conversation.
Save near the limit on	From 80% on, SayOVA talks with the cheaper Fast model (shown as Near the budget · Fast).
Budget reached	The line turns coral. Before every new conversation SayOVA asks: "$5.02 of $5 spent this month. Talk anyway?" — a running conversation carries on.

The budget starts again on the first of every month. It is a reminder, not a hard stop — for a hard limit, set one at your provider as well (API keys).

On the watch face

SayOVA's complication can show the month's cost against your budget as a ring or bar, in the watch-face slots that show a value.