Why the Free Tier Doesn't Include Attachments or Premium Models
The same reasoning, applied to two different features
Attachments and the higher chat tiers (Intelligent, Expert, Super) are both excluded from the free tier, and both for the same underlying reason: they cost meaningfully more to provide than ordinary free-tier chat, and extending the free tier's no-cost allowance to them would make the free tier unsustainable for everyone, not more generous.
For the specific case of attachments, see why attachments aren't available on the free tier — this post focuses on the broader pattern, including the model tiers.
Why the model tiers specifically are gated
Free-tier chat is served by a model chosen to be genuinely useful for everyday conversation at a cost SoulrisAI can sustainably absorb for every free-tier user. The higher tiers — see understanding chat tiers — are more capable, and that capability comes at real additional cost per response. If free-tier accounts could reach those tiers, there would be no meaningful difference left between a free account and a funded one, and the economics that make the free tier possible at all would break down.
This is also why Auto routing is deliberately built so a free-tier account's requests can never resolve to a higher tier, however the message is phrased — it's not a soft preference, it's a hard boundary.
Why this isn't about giving free users a worse experience
The free tier isn't designed to feel deliberately limited or frustrating — it's designed around what SoulrisAI can sustainably give away at zero cost to the user: real, capable conversation, within reasonable bounds. Attachments and higher tiers aren't withheld to annoy free users into depositing; they're withheld because offering them for free isn't something the platform could actually sustain.
What changes the moment you deposit
As soon as your wallet has any balance, both restrictions lift together — attachments work immediately, and the higher tiers become available (either manually or through Auto routing). There's no separate payment or unlock step for each; funding your wallet at all is what flips both.
Is there a middle ground?
Not currently — there's no partial tier between free and funded. This keeps the system simple: an account is either on the free allowance, or it's a funded account spending from its wallet balance, with nothing in between to manage or explain.
If you're deciding whether it's worth depositing
See pay-per-use vs. subscription and what you can do on the free tier before depositing for the fuller picture of what you're weighing — a small deposit, not a recurring commitment, is what it takes to find out.