FAQ

#General

#Why should I use SootSim?

Native simulators are slow, expensive, and awkward to automate. SootSim gives you React Native and iOS-style runtime behavior in the browser, with a CLI and agent-friendly bridge that can inspect, act, record, and upload previews without booting Xcode or Android Studio.

It’s much faster to start and run tests, the CLI gives much richer information for humans and agents, it runs anywhere including low-resource devices, and it has a bunch of cloud features for sharing, demoing, and tracking your app.

#Is it open source?

Not yet. We hope to open source the engine before the end of the year.

#Billing

#What plans exist?

Free, Carbon, Carbon+, and Enterprise/contact. Free covers local simulator use. Carbon unlocks cloud shares, CI uploads, desktop recording, shared account workflows, and automatic PR preview flows. Carbon+ adds a larger included allowance and 365-day preview history. Enterprise is for larger teams that need contract terms, SSO, support, or custom limits.

#How does usage-based billing work?

Carbon and Carbon+ have unlimited seats. Carbon includes $5 of usage per month and Carbon+ includes $25, shared across SootBean and SootSim. Builds and cloud share uploads cost $0.10. Walkthroughs and AI previews cost $0.20. Test suites cost $0.15 per 20-minute runtime block. Paid accounts can add prepaid balance when included usage runs out. If the account has no available balance or hits a spending cap, billable actions reject until billing is updated.

#Is there a monthly share quota?

No. Paid plans do not include a separate “shares per month” allowance. The monthly usage view can show how many uploads happened this period, but the billing gate is account balance and spending caps.

#What payment methods do you accept?

Everything Stripe handles: major cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe Link. All checkouts and invoices run through Stripe; we never see or store card data.

#What currency is everything priced in?

USD. Stripe handles foreign-currency conversion at checkout time.

#Do prices include tax / VAT?

Stripe Tax calculates the correct tax for your billing address at checkout. Your invoice shows the breakdown. If your org is tax-exempt, add the exemption in the Stripe Customer Portal.

#Accounts

#How do shared accounts work?

Paid plans can be attached to a personal account or shared account. Shared accounts own their repos, API keys, cloud previews, usage ledger, and billing settings. GitHub org linking is an integration for repo access and CI identity; it is not a separate plan.

#Can one user belong to more than one account?

Yes. Billing and usage are account-scoped, so a user can work in multiple accounts and charge cloud actions to the account that owns the repo or API key.

#Where do I manage billing?

Open Billing from SootSim or SootBean. Billing managers can view usage, update caps, manage payment status, and open the Stripe portal.

#Usage And Retention

#Where do I see current usage?

Open the Billing & Usage dialog. You’ll see this period’s preview uploads, account usage, retained preview count, and cap state. Historical invoices live in Stripe.

#What happens when I hit a spending cap?

Metered actions reject until the cap is raised or the next billing period opens up budget. The cap protects the account; it is not a monthly share quota.

#What happens to my previews if I cancel?

Cloud upload access ends when the paid entitlement ends. Existing previews are still subject to the retention policy recorded for the account and may expire or be deactivated if the account exceeds retained-preview limits.

#CI And API Keys

#How do API keys bill usage?

API keys are account-scoped. Uploads made with a key charge SootSim usage to the account that owns that key.

#Do CI uploads count?

Yes. Any cloud upload, whether from desktop, local CLI, or CI, records one SootSim build/share usage entry on the owning account.

#Can I have multiple keys?

Yes. Create one per environment, such as main-ci, preview-pipeline, or local-laptop, and revoke them independently.

#AI And Models

#Which AI provider do you use?

Automatic PR preview flows use the model configured for the account/flow. The default is tuned for fast PR-diff-driven work; harder flows can opt into larger models.

#Do you train models on my code or prompts?

No. We do not use your code, prompts, uploaded content, or preview data to train models.

#Cancel, Downgrade, Refunds

#How do I cancel?

Open the Stripe Customer Portal from Billing and cancel the subscription. Access continues until the end of the current billing period.

#Do you offer refunds?

No pro-rata refunds for normal partial-period use. If something has gone wrong, such as a double charge or mistaken upgrade, email [email protected] and we’ll sort it out.