99 euro a year, VAT included, is about 27 cents a day. Paid by the month instead it is 14 euro, which is 168 euro over twelve months, so the yearly plan is 99 against 168 for the same thing. Whether 27 cents a day is worth it depends entirely on what the 27 cents buys, so the rest of this page is the list, and then the list of what it does not buy.
The arithmetic
99 euro divided over a year is about 27 cents a day, and that is the figure to hold on to, because it is the unit the thing is actually used in. You do not use a subscription once a year. You use it on a Monday evening, for as long as the conversation lasts.
99 euro against 14 euro a month is 99 against 168 over twelve months. That is the whole comparison between the two plans, and it is the only reason to pick one over the other, because the product behind them is identical. The monthly plan costs more over a year and commits you to less; if you are not sure you will still be using it in the spring, that is a fair reason to pay it.
The third number people usually mean when they ask is what an hour with a person costs. A tutor is usually paid by the lesson or the hour, at a price each tutor sets, and those prices vary widely, so there is no single figure to set beside 99 euro. The comparison is about shape rather than amount: a year here is a flat price for as much conversation as your days hold, and a tutor is a price per hour for something a companion cannot do, which is explain like a person. They are different goods, priced differently because they are different goods, and many people use both.
What is in it
A reply to every message. There is no message count to watch and no minute budget, so a long evening costs the same as a short one; on a very long day replies simply come more slowly.
Voice notes both ways. You can talk instead of typing, and the companion talks back.
Every companion in every language, including the ones added later. One subscription covers all of them, so a second companion, or a second language, is not a second bill.
Corrections inside the reply. At most two patterns a week are raised, because what a companion looks for in a message is the pattern and not the typo, and they are raised the way a friend would rephrase what you said rather than as a list at the end.
A letter and a PDF every Sunday, one for each language: the days you talked, the minutes, the new words, the words that came back, your sentence length, your level, and the two patterns to work on.
A companion who can write first, only in a chat you have already written in and never inside your quiet hours. A new conversation from one companion starts at most once a day and four times a week; beyond that, a companion may write to wish you luck with something you mentioned was coming, or to ask afterwards how it went, and the weekly letter comes on Sunday, or on Monday if Sunday was missed.
Pause for two or four weeks, or cancel, from one screen. No email to write, no call to make, no retention conversation with anybody.
What is not in it
No course to work through. Nothing arrives in a fixed order, nothing is unlocked, and if you want a structured path from A2 to B2 this does not contain one.
No beginner path. Roughly A2 and up, which means you can already hold a simple conversation. Complete beginners: not yet.
No grammar reference and no exam preparation. Everyday conversation is what a companion does, so a companion is a poor place to look up the subjunctive and a worse place to prepare for a certificate.
A companion who is sometimes wrong. That is stated plainly in the terms, and it should be: treat a correction as a suggestion and ask about anything that looks odd.
No teacher on the other end. A companion is AI and says so, so nobody can be held to a teacher's standard, and nobody is disappointed in you.
No refund of the current period. Cancelling stops the next charge, and the period you have already paid for runs out rather than coming back.
A page that lists only the first half of that is a page you should not trust with 99 euro, so both halves are here.
Who it is worth it for, and who not
It is likely to be worth it if you can already get by in simple conversation, you have the explanations from somewhere (a course, a tutor, school), and what you lack is somebody to use them with on an ordinary weekday. It is also worth a look if you are learning more than one language, since the price does not change.
It is probably not worth it if you are starting from nothing, if you need a certificate by a date, or if what you want is a person. In each of those cases, pick the other thing: a course, an exam preparation book, a tutor.
The free week
The reason this question does not have to be answered on faith: every account gets seven days free, once, starting from your first message. No card is needed to begin, and nothing is charged when it ends.
Seven days is enough to find out the two things that actually decide it. The first is whether you answer when the companion writes, or whether the message sits there until Thursday. The second is what the letter says on Sunday, because the letter is the part nobody can describe to you convincingly and most people recognise as soon as they read their own. After a week, look at the 27 cents again with the letter in front of you.
