An honest story: Storytale has become a hobby project we pay for ourselves. Servers, domain names, AI credits — not large amounts, but they add up.
How much?
At the time of writing: roughly €25 a month for the Helsinki server, €5–10 for AI credits, plus some smaller costs for backups and domain registrations. With growth this will increase.
We're happy to carry these costs ourselves — Storytale is a passion project, not a business. But it only works as long as the user base stays small. If 1,000 people a day start playing, AI costs quickly run into hundreds of euros per month. Then we'll have to make choices.
An open invitation
Do you enjoy Storytale and want to make sure it stays accessible for everyone — without ads, without mandatory subscriptions? Then consider donating once or regularly:
- One-off: "I enjoyed it, here's €5 for the servers"
- Recurring: "I want this to keep existing, here's €2 a month"
No pressure. No popup banner to dismiss. No "premium features" hidden behind a paywall. Everything stays free. We rely on the people who find it valuable.
The donate button is coming
At the time of writing we're working on the payment integration. In the next release you'll see an unobtrusive "donate" link in the footer. One button, no banner.