---
title: "Pay per minute or paid bookings? How to price your time | PaidChatPlatform"
url: https://paidchatplatform.com/blog/pay-per-minute-vs-paid-bookings/
language: en
publisher: Premiums Only LLC (the company behind hello.fan)
---

# Pay per minute or paid bookings? How to price your time

Pricing By the PaidChatPlatform team September 30, 2026 7 min read

The question every creator asks first: "how much should I charge?" The better first question is "how should fans pay?" — because per-minute calls and booked sessions solve different problems.

## Per minute: the easiest yes

Per-minute pricing lets a fan try you for three minutes without committing to an hour. It is perfect for quick questions, a hello from a fan, a song request, a language check-in, or a "can you look at this?" moment.

On hello.fan, per-minute calls are billed in **15-second steps**, and the clock only starts once both of you are connected — the creator's microphone (and camera for video) has to be on. Fans never pay for a ringing phone, and you never argue about rounding.

## Bookings: commitment and planning

Booked sessions are better for anything that needs preparation: a 45-minute lesson, a coaching session, a portfolio review. The fan pays up front, the slot is reserved, and both of you show up ready. On hello.fan a fan who cancels at least 24 hours ahead is refunded; if you cancel or don't show up, the fan is refunded automatically.

For tutors and coaches, **weekly sessions** go one step further: a fan picks the same times every week and each session is booked and paid automatically.

## Use both

The best setup is not either–or. Keep per-minute calls on for the moments you're online, and offer one or two bookable sessions for planned work. Fans who started with a five-minute call become your weekly students.

## Setting your first rates

- **Start with chat cheaper than voice, and voice cheaper than video.** Video asks the most of you.

- **Think in ten-minute calls.** What should a ten-minute video call cost a fan? Divide by ten.

- **Price bookings a little above the per-minute equivalent.** You're reserving the time and preparing.

- **Raise prices when your hours fill.** Demand is the signal.

On hello.fan, rates are set in credits (100 credits = $1) between 50 and 5,000 credits a minute, and while you type a price the app shows what it is worth in dollars and what you keep.

## An example

|Format |Fan pays |You keep (60%) |

|Video, 300 credits/min × 12 minutes |$36 |$21.60 |

|Voice, 200 credits/min × 20 minutes |$40 |$24 |

|Chat, 100 credits/min × 15 minutes |$15 |$9 |

|Booked 45-minute lesson at 4,500 credits |$45 |$27 |

Try your own numbers in the [earnings calculator](https://paidchatplatform.com/earnings-calculator/).

## Keep reading

[Pricing · 7 min read
### How to price your first paid call (with examples by niche)
A simple method to set your first per-minute rate and booked-session price, with worked examples for tutors, coaches, musicians, experts and creators.](https://paidchatplatform.com/blog/how-to-price-your-first-paid-call/)[Feature · 5 min read
### Talk to fans in 30 languages: live translated subtitles explained
How live translated subtitles and in-call chat translation let a creator and a fan who don't share a language have a real conversation.](https://paidchatplatform.com/blog/talk-to-fans-in-any-language/)[Comparison · 9 min read
### The best paid video call platforms for creators (2026)
We compare the main ways to sell video calls and conversations — live per-minute calls, booked sessions, recorded videos and memberships.](https://paidchatplatform.com/best-paid-chat-platforms/)

## Get paid to talk — starting today
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