How minutes work: what costs what, and what is free

1. What is a minute?

One minute of live help during a real interview costs one minute of your balance: the meter runs for as long as the session runs. A practice session with the AI coach costs one minute of balance per minute — the same rate — charged when the session ends. Any part of a minute counts as a whole minute, so a session shorter than a minute still costs one. A practice session lasting 15 minutes costs 15 minutes of balance on its own — or 30 with the extension running.

2. Practicing with the extension on — the intended way

This is what practice is built for: install the extension, go straight to /practice, ask the coach for a hard technical interview, turn the extension on, and train answering hard questions while glancing at the hints — exactly as you will in the real call. When you do, both meters run: one minute per minute for the practice session and one minute per minute for the extension, so the minute costs double. Practice without the extension costs one minute per minute.

3. What starts and stops the meter in a real interview?

The meter starts when you turn the extension on for a call and it connects. From then on it counts one minute of balance for every minute the session runs, whether a hint is on screen at that second or not. It stops when you end the session. Reading transcripts, debriefs and My Stories costs nothing.

4. Only one practice session at a time

If a practice session is already running, starting a second one is refused. That is deliberate: it protects you from paying for two sessions at once.

5. What if a practice session ends abnormally?

Closed the tab, lost the connection, laptop went to sleep — you are charged only for the minutes the session actually ran, never twice for an interrupted one. The slot frees itself automatically; in the worst case that takes up to 18 minutes. A session you end normally frees it immediately.

6. What do I get for free?

Every account receives 40 free minutes. Free minutes have no monetary value, cannot be refunded or exchanged, and the amount may change. Purchased minutes never expire and are never reduced by us.

7. What happens when my balance runs out?

In a real interview you get a warning when about 5 minutes remain. If the balance still runs out, the session keeps going for about 5 more minutes and then ends with a message and a top-up link — it does not cut you off mid-sentence. A practice session you have already started always runs to its end. New sessions do not start at zero.

To top up, open your dashboard and pick a pack. Minutes are added right after the payment settles.

8. What if the AI coach never joins?

Nothing is charged. Minutes only accrue while a session is actually running; if the coach never arrives, there is no session and no charge.

9. Packs and where to buy

Minutes are sold in packs, in US dollars, in a single Stripe payment:

• 100 minutes — $10 ($0.10 per minute)
• 300 minutes — $27 ($0.09 per minute)
• 1,000 minutes — $80 ($0.08 per minute)

So the bigger the pack, the cheaper the minute — from $0.08. Packs are sold on your dashboard; the full price list is on the Pricing page.

10. How do refunds work?

Unused purchased minutes are refundable within 14 days of the purchase — write to hello@joblander.app. Minutes that have already been used are not refundable; minutes lost to a technical failure on our side are.

11. Why is JobLander no longer free?

The beta was free because Google Cloud credits covered the bill. Those credits are ending, and the project now has to pay for itself. Charging for actual usage — no subscriptions, no locked features — is the honest way to keep it running for everyone.