AI Without a Token Stack

In many apps, “free AI in German” means: a few sentences, then it’s time to pay. Tokens, packages—the voice fades away. In DeutschSprechen, the AI doesn’t require a balance. Four modes: Role, Photo, Debate, Situation. No tokens required in between. You hold down the button, speak, and let go. Pulling your finger away stops the recording. That’s the whole mechanism.

You can use your own API key—from Gemini or OpenAI—if you’d like. It stays on your device. If you use it, you pay the provider directly, not through an in-app surcharge. If you don’t have one, you can still practice the modes. That’s the sentence I’m no longer hiding in the fine print.

What the four modes are

Role: you’re a patient, a passenger, a new colleague. Five role changes, then it’s over. Photo: a picture you see and sentences about it—not a picture description for a grade. Debate: an opinion, a reason. Situation: that tight moment—at work, on the train, in the kitchen—where the sentence has to be short. Not all four in one evening. Just one. Five role changes. A topic from your day.

“No tokens” also means: no one counts your sentences or blocks the fifth one. You stop on your own because five are enough. If you do twenty role-switches, you’re practicing length, not the form.

What the Key Isn’t

No obligation. Not a “premium” under a different name. No points you have to collect beforehand for the button to respond. Points can open a video group or a meeting. The AI isn’t tied to that number. Anyone who mixes the two is looking for a lock that isn’t in front of the microphone.

The key doesn’t leave the device to end up in an app account. If you don’t understand it, leave it out. The mode runs anyway.

Then People or Cards

The AI is the warm-up, not the archive. The sentence that was in the role goes into the voice group, or it becomes a card with the example sentence you said. SRS retrieves it in three days. Otherwise, it was just a conversation with a machine that no one will repeat tomorrow. Not even you.

Five changes, two cards, done. In the morning, the widget shows the amount due, not a remaining balance. There isn’t one.

The Kılavuz: four modes and your own key. What “free” really means: no premium.

A Limit

Free AI German doesn’t get better just because you keep pressing the button. It becomes useful because the same sentence reaches a human the next day. Without tokens, no one will buy your excuse that your voice is hoarse. What’s left is your mouth. That’s more inconvenient than a package.

One Evening, Specifically

Topic from your shift, not from an “everyday life” list. Role: You’re explaining to a coworker why you’ll be late. Five exchanges. Hold, speak, let go. If the sentence gets too long in exchange three, make it shorter—not more polite. Then two cards: the verb that slipped in, and the one noun you were looking for. Example sentence is the same as the one from the role. I’ll swipe them tomorrow, when SRS brings them back. Today, just setting them up is enough.

I only enter my own API key if I know which provider is handling the billing. Otherwise, I leave the field blank. The four modes run without it. The dots at the top can open another room. They don’t open this button. Anyone who opens a sixth mode after the fifth switch collects conversations and forgets that one sentence. I write it down on the card before I close the app. Tomorrow morning, the widget will show whether it’s due. Usually not yet. In three days, though. Until then, don’t open the same mode again just because it works without a token. Taking a break is allowed.

DeutschSprechen skips the button without a stack. You say the sentence yourself. Five times. Then the card—not the sixth mode.