After every release, we pay close attention to the feedback you all share with us to identify the things that you've enjoyed, things you want more of, and ways that we can make your experience better. Based on the comments and feedback you’ve shared with us, the Saga release has been one of our most successful releases to date. We introduced some exciting new models for free and paid tiers that have been very popular and well-received.
One frequently heard request is to add the ability to use Credits to extend the context length for Deepseek. The short answer to that question is "not yet." But there's a longer answer to that question that we'd like to share with you. We’ve formalized some principles about when we’ll offer the option to use Credits to extend context and want to share them so you know what to expect for future models.
A Brief History of Credits for Context
The primary reason that we haven't had a clear answer for which models we will offer Credits for context is that this pattern and use case evolved organically over the last couple of years. Until now, we’d never formalized any of this into a clear strategy that we could communicate with you. Let's walk through a little bit of that history so you can see how we got to where we are today.
See Mode
GPT-4 Turbo—Our first “Ultra” model
Context Inspector and Doubling Context
Ultra fades into the Shadows
Credits vs Subscriptions
Our team deeply believes that AI Dungeon is best experienced with unlimited access to AI models. As an immersive experience, you shouldn't have to think about running out of AI actions or Credits. We want you to play without worrying about a limited resource.
Said differently, using Credits to extend context actually disincentivizes you to play.
We’ve moved away from limited play patterns several times. We used to have Energy, which had a cool-down period for using models, both free and premium. Then, we made Premium models unlimited so that subscribers could play without worrying about running out of actions. Then, we implemented ads on our free tier. Although ads were NOT well received, the one benefit they brought was that, for the first time, our free tier could have unlimited AI actions. Finally, we took ads away, bringing an unlimited experience to ALL players, free and subscribed alike.
Although we understand why using Credits for context is so appealing, in our view, it isn't the most ideal play pattern. We would much rather offer models in a way that players don't need to worry about running out of a limited resource.
Today’s Reality
Despite our preference towards unlimited play over Credit spending, there are two compelling reasons to continue to offer players the option to spend Credits to extend their context length:
- There continues to be a strong demand for it
- We don't currently have another use for Credits that the majority of players are excited about
Both of those facts will likely change over time. For example, we expect to introduce additional ways to use Credits at some point in the future. We also expect the demand for using Credits to extend context will decrease after the launch of Heroes because Heroes uses a different architecture with multiple AI calls. The idea of extending context with Credits isn't as relevant there, and we will likely have different patterns governing usage on Heroes.
However, today, these reasons are still very much true for AI Dungeon, so we want to continue to offer Credits for context to players.
Our New Formal Strategy
Here are the principles that we will use to determine which models we will enable Credit spending to extend context:
- (New) Players using Dynamic Large will be able to use Credits to extend context. This includes our Adventure tier, which hasn’t been able to take advantage of this benefit before.
- (Continue) Players will be able to use Credits for any current models that offer it. No changes are being made to current models.
- (Continue) Players will be able to use Credits to extend context for high-cost models based on demand, availability, and feasibility.
- (Change) For future models, Credits will ONLY be used to extend context. We will no longer offer the option for Credit-only actions.
- (Change) We will only offer Credits to extend context once we’ve verified that providers are able to handle production traffic with calls at high contexts. This means we may initially release models without the Credit option, but open them up later once we have more confidence in our ability to support them.
Deepseek
As we stated earlier, we will not be offering Credits for context with Deepseek yet.
Candidly, things have been a little bumpy with Deepseek. Deepseek offers some of the highest context limits we’ve ever had on AI Dungeon, and our Shadow tier members have been putting that context to good use. It hasn’t all been rainbows and sunshine. We’ve discovered we need to make some improvements to our systems to better handle this high-context traffic.
Once those changes are complete, if the load on our systems is acceptable, we will consider offering Credits for context on Deepseek.
Constant Change
We appreciate all of you who asked questions about Deepseek and other models that you would like to use Credits for. The AI industry is evolving so quickly, and we're trying to figure things out along the way.
Each year, the AI model landscape has impacted which models we offer, how we offer them, and what players expect. Two years ago, we had one free model and two premium models. Adventurers got 1k of context, Champions (called Hero at the time) got 2k, and Legend got a “whopping” 4k. Mythic and Shadow tiers didn’t exist. A lot has changed in a short time; you now get to enjoy an abundance of great models at higher context lengths.
Our goal is to remain attentive to your feedback and adjust to make sure that we are giving you the most value. We hope these adjustments will help you have an even better AI Dungeon experience.