Why did my app uninstall itself, or coins drain from a stopped app?

Apps that run on your plan's included slots are free and never cost coins — on the Apps page they carry an INCLUDED badge. Anything beyond your slots runs on coins and shows a PAID badge; tap the badge to see its hourly and daily rate. Only PAID apps are involved here.

Stopping a paid app does not stop the charge. Billing counts the time an app is installed, not the time it's running — a stopped app costs exactly the same as a running one. (When you install a paid app you pay an upfront block covering its minimum billing hours, shown in the install preview; after that block it bills hourly until you uninstall it.) To actually stop the cost, uninstall it: Apps → My Apps → the app's card → Stop, then Uninstall — the Uninstall button only becomes clickable once the app is stopped. Choose Uninstall only to keep your config and data so you can reinstall later with your settings intact; Uninstall & delete config permanently erases them.

If your balance can't cover the next hourly charge, the app is automatically uninstalled — we take the final bill, remove it, and email you. Your config isn't deleted in this case, so reinstalling later brings your settings back. You're warned first: we email at roughly 3 days, 1 day and 2 hours of remaining runway, based on your balance against what all your paid apps burn per day. Apps on included slots are never auto-uninstalled for coins.

There's one case that catches people out. If your plan expires (dropping you to Free, which has 1 included slot and no performance slots) or you switch to a smaller plan, any apps beyond your new slot count don't stop — they quietly convert to coin-billed within the hour, newest-installed first, counted separately for basic and performance apps. There's no upfront charge, so the only sign is your balance draining. Because the warnings track your balance runway, a conversion that starts when you're already low can give you very little notice — the first email you get may be the 2-hour one, or the auto-uninstall notice itself. After a downgrade or expiry, check My Apps and uninstall down to your new slot count.

Note that coins can't be bought — you earn them from plan purchases, the daily check-in and referrals, so uninstalling is the reliable way to stop a drain you didn't intend. Your balance is always in the coin chip at the top of the dashboard. If you subscribed through the SonicBit mobile app, your slot count still comes from your plan, but Apple and Google own that subscription — change plans in the store, not here, or the change resets at your next renewal.

More on earning and spending in What are SonicCoins and how do I use them?. If an app disappeared and you don't think it should have, contact support and we'll check the billing log.