Every command that Mini offers can be used for free! However, there are daily and weekly limits for some commands that restrict how often you can run them. For example, you may generate up to 5 memes per day using /meme, up to a total of 20 memes per week. You can find the limits for each command on this website, they are indicated by a lock icon in the top right corner. Once you reach a command limit, Mini will let you know how long you need to wait before you can use that command again. The daily counter resets at midnight GMT, the weekly counter resets at that time every Monday.

Some game commands have separate limits for hosting and joining. Hosting refers to running the command — for example by typing /uno in a text channel, you are hosting a new game of UNO. Joining refers to joining existing games hosted by other people, so even if you cannot run the command yourself at that time, you still have the opportunity to participate in someone else's game.

Patreon Tier 1 allows you to run all commands an unlimited number of times. No restrictions apply to you anymore, and you can both host and join as many games as you like. However, restrictions still fully apply to other people, so you cannot play games against someone who has no more available game joins.

Patreon Tier 2 adds on top of the Tier 1 benefits by also lifting join restrictions for all players that want to participate in games you host, even if they have reached their personal game join limit.

Additionally, Tier 2 unlocks the ability to link Discord roles to Ranks that you've set up on your Scoreboard. You can read more about the benefits of using Mini's ranking system over other bots on the Scoreboard and Ranks & Roles pages. Roles are updated in near real time, even for inactive users who are falling off of the scoreboard and losing their old ranks.

Patreon Tier 3 is the most expensive, but also the most powerful tier available: as a Tier 3 Patron, you can lift command restrictions for everyone on servers you manage. For servers that you own, this process happens completely automatically. If you are a server administrator but not the owner, you can use /mini settings to apply your Patronage perks to that server.

For the first two and a half years that Mini has been public, all games and commands were available for free with no further restrictions, while I paid for hosting out of my own pocket. After running a command, Mini would sometimes post a small message asking for support. Even after Mini had been added to over 2,000 servers and hosting expenses had risen to a level I couldn't really justify for a hobby project anymore, nobody supported the bot on its Patreon page.

When migrating the bot from message-based commands to the new Slash Commands, I used the opportunity to completely rewrite Mini from scratch. I learned a lot since starting development on Mini in early 2017, and fixed the structural issues that made it increasingly difficult to work on Mini's old codebase. I also redesigned many of the old minigames with new interactions, thanks to Discord's addition of buttons and dropdowns to bot messages. This process took me over a month, working on it several hours per day. During that time, I realized that I was technically working for a negative wage — I was paying to develop a free service, and my time is worth more than that. I decided then that even though I still wanted the commands to be available for everyone, I had to put in some restrictions as an incentive to get compensation for my work, and also relieve some of the financial burden of keeping the bot online.