Is PandaLive free? The plain answer

PandaLive is free to start. You can open it, come in as a guest and begin matching without paying or adding a card. New users get some free matches, rewards pop up while you're on the site with more to collect, and once those are used, matches and extras run on coins.

That is the whole policy in one paragraph. What people actually want to know is narrower: which buttons cost something, at what point a conversation moves from free to paid, and what a live room charges for. The table further down follows a first evening on PandaLive from the moment you arrive to the first top-up window.

A new account, including a guest one, starts with free matches on the match screen. Pick Video, Audio or Text, press Start random chat, and the first matches are on the house. We do not print a number here because it can change, and the match screen is the place that shows what you have.

Nothing needs unlocking first. You do not have to fill in a profile, confirm an email or link a card before those free matches work. Starting as a guest is explained on the PandaLive login page, along with when an account starts to make sense.

Every so often a reward appears on screen with more to collect, usually while you are using the site rather than on a schedule you can plan around. Tap it and claim what it offers; that stretches the free part a little further.

They arrive when they arrive, so they are a pleasant extra rather than something to plan a long conversation around. If you close one by accident, nothing is lost beyond that one offer.

Coins are the site currency, bought in the wallet. Once your free matches are gone, matching uses coins, and so do gifts, the wish card, the wheel and VIP. A match call has its own short free stretch and then moves to coins by duration; the step-by-step tour of PandaLive shows where the countdown and the billing note appear on screen.

Inside a room, the priced things are the ones along the edges of the screen: the quick gift bar at the bottom, the full gift box, the wish card on the right and the wheel at the top. Each of those carries a coin amount on it, so you can see what a rose or a coffee costs before you choose one.

The big Start Video Chat button under the stream is a different thing. It asks the person on stream for a private call, and that call follows the same rules as any other call on the site rather than the gift prices. What the room itself is like, from the chat to the viewer list, is covered on the Panda Live streams page.

We have not listed whether watching a room or sending a message uses coins, because that is set on the site side and can change.

Use your free matches when you have time to talk, not while you are half watching TV. Skip quickly if a match is clearly not for you, claim rewards when they pop up, and keep a free match for a moment when you actually feel like talking rather than spending it out of boredom.

Deciding on the mode before you press start also helps you enjoy the match you get. Text and voice suit nights when you do not want to be on camera; video suits nights when you do. And if you meet someone you like, follow them, so the next conversation does not depend on chance.

The catch is the one most chat services have: free gets you started, coins keep the longer conversations going. PandaLive does not ask for a card to start, gifts and extras are labelled with their cost.

If you are unsure whether a site like this is worth trusting with any money at all, our look at whether PandaLive is safe covers that question on its own page.

When your free matches and rewards are used up and you try something that costs coins, a top-up window offers coin packs. What happens when a call runs low is shown in the tour linked above.

Coin packs, gifts and VIP each get a fuller explanation on PandaLive coins, gifts and VIP, which is the place to look before your first purchase.