Question 1

What is Pocket Code?

Accepted Answer

Pocket Code is a professional Android IDE that bundles into a single app: LSP editor, native Linux terminal + SSH, database manager with embedded PostgreSQL, API tester, visual designer, extension marketplace, multi-provider AI assistant, multi-agent team (AI Office), workflow engine and Backend Manager for deploy/monitoring/BaaS. All from the phone, no laptop needed.

Question 2

Who is it for?

Accepted Answer

Devs who want to code, debug or deploy from their phone: when you're travelling with just a tablet, on the metro and want to look at a production error, helping a colleague without reaching the laptop, or learning to code without owning a computer. Also sysadmins/SRE who need SSH + DB + observability from anywhere.

Question 3

Is it really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Free plan doesn't expire and brings the complete IDE: LSP editor for 8 languages (+25 highlighted, 33 total), Linux terminal, embedded PostgreSQL, full API Tester, AI assistant with your Gemini account (BYOK), 5 projects, 8 workflow templates and Marketplace browse. Pro ($6.99/mo) lifts quotas and unlocks premium AI providers, scheduling, sync and collaboration.

Question 4

Which devices does it work on?

Accepted Answer

Android smartphones and tablets running 9.0 (Pie) or higher, arm64-v8a or armeabi-v7a architecture. 3 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB recommended. Storage: ~250 MB download, ~500 MB installed. Works on foldables and Android Chromebooks (Chromebook desktop mode is especially nice).

Question 5

What development stage are you in?

Accepted Answer

Closed beta preparing the stable launch on Google Play. What you see in /docs and /roadmap reflects the real state of the code — no marketing fluff. If you want in, register at /preregister and you'll be among the first to receive the build when it ships.

Question 6

How much does Pro cost?

Accepted Answer

$6.99/month on a monthly subscription managed by Google Play. No annual commitment, cancel anytime from Google Play → Payments & subscriptions. The Free plan is complete and never expires.

Question 7

Is there a Pro free trial?

Accepted Answer

The Free plan is already a complete product (editor, terminal, AI with your Gemini account, local DB, etc.), so it effectively works as an unlimited-time trial. Pro unlocks quotas and additional providers — not hidden basic functionality.

Question 8

How do I cancel Pro?

Accepted Answer

From Google Play → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Pocket Code → Cancel subscription. You keep Pro access until the end of the billing period. No need to contact support or give a reason.

Question 9

Refund policy?

Accepted Answer

Google Play's standard policy applies: full refund within 48 hours of purchase; after that, prorated at Google's discretion. If you think you have a case, email support first and we'll see how we can help beyond the Google flow.

Question 10

Which payment methods are accepted?

Accepted Answer

Whatever your Google Play account supports: credit/debit card, Google Play balance, PayPal (where Google supports it), carrier billing. Pocket Code does not process cards directly — Google handles every transaction.

Question 11

Discounts for students, open source or NGOs?

Accepted Answer

No formal program yet because we're coming out of beta. If you fit one of those profiles, email support and we'll work something out case-by-case while we set it up.

Question 12

Which AI providers are supported?

Accepted Answer

Four main providers: Google Gemini (Free with your own account), OpenAI / Codex (Pro), Anthropic Claude (Pro), GitHub Copilot (Pro). Copilot in turn acts as a bridge to 13+ multi-vendor models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Llama 4, Mistral, DeepSeek) without needing extra tokens.

Question 13

What is BYOK and why does Pocket Code use it?

Accepted Answer

BYOK = Bring Your Own Key. You generate a token or OAuth-login with your own provider account (Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, Copilot) and Pocket Code uses it to call directly from your phone to the provider. Pocket Code never acts as a proxy or resells AI capacity — usage is billed by the provider to you under their policy. That's why Pro doesn't include "AI credits".

Question 14

Who bills me for AI usage?

Accepted Answer

The provider directly. When you configure your OpenAI API key, consumed tokens show up in your OpenAI account. Same with Anthropic, Google and GitHub. Pocket Code has no visibility of your usage nor adds margin — we're the app that lets you use your account from your phone.

Question 15

Why is Gemini Free and the others Pro?

Accepted Answer

Because Google offers a generous free tier at the user-account level (15 req/min, 1,500 req/day on Google AI Studio). That means with Pocket Code Free + your Google account you can use real AI without paying anyone. The other providers don't have an equivalent free tier, so their access sits behind the Pro gate.

Question 16

Do I need manual tokens or is there OAuth?

Accepted Answer

Both. You can paste manual tokens in Settings → Integrations, or OAuth-login with the official CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI) that ship bundled. OAuth includes automatic refresh — you don't have to renew anything manually.

Question 17

What is AI Office?

Accepted Answer

A team of 8 specialised agents (PM, Architect, Frontend Dev, Backend Dev, QA, DevOps, Tech Writer, Data Engineer) that work in coordination on your brief following 9 different workflows (feature delivery, bug-fix, refactor, performance, security review, docs, release, SPARC, auto). They have 10 tools (terminal, file, db, http, ssh, git…) and keep persistent memory across sessions.

Question 18

Can the AI assistant run commands?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in agent mode, but only the tools you explicitly enable. Defaults to read-only. Each tool (terminal, file writes, DB query, etc.) has granular permission per provider and per model. Commands go through injection sanitisation and are sandboxed to the project directory.

Question 19

Which exact models are available?

Accepted Answer

Gemini: 2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash, 2.0 Flash, Flash Lite. OpenAI: GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4o Mini, o3-mini. Claude: Sonnet 4, Opus 4, 3.5 Sonnet, 3.5 Haiku. Copilot: 13 multi-vendor models with a catalogue managed by GitHub (changes from time to time).

Question 20

Where are my API keys and credentials stored?

Accepted Answer

Encrypted on-device using Android Keystore. The encryption key is tied to the phone's lock screen — without unlocking the phone there's no key. Pocket Code never stores credentials on our servers because we don't run servers that process them.

Question 21

Do you use my code to train models?

Accepted Answer

No. Your code, prompts, files, queries, schemas and project metadata are never used to train our own or third-party models, nor anonymised. Every AI interaction goes directly from your phone to the provider you pick and is governed by that provider's privacy policy — it never passes through our systems.

Question 22

What information leaves my phone?

Accepted Answer

Much less than you might think. What leaves: AI requests (to your provider), deploy/BaaS/monitoring calls (to Vercel/Sentry/etc.), SSH and remote DBs (to the server), Firebase with your consent (auth, anonymous analytics, crashes), RevenueCat (subscription state, no payment data) and cloud sync if you enable it (Pro). Your source code, prompts and credentials in clear NEVER leave the phone.

Question 23

When does it ask for fingerprint, face or PIN?

Accepted Answer

On sensitive actions: opening the Integrations panel where all tokens sit in clear, running DELETE/DROP/TRUNCATE on a database, opening connections marked as production, and viewing masked columns (email/password/token/secret) in clear. This closes physical attacks: even if someone has your unlocked phone, they can't extract credentials without your fingerprint.

Question 24

What if I lose my phone?

Accepted Answer

Your credentials are not recoverable — by design. If you lose the phone, you lose local access; with Cloud Sync (Pro) you recover projects and settings but NOT the encrypted tokens (those you regenerate with each provider). We also recommend revoking the Pocket Code session from your web account if you have another device handy.

Question 25

I found a vulnerability. Where do I report it?

Accepted Answer

Email support and we respond within 48 business hours. No formal bug bounty program yet (launches after stable release), but we publicly credit responsible reports with your consent. You can also check /.well-known/security.txt.

Question 26

What languages does the editor support?

Accepted Answer

Full LSP (semantic autocomplete, diagnostics, go-to-definition) for 8 languages: TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, Bash. Syntax highlighting and templates for 25+ more: Kotlin, Java, Go, Rust, C, C++, C#, PHP, Ruby, SQL, Dart, Swift, Scala, R, Lua, Markdown, XML, Shell, PowerShell, Gradle, TOML, INI, Dockerfile, Perl, Zig… 33 languages total. In the Linux terminal you can install additional runtimes via npm/pip/cargo.

Question 27

How does the Linux terminal work?

Accepted Answer

A real PTY terminal with Busybox (ash shell and Unix utilities), Node.js bundled (no install) and Python available via WASM. Plus a complete SSH client with key or password auth, SFTP, port forwarding (local/remote/SOCKS5), split and multi-session. Free: 1 saved SSH host, 1 simultaneous session. Pro: unlimited.

Question 28

Is there really a real PostgreSQL on the phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Pocket Code ships the real PostgreSQL 18.2 binaries compiled from the Termux package for arm64-v8a and armeabi-v7a. On first use they're extracted to the app's storage and boot via Unix socket with a pre-built PGDATA (no waiting for the typical 10-min mobile initdb). Free: 1 local database. Pro: unlimited.

Question 29

Which remote databases can I connect?

Accepted Answer

9 active engines total: SQLite/Room (local), embedded PostgreSQL (local), Neon (serverless Postgres), Supabase (managed Postgres), PlanetScale (MySQL), MongoDB Atlas, Turso (distributed SQLite), Upstash (Redis), Firestore. Free: 1 remote connection. Pro: unlimited.

Question 30

Which clouds can I deploy to?

Accepted Answer

Backend Manager handles 7 hosts: Vercel, Render, Netlify, Railway, Fly.io, Cloudflare Pages, DigitalOcean. Each exposes different capabilities based on its API (full matrix in /docs/deploy). Plus 4 BaaS (Firebase, Appwrite, Convex, Supabase) and 2 observability (Sentry, PostHog).

Question 31

What are workflows for?

Accepted Answer

Event-driven task automation: "when you push to main, deploy and notify", "when you save a .ts file, run prettier", "when a deploy fails, send to Sentry". They have 10 triggers, 8 actions, control flow (conditional, loop, parallel, try/catch), variables shared across steps, retry/timeout and cron scheduling. Free: manual run + 8 templates. Pro: automated triggers and scheduling.

Question 32

What's the minimum Android version?

Accepted Answer

Android 9.0 (Pie, API 28) or higher. Covers ~97% of active devices in 2026. The app would technically run on earlier versions, but we cut here to use modern security, encryption and storage APIs without compromise.

Question 33

How much RAM do I need?

Accepted Answer

3 GB minimum, 4 GB recommended. The app starts editor + terminal + Node.js servers (Codex, Claude, Copilot LSP) + WASM runtimes + Compose UI simultaneously. With 2 GB you'll notice process churn. With 4 GB+ it's smooth even with several modules open.

Question 34

How much space does it take installed?

Accepted Answer

Download: ~250 MB. Installed: ~500 MB after extracting native binaries (PostgreSQL, Node.js, runtimes) to the app's directory. Your work (projects, DBs, snippets) sits on top of that.

Question 35

What works without internet?

Accepted Answer

The important stuff: LSP editor, local Linux terminal, embedded PostgreSQL and SQLite, visual designer, Git on local repos, manual-run workflows, already-downloaded marketplace, snippets, settings. For AI, cloud deploy, SSH, marketplace download, sync, observability and Git push/pull you need a connection.

Question 36

Does Pocket Code collect data when I'm offline?

Accepted Answer

Nothing is sent while offline (no telemetry, no analytics, no crashes). When you come back online, Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics may sync locally-collected data DURING the offline window (only if you consented previously). You can review and disable it from Settings → Privacy.

Question 37

How do I create an account?

Accepted Answer

Email + password, Google Sign-In or GitHub OAuth. The account is optional — you can use Pocket Code without one and everything stays local. You only need an account for Pro subscription (via RevenueCat + Google Play) and cloud sync.

Question 38

Can I use Pro on multiple devices?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Google Play subscription is tied to your Google account and works on every device where you're signed in. Cloud Sync (Pro) replicates projects, settings, snippets and themes between devices. API keys are NOT synced for security — you configure them on each phone.

Question 39

Can I export my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Projects: zip from the file explorer. Snippets, settings, keybindings: JSON export from Settings. Local DB: SQL dump / pg_dump / CSV / binary backup. Query history: JSON export from the SQL console. Workflows: JSON export. No vendor lock-in.

Question 40

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

From /account/delete or in-app at Settings → Account → Delete account. Deletion is permanent and removes: account data (Firebase Auth), subscription state (RevenueCat), synced data (projects, settings) and push tokens. Local data on the phone is NOT automatically deleted — uninstall the app if you want that gone too.

Question 41

How does Cloud Sync work?

Accepted Answer

Replicates via Firebase your projects, settings, snippets, themes and workflow definitions across devices. Pull-on-startup, push-on-change. Does NOT sync: encrypted tokens (security), workflow run history (would be verbose), schedules (device-specific). Opt-in and Pro-only.

Question 42

I found a bug. How do I report it?

Accepted Answer

From the app: Settings → Help → Report bug — automatically attaches anonymised logs and device diagnostics. Email: support. If it's blocking in production, mark "Urgent" in the subject and we respond within 24h.

Question 43

I want to request a new feature.

Accepted Answer

Glad to hear it. Email support with the use case (what you're trying to do, not what solution you imagine). Feedback with real use cases moves /roadmap much more than generic requests. Features requested by Pro subscribers get default priority.

Question 44

Which languages is the app in?

Accepted Answer

Spanish, English and Portuguese (1:1 string parity in each locale). We're adding more as demand requires — email us if you want to help translate.

Question 45

Is there a Discord or forum?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we open the official community when we ship stable on Google Play. Until then, direct email support and in-app bug reports.

Ask anything.
We answer in detail.

General

Pricing & billing

AI & BYOK

Security & privacy

Features & modules

Offline & requirements

Account & sync

Support

Didn't find your answer?

Ask anything.We answer in detail.