Should I even be charging for features that don't cost me anything?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Emu-168]

Hi! I was creating a new version of my app, total pivot to be focused on one thing. While doing it I had a lot of pull backs on whether I should be putting features as premium.

For context, my app is offline-first, you dont really need to use internet unless you want extra features, but even that is user controlled.
Backup? iCloud/Google Drive
AI Interactions? Apple Intelligence/User’s Gemini API Key

So there isn't really a meaningful cost to me per user, and I have a hard time charging people for something when I know they can already get it for free.

I ended up making everything free and it just got approved to the App Store today.
Did I make the right decision?

For now, the app is mainly gonna be used personally and by family members, so I'm not really concerned about making money from it. Of course it took a lot of time to build, but I don't really count that as a cost since ideally this is something I wanted to build for myself and my family anyway. It's a side project, not really work for me.
I'm mostly just happy that I finally got the thing out there.

But I'm still wondering what I should do if it actually gets users. At what point do you guys think it's reasonable to start charging? And what would you even charge for in this kind of app?
I'm thinking maybe a cloud service makes more sense since that's an actual ongoing cost, but I'm curious what other indie devs would do.

Did I make the right decision making everything free?

[u/Royal_Orchid5824]

What is your app