Setup is four screens. No account, no email, no sign in.
Apple’s own app picker opens and you tap the apps that eat your time. Your picks never leave your phone. Apple does not even tell Tollgate which apps you chose, only how many. The free tier guards one app, Pro covers the rest.
How long should one scroll session last before the gate comes down? Options run from 5 to 30 minutes. 10 minutes is the recommended default, long enough to check what you came for, short enough to catch you today instead of next week. You can change it any time in Settings.
What is worth knowing? General knowledge and Math are free. Biology, History, Geography, and Tech & CS come with Pro. Your first questions are downloaded and cached before the gate can ever fire, so the toll works offline from day one.
One iOS permission, Screen Time access, is the whole job. Here is exactly why Tollgate asks and what it can and cannot see. Tollgate also asks for notifications, which is how the shield hands you back to the question. That one matters more than it looks.
Approve it and you are done. The guard is active. Go scroll, we’ll be there.