Question 1

What is OKTAN?

Accepted Answer

OKTAN keeps your car's whole story in one place — every service, fill-up, modification and document — and turns it into proof you can show. The record is called your Sijil. As you keep the car right and log what you do, your OKTAN Score climbs, and when you come to sell, the Sijil is what tells the buyer the car was cared for.

Question 2

Who is OKTAN for?

Accepted Answer

Anyone who owns a car or a motorcycle and wants its upkeep recorded properly — whether you're an enthusiast tracking a build, or you simply want the car done right and worth more when you sell it.

Question 3

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. OKTAN creates a lightweight account with your email and a password so your record is safe, syncs to your devices and survives a reinstall. There is no verification step blocking you before you get value — you go straight from signing up into adding your car.

Question 4

Can I sign in with Apple or Google?

Accepted Answer

Not at the moment. Sign-in is email and password. If you forget your password, use Forgot password on the login screen to get a reset link.

Question 5

How long does setting up take?

Accepted Answer

Under two minutes. You choose your language, create the account, and add your car — and you land on a populated home screen even if you have no history to enter yet.

Question 6

Do I need my car's service history to start?

Accepted Answer

No. A used car with no records still lands on a working home screen. You add history as you go, and you can bulk-import old receipts later (see “How do I import old receipts?”).

Question 7

What are the four tabs at the bottom?

Accepted Answer

Garage (your car's overview), Sijil (the full timeline of everything logged), Usta (the assistant), and Profile (your account and settings). The raised circle in the middle is the quick-log button — it isn't a tab, it opens the log chooser from wherever you are.

Question 8

Which devices does OKTAN run on?

Accepted Answer

OKTAN is a mobile app for iPhone and Android. There is no web app yet.

Question 9

What can I add — cars only?

Accepted Answer

Cars and motorcycles. A motorcycle is identified by its chassis number instead of a VIN (an engine number is optional), and it gets motorcycle-specific service categories and factory intervals — chain and sprockets, valve clearance, fork oil and so on.

Question 10

Do I have to enter a VIN or a plate?

Accepted Answer

No, both are optional. Your car works fine without either. Entering the VIN or chassis number later upgrades the car's identity with no loss of data, and it's one of the five things that raise your Sijil completeness. Plate changes are tracked as history rather than overwritten.

Question 11

How many cars can I have?

Accepted Answer

One car on the Free plan. Pro removes the cap. If you were on Pro and drop back to Free, nothing is deleted — your other cars' data stays intact, and you regain access by upgrading again.

Question 12

How do I switch between cars?

Accepted Answer

Swipe sideways on the car photo at the top of the Garage screen, or tap the car name in the header to open the switcher. Everything below — the gauge, the odometer, the summary — follows the car you land on.

Question 13

Why does swiping show an “add a car” page even though I only have one car?

Accepted Answer

That's deliberate. Swiping past your last car always reveals the add-a-car page, so the swipe is never a dead end. It's a page, not a car — it never becomes the selected vehicle.

Question 14

Where does the car picture come from?

Accepted Answer

OKTAN uses a studio render of your model where we have one. If we don't, it falls back to a photo you set yourself, and if there's no photo at all it draws a blueprint-style outline of a car rather than leaving a gap.

Question 15

Are my car photos public?

Accepted Answer

No. Photos are stored privately and served only to you, through an authenticated request. A photo can incidentally show a plate or a driveway, so no public or shareable storage link is ever exposed.

Question 16

Can I edit my car's details after adding it?

Accepted Answer

Yes — tap the car photo, or the EDIT chip on it, to open the car editor. It holds everything about the car in one place: photo, make, model, year, trim, nickname, plate, VIN or chassis number, fuel type and usual fuel grade.

Question 17

Why can't I edit the mileage there?

Accepted Answer

Mileage is driven by what you log, never typed in directly, and it only ever moves forward. That's what makes the odometer trustworthy to a buyer later. To move it, log a fill-up, a service, or use the Odometer option in the quick-log sheet.

Question 18

What happens if I remove a car?

Accepted Answer

The car leaves your active garage but its record is never destroyed. If it's the last car, you land on a quiet empty Garage screen with an add-a-car prompt — you're not thrown back into onboarding.

Question 19

How do I log something quickly?

Accepted Answer

Tap the raised circle in the middle of the bottom bar. It opens a sheet with six ways to capture something without first choosing a tab: Fuel (or Charge on an electric car), Service, Modification, Document, Odometer and Issue. Every row goes straight to the right form.

Question 20

How do I log a fill-up?

Accepted Answer

Quick-log › Fuel, then enter the odometer reading, the litres and the cost. It's three taps, it works offline, and the moment you save you get your consumption against the last fill and how the cost is trending.

Question 21

How do I log a service?

Accepted Answer

Quick-log › Service, or the plus icon in the Sijil app bar. Enter the date, mileage, what was done, the cost, the shop and any notes, and attach a photo of the part, receipt or odometer if you have one.

Question 22

What is the ONE-TIME / RECURRING choice on the service form?

Accepted Answer

It decides whether the service sets up a reminder. ONE-TIME (the default) is for a one-off repair and hides the interval fields entirely. RECURRING reveals them, so an oil change can tell OKTAN when it's next due.

Question 23

How do I attach a receipt or a photo?

Accepted Answer

From inside the service or modification form — attach a photo of the part, the receipt or the odometer. Evidence raises the entry's trust level, which raises your OKTAN Score.

Question 24

How do I log a modification?

Accepted Answer

Quick-log › Modification. Mods are a first-class entry type, not a service in disguise — intake, exhaust, ECU or tune, suspension, wheels and tyres, brakes, audio, cosmetic and more, with the install date, mileage, cost, installer, part or brand details and photos. Pick the category from the searchable list, or type your own and it's saved for next time.

Question 25

If I take a modification back off, do I delete it?

Accepted Answer

No — mark it as removed or reverted. The record stays, because a documented build is part of the car's story either way.

Question 26

How do I log a fault, a noise or a warning light?

Accepted Answer

Quick-log › Issue. Describe what you're hearing or seeing, add media, and you can ask Usta about it. An open issue stays visible and counts against your OKTAN Score until it's resolved, so nothing gets quietly forgotten.

Question 27

How do I edit an entry I already saved?

Accepted Answer

Open it from the Sijil timeline and edit it there. OKTAN writes a new version rather than overwriting — the original stays on file and inspectable. That's what makes the record trustworthy: it's a history, not a whiteboard.

Question 28

How do I delete an entry?

Accepted Answer

Open it from the Sijil timeline and remove it. It disappears from your record and stops counting toward your Score, completeness and reminders immediately — but the underlying row is retained rather than destroyed, so the record's integrity holds.

Question 29

Why won't it accept my odometer reading?

Accepted Answer

Each fill-up's odometer has to be higher than the one before it — that's what keeps the mileage honest. If you enter a lower number you'll get a friendly correction rather than a rejection.

Question 30

How do I import old receipts in bulk?

Accepted Answer

Garage › Import. Pull in images from your gallery or WhatsApp, or PDFs, and OKTAN reads them and prepares draft entries for you to review. Nothing is saved as fact until you confirm it, and likely duplicates are flagged.

Question 31

Does the receipt reading work on Arabic and handwritten receipts?

Accepted Answer

OKTAN reads receipts on your device, including Arabic. Handwriting varies — treat the result as a draft to check, which is exactly how the review step is built. If a receipt can't be read, you drop to entering it manually without losing the photo.

Question 32

How do I just update the mileage without logging anything else?

Accepted Answer

Quick-log › Odometer.

Question 33

How does OKTAN work out my fuel consumption?

Accepted Answer

Distance travelled since your previous fill-up, against the litres you just put in. One basis, everywhere in the app — so no two screens can ever show you different numbers for the same fill.

Question 34

Do I have to fill the tank right up for it to count?

Accepted Answer

No. There's no full-tank rule. A partial fill measures exactly the same way a full one does, and gives you a figure straight away.

Question 35

Why is there no consumption figure on my fill-up?

Accepted Answer

One of two reasons: it's your first fill-up on that car, so there's nothing to measure from — or the odometer didn't move since the last one. In both cases OKTAN shows you that plainly rather than inventing a number.

Question 36

Why was I asked to confirm my odometer reading?

Accepted Answer

Because the reading matched your previous fill exactly, which usually means the prefilled number wasn't updated. Confirming saves the entry anyway, but it's tagged so the consumption figure shows “no distance since last fill” instead of a misleading number.

Question 37

What's the difference between the two economy figures on the Garage screen?

Accepted Answer

One is your last fill — that single interval. The other is your lifetime economy, pooled across the car's whole measured history and weighted by distance. The lifetime line stays hidden until you have two fills that span real distance.

Question 38

I have an electric car — can I log charging?

Accepted Answer

Yes. On an electric car the fuel option becomes Charge, and you log kWh and price per kWh instead of litres.

Question 39

Can I see economy in MPG instead of L/100km?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Profile › Settings › Units and metrics. OKTAN knows that with MPG higher is better and with L/100km lower is better, and reads the trend the right way round.

Question 40

What is the Sijil?

Accepted Answer

Your car's complete, permanent record — every service, fill-up and modification, each one carrying a stamp showing how well it's evidenced. It's the thing that proves the car was looked after, and it's what a buyer wants to see.

Question 41

Why can't I truly delete anything?

Accepted Answer

Because a record you can quietly rewrite proves nothing. Edits create a new version alongside the original, and removals hide an entry from your record without destroying it. That's what lets your Sijil stand as evidence.

Question 42

What do the stamps on my entries mean?

Accepted Answer

They show how well an entry is backed up, on a ladder: self-entered (you typed it), photo (you attached one), receipt-backed (there's an invoice behind it), and verified. Every entry is honestly stamped — nothing is ever shown at a higher tier than its evidence supports.

Question 43

How do I get an entry to “verified”?

Accepted Answer

Today, a receipt is the route: a receipt-backed entry counts as verified for scoring. Confirmation by the shop that did the work will be an additional route once the shop network exists — one confirmation alone will never be enough on its own.

Question 44

How do I find an old entry?

Accepted Answer

The Sijil screen has a filter strip across the top — All / Service / Fuel / Modifications — a Verified-only toggle that's always reachable, and a sort control for newest first or highest spend. The Garage screen's fuel and next-service cards also drop you straight into the timeline already filtered.

Question 45

What is Sijil completeness?

Accepted Answer

A measure of how well-documented the car is, made of five things worth 20% each: a first logged service, a first service interval, a receipt or photo on a service, the car's VIN or chassis number, and one document in the glovebox. Each unmet one is shown as a prompt that takes you straight to the screen that fixes it.

Question 46

Do modifications or document expiry dates raise completeness?

Accepted Answer

No. Only the five criteria above move that figure.

Question 47

How does OKTAN know when my next service is due?

Accepted Answer

From an interval engine. A new car loads its factory schedule, so you don't set anything up. A used car uses intervals you set plus your mileage check-ins. Either way OKTAN predicts the next due date from how the car is actually being driven, not just the calendar.

Question 48

Where do I manage my intervals?

Accepted Answer

Sijil › the footer row › Manage intervals.

Question 49

Do I have to pay for reminders?

Accepted Answer

No, and you never will. Service reminders, the interval engine and notifications are permanently Free. The thing that tells you your car needs attention is not something we'll ever put behind a paywall.

Question 50

Will OKTAN send me a push notification when a service is due?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. Right now what's due shows on the NEXT UP card and the overdue banner on your Garage screen when you open the app. Sending those as push notifications is still being built — the settings screen where you'll control them already exists, and delivery is coming.

Question 51

What is the “Filling up?” reminder?

Accepted Answer

An optional nudge to log a fill-up when your phone notices you've arrived at a fuel station — it deep-links straight into the fuel form. It's off until you turn it on in Notifications settings and grant background location, and it never fires otherwise. OKTAN does not build a location history or track your journeys.

Question 52

What's the difference between critical and promotional notifications?

Accepted Answer

Critical covers things you need to know — service due, a document expiring, a record needing review — and can't be switched off. Promotional covers offers and crew news, is frequency-capped, and you can turn it off on its own without losing the critical ones.

Question 53

What is the OKTAN Score?

Accepted Answer

A single number out of 100 for how well the car is being kept and how well that's evidenced. It's the spine of the app — it climbs as you stay on top of maintenance and log what you do.

Question 54

How is it calculated?

Accepted Answer

Three parts: upkeep (how you're tracking against your intervals — half the score), Sijil completeness (30%) and verification (how much of your history is receipt-backed — 20%). Open issues you haven't resolved subtract from the total. Tap the score on the gauge, or the link in Insights, for the full explainer with what's currently moving yours.

Question 55

What do the score bands mean?

Accepted Answer

90–100 is Excellent, 75–89 is Very good, 60–74 is Good, 40–59 is In progress, and 0–39 is Needs work.

Question 56

I just added my car and scored 50 — why not zero or 100?

Accepted Answer

Because a brand-new car has no evidence yet, in either direction. There's nothing overdue, but there's also no logged history and nothing backed by a receipt. The score rises quickly once you log your first service and attach your first receipt.

Question 57

How do I raise my score?

Accepted Answer

The explainer screen lists the specific actions in order of impact — usually: log a service, set an interval so OKTAN can tell what's due, attach a receipt, add your VIN or chassis number, put one document in the glovebox, and close any open issues.

Question 58

Do my modifications raise my score?

Accepted Answer

No. Modifications are recorded and count toward the car's story and its resale value, but they deliberately don't move the OKTAN Score or completeness — the score is about upkeep and evidence.

Question 59

Does the score ever recommend a particular shop or brand?

Accepted Answer

No. It may point you at a category of work that's due, but it will never name a paid partner. That neutrality is deliberate and permanent.

Question 60

Can I share my score?

Accepted Answer

Yes — there's a share card carrying your score, its band and your referral link.

Question 61

What is Usta?

Accepted Answer

Usta is OKTAN's mechanic — an assistant that knows your car. Ask about a symptom, whether something is normal, what's due before a long drive, or a spec or part question, and the answer is grounded in that car's make, model, year, engine, mileage, modifications and service history.

Question 62

What languages does Usta speak?

Accepted Answer

Arabic and English. Usta answers in the language you're using.

Question 63

What does Usta actually know about my car?

Accepted Answer

The make, model, year, trim, engine, fuel type, octane and current mileage; your service history entries — date, mileage, service type, your notes and how well-evidenced each one is; your intervals and open issues; and whether an entry has an attachment.

Question 64

What is never sent to Usta?

Accepted Answer

Your name, email or any contact detail; your plate number or VIN; any photo, receipt, document or attachment; any cost, price or amount; any shop or fuel-station name; and your location. Requests are routed so the model provider retains nothing and trains on nothing.

Questions, answered.

Still have a question?

Questions, answered.

Getting started8

Your garage & cars10

Everyday logging14

Fuel, charging & economy7

The Sijil — your car's record7

Reminders & service intervals6

The OKTAN Score8

Usta8

Documents — the glovebox5

Insights & export3

Free & Pro5

Account, privacy & your data8

Language, units & appearance8

Troubleshooting6

What's coming4

Glossary8

Still have a question?