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It's generous enough if you aren't aiming for every premium character. If you play all the story content and events, and are doing the daily quests, you'll pretty much earn enough for a guaranteed 5* (80-90 pulls) in about 6 weeks (the length of one version update).

So if you're a free player, you can save up for a character you really want, or just pull and be content with whoever you get.

Mobile game economics are funny like that.

There are people who spend thousands of dollars every single month on mobile games in general, and Genshin is no exception. They are called "whales".

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that a lot of people tend to obsess over some characters, independently of their gameplay value. That's usually how gacha games make a lot of their money.