How Much Does AI Cost?

The three pricing shapes (and their traps)

1. Free tiers — better than advertised. The major chatbots give capable models away with usage caps. Start here; most people never need more. The trap: free tiers may train on your conversations — check the privacy setting.

2. Flat subscriptions — $20/month, pay when capped. ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced: stronger models, higher limits, extras. The honest math: if you use an assistant most workdays, $20 pays for itself in saved time; if you do not, do not.

3. Usage-based — the one that surprises. APIs (for building), image generation credits and voice minutes charge per token or per second. A hobby project costs pennies; an unwatched production workload can cost real money. Set billing alerts before you need them.

Rules of thumb

• Personal use: free tier → $20 when capped → done. Never subscribe to two assistants "just in case"; switch when one fails you.
• Work/team use: the per-seat add-ons (Notion AI, Copilot) are justified per-person by time saved — measure one month before rolling out widely.
• Building things: start on usage-based APIs, but a $5 alert and a monthly review beat a $500 surprise.