Prices checked on 13 October 2026

Which AI should you use?

There are two ways to pay for AI. An app plan is a monthly subscription for you to use ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini yourself. The API is for putting AI inside your own product, and you pay for what you use.

Quick picks

Just trying AI, no budget

Start with the free plans of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.

All three have a free plan. Try the same question in each and keep the one whose answers you like.

One paid plan for everyday work

About $20 a month: ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro or Google AI Pro.

They cost about the same. Pay only after the free plan stops being enough.

Building an app with AI writing the code

Start free with GitHub Copilot Free or Cursor Hobby; upgrade to Claude Pro (includes Claude Code) or Cursor Pro at $20.

GitHub Copilot Pro at $10 a month is the cheapest paid option.

Putting AI inside your product

Start with a small, cheap model, and move up only if quality isn’t good enough.

Gemini Flash-Lite models have a free tier for testing. Claude Haiku 5.5 and GPT-6 Luna cost $0.10 per million input tokens.

These picks are our suggestions, not paid placements.

AI apps: free and paid plans

For using AI yourself. US prices; your local price may differ.

ChatGPT

OpenAI

FreeTry it out
$0
GoLonger conversations
$8/month
PlusEveryday work
$20/month
ProHeavy use, research and coding
from $100/month

Source: ChatGPT pricing

Claude

Anthropic

FreeChat, web search, files
$0
ProMore usage, includes Claude Code
$20/month ($17/month billed yearly)
Max5x or 20x Pro usage, includes monthly API credits
from $100/month

Source: Claude plans

Gemini

Google

FreeCore features with a Google account
$0
Google AI PlusAbout 2x free usage, 400 GB storage
$4.99/month
Google AI ProAbout 4x free usage, Gemini 3.1 Pro, 5 TB storage
$19.99/month
Google AI UltraHighest limits, 20 TB+ storage
from $99.99/month

Source: Google AI plans

Le Chat / Vibe

Mistral

FreeBasic access
$0
ProStudents: $5.99/month for up to 12 months
$14.99/month (excl. tax)

Source: Mistral pricing

More AI apps

These have free plans too. Their paid prices change often, so we link to their own page instead of guessing.

Grok

xAI

FreeFree to try on the web and in the apps
$0
SuperGrokHigher limits and priority access
See their page

Source: Grok

Perplexity

FreeFor light use and occasional answers
$0
Pro and MaxMore research, newest models
See their page
Enterprise ProFor businesses
from $40/month per person

Best known for answers with links to sources.

Source: Perplexity plans

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft

FreeBasic Copilot on Windows, Mac and phones
$0
Microsoft 365 PremiumMore Copilot inside Word, Excel and Outlook
See their page

Source: Copilot for individuals

Free models you can download

Open models cost nothing to download. You run them on your own computer or rent a server, so you pay for the machine instead of per use. Good when privacy matters or you have lots of simple tasks. Always read the licence before using one in a business.

Gemma 4

Google

Open model (check the licence before selling with it)

Sizes from small (runs on a laptop) to 31B. Download from Kaggle or Hugging Face.

Source: Gemma

Mistral Small 4

Mistral

Apache 2.0 (free, also for business)

A balanced model you can run yourself.

Source: Mistral models

Mistral Large 3

Mistral

Apache 2.0 (free, also for business)

Bigger and more capable; needs a powerful machine.

Source: Mistral models

Ministral 3 14B

Mistral

Apache 2.0 (free, also for business)

Smaller, faster model for simple tasks.

Source: Mistral models

Other companies release open models too. We list only ones we checked on the maker’s own page.

AI coding tools

For building an app with AI writing most of the code.

Claude Code

Anthropic

With Claude ProIncluded in the Pro plan
$20/month
With Claude MaxMore usage
from $100/month

Not in the free Claude plan.

Source: Claude plans

Cursor

Anysphere

HobbyLimited use
Free
ProFor regular use
$20/month
Pro+More usage
$60/month
UltraHeaviest use
$200/month

Cursor’s plans have been changing; check its pricing page before you pay.

Source: Cursor plans

GitHub Copilot

GitHub

FreeLimited chat and agent use
$0
ProFull individual access
$10/month
Pro+Bigger monthly allowance
$39/month
MaxHeavy agent use
$100/month

Source: GitHub Copilot plans

AI models for your own product (API)

Prices in US dollars per million tokens. A token is roughly ¾ of a word. You pay separately for what you send in (input) and what the AI writes back (output).

Model	Type	Input	Output	Free tier
Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic	Most capable Hard reasoning, long documents, complex coding	$10	$50	Pay as you go
Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic	Most capable Hard reasoning, long documents, complex coding	$4	$20	Pay as you go
Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic	Balanced Most product features: writing, analysis, chat	$2	$10	Pay as you go
Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic · Prompts up to 100,000 tokens	Fast and cheap Simple, high-volume tasks: sorting, short replies	$0.10	$0.50	Pay as you go
GPT-6 Astra OpenAI · Short-context price	Most capable Hard reasoning, long documents, complex coding	$10	$50	Pay as you go
GPT-6.1 Sol OpenAI · Short-context price	Balanced Most product features: writing, analysis, chat	$2	$10	Pay as you go
GPT-6 Luna OpenAI · Short-context price	Fast and cheap Simple, high-volume tasks: sorting, short replies	$0.10	$0.50	Pay as you go
Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview) Google · Prompts up to 200k tokens	Most capable Hard reasoning, long documents, complex coding	$2	$12	Pay as you go
Gemini 3.8 Flash Google · Price doubles from 1 Jan 2027	Balanced Most product features: writing, analysis, chat	$0.75	$3.75	Yes
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Google	Fast and cheap Simple, high-volume tasks: sorting, short replies	$0.30	$2.50	Yes
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Google	Fast and cheap Simple, high-volume tasks: sorting, short replies	$0.25	$1.50	Yes
DeepSeek V4 Pro DeepSeek · Half price off-peak	Balanced Most product features: writing, analysis, chat	$1.32	$3.96	Pay as you go
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash DeepSeek · Half price off-peak	Fast and cheap Simple, high-volume tasks: sorting, short replies	$0.30	$1.20	Pay as you go
Mistral Large Mistral	Balanced Most product features: writing, analysis, chat	$0.50	$1.50	Pay as you go

What does that cost in real life?

Say your app answers 1,000 customer questions, each about 500 tokens in and 500 tokens out. That is half a million tokens each way. With a $2 / $10 model it costs about $1 + $5 = $6. With a $0.10 / $0.50 model it costs about $0.30.

Not sure what your idea needs? The idea check tells you whether AI genuinely helps, and which tools fit your budget.

Check my idea

Prices were read from each company’s own pricing page on 13 October 2026 and change often. Always check the linked source before you pay. Free tiers have usage limits.