Guides → Playground & Guide → Consumer AI Bill Diagnose - Where Your $20-200/mo AI Spend Is Going

Consumer AI Bill Diagnose - Where Your $20-200/mo AI Spend Is Going

🚀 Open the calculator

Meet Lena Park. Freelance designer paying for 6 AI subscriptions. "I'm paying $130/month across ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Cursor, Midjourney, Perplexity Pro, and ElevenLabs. Half of these I barely use - which to keep?"

🔥 Yearly cost: $1,560. Estimated waste: probably $600+. Need to see it clearly.

The story

Consumer AI sprawl is the new SaaS sprawl. Average AI-active user has 4-6 paid subscriptions. ChatGPT Plus ($20), Claude Pro ($20), Cursor ($20), Midjourney ($10-30), Perplexity Pro ($20), ElevenLabs ($5-22), GitHub Copilot ($10), v0 ($20), and so on. $100-200/month is common - most goes unused.

Lena's $130/month adds up to $1,560/year. Auditing her 30-day usage: ChatGPT 80 messages (heavy), Claude 8 messages (light), Cursor daily (heavy), Midjourney 4 images (light), Perplexity 12 searches (light), ElevenLabs 2 audio renders (very light). Cut Claude, Midjourney, ElevenLabs → save $720/year. Use Claude free tier when needed, Midjourney pay-per-image, ElevenLabs free tier.

Three patterns of waste. (1) Forgotten subscriptions - auto-renew, never use. (2) Tier overshoot - paying $20 when $0 free tier covers usage. (3) Duplicate capabilities - paying for ChatGPT Plus AND Claude Pro AND Cursor when one would do. The diagnose calc surfaces all three.

🎮 Playground

Consumer AI Bill Diagnose Playground

Here are the inputs that move the result the most. Play with the sliders and check it out. The number updates live.

How much of your AI spend is wasted?

Estimates wasted spend from your bill and how much you actually use heavily.

Wasted per month
—

💡Waste ≈ spend × (1 − heavy-use ratio). The more you pay for and barely touch, the more you’re wasting.

Three real scenarios

Same calculator, three team sizes. Click a tab to see how the numbers shift.

$20.00 / month ≈ $240.00 / year

ChatGPT Plus only, used daily. Tier is right-sized. Maybe consider Plus → Free if usage drops, but otherwise good.

Healthy range: Healthy - paid tier justified

See inputs used
monthlySpendUsd
20
subscriptionCount
1
heavyUseRatio
90

Use cases

Same calculator, different applications. Sizes above, workloads here. Pick the one that looks like yours.

Pre-loaded scenarios for the most common applications. Click a tab to see realistic numbers, then hit "Try this scenario" to load it into the calculator above.

$100.00 / month ≈ $1,200 / year

Standard freelancer setup. ChatGPT + Claude + Cursor + 2 specialty (Midjourney/v0/etc). Audit: which specialty subs do you ship work with? Keep those. Cancel the rest.

Healthy range: $40/mo waste - cancel 2

See inputs used
monthlySpendUsd
100
subscriptionCount
5
heavyUseRatio
60

Ready to run the numbers?

Open the full calculator. Pick a model, enter your tokens, see per-call, daily, monthly, and annual cost.

🚀 Open the full calculator →

Best value consumer AI plans right now

Verified 11 hours ago
  1. 1
    GPT-5 Mini
    $0.250 in · $2.00 out ·
  2. 2
    gpt-5.1-codex-mini
    $0.250 in · $2.00 out ·
  3. 3
    Command
    $1.00 in · $2.00 out ·

About this calculator: Consumer AI Bill Diagnose - Where Your $20-200/mo AI Spend Is Going

Upload your ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Perplexity, or Midjourney receipt. See where your subscription dollars actually go and get cheaper-tier or shared-plan recommendations.

🎛 Inputs you control

Each input shapes the cost. Click an input on the calculator to set it. The explanations below match the live calculator field by field.

▸ Monthly AI spend: Your total monthly spend across all AI subscriptions.
How to choose: Add up ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Midjourney, and any others from your card statement or app-store receipts.
▸ Number of subscriptions: How many separate paid AI tools you pay for.
How to choose: Count each one — ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Cursor, Midjourney, and so on.
▸ Percent used weekly: Roughly what share of those subscriptions you actually open every week.
How to choose: Be honest — most people overestimate. If you pay for six and regularly use three, that is about 50%.

Reading your result

Estimated waste = monthly spend × (1 - heavy use ratio). Lena: $130 × 50% = $65/mo waste = $780/year just on subscriptions she barely opens.

Heavy-use subs to KEEP. 3-5 messages/week minimum. If you hit message limits sometimes, paid tier is justified.

Light-use subs to CUT. Less than 5 messages/week - free tier or pay-per-use will cover. Cancel and use sparingly via free.

Duplicate capabilities - pick one. ChatGPT + Claude + Gemini paid all → keep one. Pick by which has the features you actually use (memory, vision, voice, code execution, etc.).

What "good" looks like:
  • Light user (1-2 subs): $20-40/month, low waste
  • Mid user (3-5 subs): $50-100/month, 20-40% waste typical (Lena's range)
  • Heavy user (6+ subs): $100-300/month, 40-60% waste typical
  • Power user (10+ subs): $200+/month - usually has duplicate capabilities, audit hard

What this calculator can't tell you

Honest limitations. Every model is wrong; some are useful. Where this one falls short:

For these, use: Subscription Picker for replacement choice. Family Plan for shared. Free Tier Checker to verify.

Trade-offs

Cost isn't the only dimension. Click any constraint to see how recommendations change.

What matters most to you? Click any dimension — recommendations update.

Best fit for "cost":

  1. Free tiers cover most light usage Test before paying
  2. Pay-per-use for occasional needs Midjourney, ElevenLabs, Runway
  3. Annual plans 15-25% cheaper IF you'll keep Don't lock in if uncertain

The cheapest tier you'll actually use is the right tier. Free → annual upgrade later beats annual → cancel mid-term.

Most popular

Everything above is the 80% case. The last 20% is where the money is.

The gaps we just listed are real, and they are the expensive ones: your actual prompts, your switching cost, your MLOps overhead. An AICost expert spends the hour on your AI and cloud costs, not a generic playbook. You leave with a written report: the way forward, in 30 days of concrete steps.

  • An hour with the people who built the engines
  • Report the same day
  • The fee credits toward any AICost plan
  • Two slots a week
Book a Solution Session: $299 → or $99 for small business →

Not sure yet? The $39 AICost Blueprint credits toward a Session, and the Session fee credits toward any plan. You never pay twice for the same ground. See all pricing →

Ready to run your own numbers?

You have seen the shape of it. Open the calculator with your model, your tokens, your volume.

🚀 Open the full calculator →

Where to go next

Pick the right replacement subscription →

After cancellation, which sub fills the gap?

 Verify free tier covers your usage →

Before canceling, ensure free is enough.

 Shared plans for households →

If others share your AI tools, shared plan often cheaper.

Methodology

Source
/ai-cost-economics
Extraction
Pricing pulled monthly from each consumer vendor's pricing page.
Editorial gate
8-layer defense, see aicost.ai/ai-cost-economics
Last verified
7/27/2026, 8:00:00 PM

Author: Subu Vdaygiri, Founder & CEO of CloudIntelligence.ai. 17 years Fortune 100 (Ingram Micro, Siemens). Wharton CTO program · Kellogg CPO program · 10× AWS+Azure certified.

3 years of pricing history

Why this matters: pricing for major vendors has dropped 40-90% in the last 24 months. A budget set 12 months ago is probably wrong by 30%+.

View 3-year history for →
📖 Data sources & methodology 163 text models · 9 embeddings · 37 vision · 55 audio · 8 vector DBs across 10 vendor pages · last verified 2026-07-28

Methodology

  • All prices are USD per 1 million tokens, current as of 2026-07-28.
  • Vendor-published values have no mark. Inferred/extrapolated values are marked with * and listed below.
  • Batch API discounts are 50% off standard rates across providers that offer Batch mode.
  • Prompt caching discounts vary by provider (typically 80-90% off cached input tokens).
  • Regional data-residency surcharges (Anthropic 1.1x, OpenAI 1.1x, Google regional tiers) are NOT included in base rates.
  • Long-context pricing tiers apply when input exceeds model threshold.
  • Embedding prices are input-only (no output tokens generated).

Primary sources

Last-verified date is the most recent successful daily snapshot (aicost_pricing_snapshots) or, when no snapshot exists yet, the latest successful crawler run (aicost_crawler_runs). 10 of 10 vendors are currently verified. Aggregator services (TokenCost, AI Pricing Guru, etc.) are not listed.

Anthropic
2026-07-28
https://www.anthropic.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured
Anthropic Docs
2026-07-28
https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured
OpenAI
2026-07-28
https://openai.com/api/pricing/
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 632 days captured
Google AI
2026-07-28
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 607 days captured
Google Vertex
2026-07-28
https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 607 days captured
DeepSeek
2026-07-28
https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing
Daily snapshot since May 2024 · 546 days captured
xAI
2026-07-28
https://x.ai/api
Daily snapshot since Nov 2024 · 464 days captured
Mistral
2026-07-28
https://mistral.ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 605 days captured
Cohere
2026-07-28
https://cohere.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 631 days captured
Voyage AI
2026-07-28
https://docs.voyageai.com/docs/pricing

Inferred values (marked with * in calculator tables)

Derived from industry conventions, not directly published by the vendor. Typical conventions: cached input = 10% of base (90% off), Batch API = 50% of base (50% off).

Vendor / Model Field Why it’s inferred
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic publishes 90% cache-hit discount on this tier.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate; same 90% cache-hit convention as Sonnet 4.6.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchInput Derived at 50% of standard input — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of standard output — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Haiku 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic 90% cache-hit discount convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Mini cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI documents automatic 90% discount on cache hits across GPT-5.x tier.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input; no residency uplift.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI does not publish a cached rate for *-pro models; using the family convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — pro-tier convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
Google — Gemini 3 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching discount convention ~90%.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash cachedInput Derived at 25% of input per Google 2.0 family caching rates.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
xAI — Grok 4 (legacy) cachedInput Extrapolated at 25% of base.

Pricing is cross-verified against the LiteLLM community registry when available. Daily snapshots are kept in aicost_pricing_snapshots; every change is logged to aicost_price_changelog with old & new values for full audit trail. Read the full methodology →