Tools Annual vs Monthly

Annual billing or pay monthly?

Vendors offer 15-20% off for annual commitment. Sounds obvious - until you realize that if you stop using the service after 8 months, you've still paid for 12. Pick your subscription and how confident you are you'll keep using it. We'll tell you which billing cycle actually wins.

Pricing refreshed: 2026-07-28
What this calculator does

Should you commit to annual billing? Break-even analysis across subscriptions.

Why use it
  • Annual saves 15-20% but ties you to the vendor
  • Calculator shows minimum months-of-use to hit break-even

New to this calculator? Start with the ⚡ Playground — a few sliders, instant ballpark. Then switch to the 🧮 Calculator for your exact number.

Two ways to use this: visualize in the Playground, then get your number in the Calculator.

Annual vs Monthly Playground
Drag the sliders to compare the options.
Annual commit vs Monthly — worth locking in?

The annual discount is only worth it if usage is stable and the vendor won’t change on you. Usage stability fixed at 70%.

Cheaper option
Change the input sliders below to compare.

Monthly plan
/ month
Annual commit
/ month

💡Cheaper assumes you actually realize the discount. Best fit weighs lock-in: high churn risk can make flexible monthly the smarter call.

Annual vs Monthly Calculator

Enter your exact numbers for a precise result.
📊 Not sure of a value? Fields with a ▾ Typical pill offer broad industry ballparks (sourced typical ranges) so you can move forward now — your result gets more accurate as you replace them with your own measured numbers. Values marked * are rough estimates.
Which subscription?The plan you are deciding how to pay for.How to choose: Pick the subscription (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Gemini, etc.) you want to compare annual vs monthly billing on.Read the full guide → Hint: Pick the plan you are comparing monthly vs annual on.
How confident are you you'll keep using it?How sure you are you will keep using it for the full year.How to choose: Annual billing is cheaper but locks you in. If you are unsure you will stick with it, monthly may be safer.Read the full guide → Hint: How sure you are you will keep using it. Less sure = monthly is the safer bet.
🎯 Use this result to
📅 Schedule a call to apply this to your workload
📖 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

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 →