Why does this matter for AI cost planning?

Helps prioritize AI roadmap against Finance constraints Shows which features push you over budget before you build them

Budget Planner

Plan your AI budget across every use case

Add your use cases, set a monthly ceiling, see allocation + alerts. Share the URL with your team.

Pricing verified: 2026-09-11 Up to 6 use cases · Shareable via URL

What this calculator does

Set a monthly AI spend budget and see which features/workloads fit under it.

Why use it

Helps prioritize AI roadmap against Finance constraints
Shows which features push you over budget before you build them

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.

▶Playground A quick, visual way to see which factors move your result the most. Open the playground → ▤Calculator Enter your real workload for a precise result you can apply to your own usage. Go to the calculator →

How much budget per feature?

Splits your annual budget across features after holding back a reserve. Top-priority share fixed at 35%.

Budget per feature / mo

—

Change the input sliders below to see new estimates.

Annual budget 180,000

Features 6

Reserve 15

How we got this estimate

—

💡Per feature = (budget − reserve) ÷ 12 ÷ features. The reserve and top-priority allocation are in “Why this number”.

📊 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.

🎮 Interactive Guide & Calculator Playground →

Set your ceiling

Enter the monthly AI spend Finance will approve.

Add your workloads

Pick the features and use cases you want to run — or start from a preset.

See what fits

The calc shows which workloads fit under budget and which push you over.

👇 Now try the calculator below with your own AI workloads

Planning AI spend across several features? Add your use cases below and we'll total a realistic monthly budget.

🎛 CALCULATOR

🧩 Your use cases

Hint: Tick the AI features you plan to run; we size the cost of each.

Add each AI-powered feature/workflow. We calculate monthly cost for each.

Load a preset starting point

Hint: Optional: load typical numbers as a starting point, then tweak.

📈 RESULTS

Monthly budget ceiling

Hint: What you can spend per month. We flag if your use cases blow past it. $

Projected monthly spend

Remaining / over

Cost allocation by use case

Where your AI budget goes.

💡 Recommendations

Detail one use case → Get a FinOps retainer →

🎯 Use this result to

🧮 Plan AI spend properly — Multi-team multi-model rollup. Real budget not back-of-envelope guess.
🎯 Allocate by team and project — Split the bill fairly. Each team owns their share with concrete numbers.
🛡️ Build contingency buffer — AI costs surprise. 20-30% buffer separates good plans from blown budgets.
🔌 Integrate with your AI agents — MCP available for agentic workflow integration. Budget-aware request routing.

📅 Schedule a call to apply this to your workload

Need help using this calculator for your workloads?

AICost.ai has 96+ calculators and playbooks. Schedule an AvatarVA meeting and we'll work through your real cost scenarios across AI & Cloud: visibility, cost reduction, optimization, forecasting and capacity planning, without sacrificing accuracy or performance.

📅 Schedule an AvatarVA meeting →

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.
xAI — Grok 4 (legacy)	`cachedInput`	Extrapolated at 25% of base.

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.

xAI — Grok 4 (legacy)

cachedInput

Extrapolated at 25% of base.

Plan your AI budget across every use case

AI Budget Planner Calculator

Results

Cost allocation by use case

Go deeper

Need help using this calculator for your workloads?

Methodology

Primary sources

Inferred values (marked with * in calculator tables)

Immediate steps you can take