Almost every AI now costs about $20 a month, which makes choosing one harder, not easier. This AI pricing comparison puts Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek side by side: free plans, paid tiers, and per-token API rates. Use the tool below to compare them directly, estimate what a real task costs, or check what you already spend. Everything updates as providers change their prices.
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Choose the work and the volume. See an estimated API bill across 14 models.
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Editable starting assumptions, not measured averages. Include billed reasoning in output. Changing the task restores that task’s original assumptions.
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Recommendations use monthly prices within your budget. Annual prepayment is shown separately.
How the suggestion is chosen
We map your chosen workflow to relevant services. For occasional use or a free preference, we suggest trying a free tier. Otherwise we choose the main monthly plan within your budget, or a cheaper available monthly plan from that service. We exclude restricted plans. Alternatives stay within the same budget.
This is an editorial starting point, not a benchmark or a guarantee of capacity. Feature access and usage caps vary. Test the free tier where possible and check official terms before paying. Heavy usage alone never triggers an automatic premium-plan recommendation.
Same workload. Different bill.
What this estimate includes
Text-token costs at the selected rates. Output should include billed reasoning. Excludes tool calls, web searches, images, audio, retries, cache writes, cache storage, regional premiums and taxes. Model limits and workload quality still matter. Subscription fees do not include API usage.
Token counts vary by language and tokenizer. Task presets are editable assumptions, not measured averages. A lower token bill does not establish equal quality.
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US list prices. Personal subscriptions and API usage are billed separately.
Annual totals use the actual annual bill, not a rounded monthly headline. Missing annual rates are marked as unverified. Providers can change availability and usage limits.
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Data, sources & what changedRates checked 25 Oct 2026
A dated snapshot, with a source for every rate.
Updated 25 Oct 2026: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 replace Sonnet 5 and Haiku 4.5; Gemini 4 Argon added and Gemini 3.7 Flash removed, as on Google’s price page; OpenAI’s Sol slot is now GPT-6.1 Sol, with cheaper cached input. Haiku 5.5 matches GPT-6 Luna at $0.10 / $0.50 per million tokens for prompts up to 100,000 tokens; above that, Haiku’s higher tier applies. Older model rates remain in the preserved original dataset.
ChatGPT Pro now comes as Pro 100, Pro 200 and Pro 500. Since 12 Oct 2026, Grok is sold through The X Subscription (Plus, Premium, Super, Ultra). Claude Pro and Perplexity Pro annual billing is $200, equivalent to $16.67/month. DeepSeek free web access retains the 2 Sep check and is marked for recheck. No automatic price feed is connected.
Coverage: the six services from this tool, and 14 text API models from five direct providers. Perplexity’s search API, other vendors, media generation and restricted-access models need different cost assumptions and are outside this comparison.
Claude pricing: plans, API and value
Claude has become the most-searched AI for pricing in 2026, and the questions usually split three ways: the monthly plan, the API rate, and whether the free tier is enough. The plan side’s simple: Claude is free with daily message limits, then Pro at $20/month, with Max tiers at $100 and $200 for heavy users and Claude Code workloads. On the API, Anthropic charges per million tokens, from about $1/$5 for Haiku up to the premium Opus tier, with no surcharge on the 1M-token context window on current models. Claude’s edge is writing and long documents: it produces the most natural prose of any flagship and holds context across very long files, which is why it’s everywhere in coding and research workflows. If you’re only paying for one AI, Claude Pro at $20 is the default for anyone who writes or codes for a living. Use the Compare tab above to put Claude next to ChatGPT and Gemini on price and free plan.
ChatGPT price: Go, Plus and Pro
ChatGPT pricing now spans four levels: a free tier, ChatGPT Go at $8/month, Plus at $20/month, and a Pro tier above that for power users. For most people, the $20 Plus plan’s the sweet spot, unlocking the flagship GPT-5 model, image and voice, and the largest app ecosystem of any provider. On the API, GPT-5 is priced per million tokens and sits at the premium end alongside Claude Opus. ChatGPT is the safest all-rounder: if you want one tool that does a bit of everything (writing, images, voice, browsing, apps), it’s the broadest.
Gemini pricing: AI Plus, Pro and Ultra
Gemini has the widest spread of plans: a generous free tier, AI Plus at $8/month, AI Pro at $20/month, and AI Ultra at the top for power users who want video generation and the full Google stack. The real reason to pay for Gemini’s integration: if you live inside Google Workspace (Docs, Gmail, Drive), Gemini is built in, and it pairs strong reasoning with a very large context window. On the API, Gemini Flash is one of the cheapest fast models available, which makes it a common pick for high-volume work. People often compare Gemini pricing vs ChatGPT and Gemini vs Claude, and the honest answer is they all sit at $20 for the main plan, so what decides it is the ecosystem you’re already in.
What is the cheapest AI model?
“Cheapest” depends on whether you mean a subscription or an API cost. For monthly plans, ChatGPT Go and Gemini AI Plus start at $8. For free use, DeepSeek’s web chat costs nothing and there are no hard caps. For developers paying per token, DeepSeek is the cheapest flagship-quality model by a wide margin, with Gemini Flash close behind, which is why routing services like OpenRouter and DeepSeek trend together with “cheapest AI model” searches. If your priority is spending as little as possible, start with DeepSeek’s free web chat, then move to its API only when you need automation. The Cost per task tab above shows exactly how much DeepSeek saves versus GPT-5 or Claude Opus on a real workload.
AI API pricing for developers
API pricing is charged per million tokens, where a token is roughly three-quarters of a word. Rates vary enormously: a few cents per million for DeepSeek and Gemini Flash, up to $5 to $30 per million for premium models like GPT-5 and Claude Opus. Two things change your real bill the most: the ratio of input to output tokens (output is several times more expensive), and whether you use caching or batch discounts. Switch the tool above to developer mode, set your input and output tokens, and it estimates your monthly cost on every model at once, with the cheapest flagged. Always confirm the live rate on the provider’s own page before you commit, because API prices change often.
How to use this tool
Start on the Compare tab and pick two or three services to line them up on price, free plan and best use case. The Cost per task tab turns tokens into real jobs (50 blog posts, 200 emails) so the numbers actually mean something. My spend totals what you already pay across subscriptions and flags where you overspend, and Find my plan recommends one from two quick questions. Developers can open All plans & API for live per-token rates.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Claude cost per month?
Claude is free with daily limits, then Pro at $20/month, with Max tiers at $100 and $200 for heavy users. The $20 Pro plan covers most people who write or code.
How much does ChatGPT cost per month?
ChatGPT has a free tier, ChatGPT Go at $8/month, Plus at $20/month, and a Pro tier above that. The $20 Plus plan suits most users.
What is the cheapest AI model?
For free use, DeepSeek’s web chat costs nothing. For monthly plans, ChatGPT Go and Gemini AI Plus start at $8. For API use, DeepSeek is the cheapest flagship-quality model per token.
Gemini pricing vs ChatGPT, which is cheaper?
Their main plans are the same price, $20/month (Gemini AI Pro and ChatGPT Plus), and both offer an $8 entry tier. Pick by ecosystem: Gemini if you use Google Workspace, ChatGPT for the broadest tooling.
How much does the GPT-5, Claude or Gemini API cost?
API pricing is per million tokens (about three-quarters of a word each). It ranges from a few cents per million for DeepSeek and Gemini Flash to $5 to $30 per million for GPT-5 and Claude Opus. Use the API calculator above for your exact usage.
Is Claude free to use?
Yes. Claude has a free plan with daily message limits that opens its flagship models to everyone. Paid plans start at $20/month.
Do I need to pay for more than one AI?
Usually no. The flagships overlap heavily, and most users are covered by a single $20 plan plus free tiers. Paying for two or three at once is the most common way people overspend.
Are these prices up to date?
We review and update this page regularly as providers change their rates. The tool shows the latest figures we have, but always confirm the current price on the provider’s own page before subscribing.
Last reviewed: June 2026. AI prices change often; we keep this page current.