💳 AI Subscription vs API Cost Calculator
Chat subscriptions cost a flat monthly fee. The API charges per token. Describe a normal day of use and see which is cheaper for you, and where the break-even point is.
API prices: standard list prices per 1M tokens, checked on September 24, 2026 on OpenAI, Anthropic, Google. Subscriptions: Claude Pro (monthly billing), Google AI Pro, checked on October 16, 2026. ChatGPT Plus is not listed because its price was not shown as text on OpenAI's pricing page that day; choose "Other price" and enter it.
How the estimate works
Words are turned into tokens at about 1.33 tokens per English word, a common rule of thumb. The API cost is the input tokens times the model's input price plus the output tokens times its output price, over 30 days. The break-even figure is how many messages a day it would take before the API costs as much as the subscription.
What the number leaves out
A chat app quietly sends the whole conversation again with every new message, so long chats use far more input tokens than the words you type. Images, file uploads and "thinking" models also add tokens. The subscription, on the other hand, comes with an app, memory and features the bare API does not. Treat a close result as a tie.
Want the token count for a specific prompt? Use the AI Token & Cost Calculator.
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