AI subscription cost comparison,
Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, side by side.

Subscription guide

Choosing (and combining) an AI subscription.

Claude, ChatGPT, and Google AI (Gemini) have all converged on a similar tier shape over the past year: a free tier, a mainstream paid tier around $20/month, and a top tier priced at a multiple of that tier’s usage allowance — commonly framed as 5× or 20× more usage. The dollar math is straightforward once you know the tiers; the harder part is that the tiers themselves keep changing.

Current tiers (verified 2026-09-16)

One naming quirk worth flagging: OpenAI’s own app labels both of its top-tier plans “Pro” — the $100 and $200 options are genuinely different tiers (5x vs. 20x usage), not a typo, disambiguated here by their usage multiplier since that’s the only distinguishing name OpenAI itself gives them.

Only one confirmed annual discount

Of the tiers above, only Claude Pro has a publicly confirmed annual-billing discount ($17/month, billed yearly, down from $20/month). This calculator deliberately does not assume ChatGPT or Gemini offer (or don’t offer) an annual discount — that wasn’t confirmed either way, so annual billing for those is shown as simply 12× the monthly price, with a note to check the provider’s own billing page.

What this calculator deliberately leaves out

This tool computes subscription cost math only — monthly cost, annual cost, and the combined total if you’re comparing or stacking multiple subscriptions. It does not compare message limits, included models, context window sizes, or any other capability across tiers. Those are the most perishable details of any of these plans — they change far more often than the sticker price — so building them into the calculator’s logic would go stale quietly. Check each provider’s own plan comparison page for current feature specifics.

Disclaimer

Prices shown are each provider’s standard consumer subscription price as of 2026-09-16, cross-checked against multiple independent sources since none of the three official pricing pages permitted a direct automated check at the time this was written. AI subscription pricing has been especially volatile recently — two of these three providers changed their tier structure within the last several months — so this page is rechecked monthly rather than on this site’s usual review cadence. Always verify current pricing on the provider’s own site before subscribing.