AI pricing compared
Every AI subscription in one place — free tiers, monthly cost, and what each tier actually unlocks. Sorted cheapest-first.
Find the right one for you → Compare side by side
| AI | Free tier | Cheapest paid | Plan ladder |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Meta AI by Meta |
Yes Yes — free across Meta apps and meta.ai |
Free (no consumer paid tier of note) | Free |
|
HuggingChat by Hugging Face |
Yes Yes — entirely free |
Free | Free |
|
Gemini by Google |
Yes Yes — generous: Gemini Flash with Google Search grounding, image generation and Workspace integrations |
$4.99/mo (AI Plus) — AI Pro $19.99/mo | Free · AI Plus $4.99 · AI Pro $19.99 · AI Ultra $200; included in Workspace plans |
|
ChatGPT by OpenAI |
Yes Yes — limited GPT-5.5 messages (roughly 10 per 5 hours), with browsing, file uploads and image analysis; ad-supported elements introduced in 2026 |
$8/mo (Go) — Plus $20/mo | Free · Go $8 · Plus $20 · Pro $100 · Pro Max $200; Business $25/user/yr-billed |
|
Le Chat (Mistral) by Mistral AI (France) |
Yes Yes — capable free tier |
~$15–20/mo Pro tier | Free · Pro (~$15–20) |
|
Claude by Anthropic |
Yes Yes — daily message caps; long-form output quality notably strong on free tier |
$20/mo (~£16, $17/mo billed annually) | Free · Pro $20 · Max $100 (5×) · Max $200 (20×); Team ~$25–30/user |
|
Microsoft Copilot by Microsoft |
Yes Yes — Copilot chat free with a Microsoft account, including in Windows and Edge |
~$20/mo (Copilot Pro); M365 Copilot ~$30/user for business | Free · Pro ~$20 · Microsoft 365 Copilot ~$30/user (business) |
|
Perplexity by Perplexity AI |
Yes Yes — unlimited basic searches; limited Pro searches per day |
$20/mo (Pro) | Free · Pro $20 |
|
Poe by Quora |
Yes Yes — daily compute points across models |
~$20/mo | Free · Premium ~$20 |
|
Grok by xAI |
Yes Limited free tier |
$30/mo (SuperGrok); also via X Premium+ ~$40/mo | Free (limited) · SuperGrok $30 · SuperGrok Heavy $300 · via X Premium+ $40 |
|
DeepSeek by DeepSeek (China) |
Yes Yes — generous free chat access |
API-priced (very low per-token costs) | Free chat · pay-as-you-go API |
|
NotebookLM by Google |
Yes Yes — generous free tier |
Included in Google AI Pro/Ultra plans | Free · enhanced limits with Google AI plans |
Which tier should you actually pick?
Free is enough if…
You're using AI a few times a day for everyday writing, quick research, or casual questions. Gemini's free tier is the strongest all-rounder. Claude's free tier gives the best output quality on long-form work. ChatGPT free gives the most flexibility but now includes advertising elements. Try two or three free tiers on real tasks before paying.
The ~$20/month sweet spot
If you use AI most days for work, the $20 tier of any major platform pays for itself in time saved. ChatGPT Plus gives the widest feature set; Claude Pro delivers the highest output quality on coding and long documents; Google AI Pro wins for Workspace users. Perplexity Pro wins if your job is mostly research.
The $4.99 / £4 cheat code
Google's AI Plus tier at $4.99 a month is currently the best-value paid option of any major AI. You get Gemini Pro access at roughly a quarter of the price of Plus/Pro/Advanced tiers from competitors. If budget matters, start here.
Power-user tiers ($100–$300)
ChatGPT Pro ($100), Claude Max ($100 or $200), Google AI Ultra ($200) and SuperGrok Heavy ($300) are aimed at people running AI as a serious daily tool — researchers, engineers, heavy content producers. Most users never need these. If you're capping out your $20 tier weekly, they pay back. If you aren't, they don't.
Stacking: when one subscription isn't enough
If you're paying $80+/month across multiple AI subscriptions, two cheaper paths exist: Poe bundles many models under one ~$20 subscription, and API access through tools like HuggingChat or direct provider APIs can work out cheaper for moderate use than two or three flat subscriptions.
Frequently asked questions
What's the cheapest AI subscription?
Google's AI Plus tier at $4.99/month — substantially cheaper than the ~$20/month standard from ChatGPT, Claude or Google's own AI Pro. ChatGPT Go at $8/month is the second cheapest among the big names.
Which AI has the best free tier?
Gemini's free tier is the most generous overall — it includes image generation, Google Search grounding, and Workspace integrations. Claude's free tier offers the strongest output quality per message but caps daily usage. ChatGPT's free tier is flexible but now includes advertising.
Is paying for AI worth it?
For occasional use, no — free tiers cover most casual needs. For daily work use, yes — the time saved on a single task most days easily exceeds £15–20 a month. The question isn't really whether to pay, but which tool fits your specific work.
Can I share an AI subscription?
Personal subscriptions (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Google AI Pro) are tied to one account and sharing breaches the terms. For teams, all three offer Team/Business plans starting around $25–30 per user per month with admin controls and (on most) commercial data protection.