Find your cheapest viable AI setup
Estimate your real monthly AI spend and immediately see lower-cost alternatives.
Recommendations are based on use case, usage level, and cost sensitivity.
Use this if…
- • You're paying for GPT-4o, Claude, or a subscription and want a cheaper equivalent.
- • You need a fast estimate before choosing between API and subscription plans.
- • You want one clear next step after seeing your projected monthly spend.
Start with a common usage scenario
Pick a preset to prefill the calculator.
500K tokens · ~375,000 words
200K tokens · ~150,000 words
GPT-4o: $3.25/month at 500K in / 200K out
Recommended: DeepSeek V4 Flash (DeepSeek) — $0.084/month at your usage. Best fit: API.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash — DeepSeek — api — $0.084/month
- ChatGPT Plus — OpenAI — subscription — $20.00/month
- GPT-4o (your selection) — OpenAI — api — $3.25/month
- Gemini 1.5 Flash — Google — api — $0.098/month
At 500K input + 200K output tokens/month, paying per-token on DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.084/mo) is cheaper than the cheapest flat subscription, ChatGPT Plus ($20.00/mo).
Best fit: API
Estimated Monthly Cost
$3.25
Input: $1.25 · Output: $2.00
GPT-4o
OpenAI
Best fit: API
Recommended: DeepSeek V4 Flash (DeepSeek) — $0.084/month at your usage. Best fit: API.
At 500K input + 200K output tokens/month, paying per-token on DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.084/mo) is cheaper than the cheapest flat subscription, ChatGPT Plus ($20.00/mo).
- DeepSeek V4 Flash — DeepSeek (api) — $0.084/month
- ChatGPT Plus — OpenAI (subscription) — $20.00/month
- GPT-4o (your selection) — OpenAI (api) — $3.25/month
- Gemini 1.5 Flash — Google (api) — $0.098/month
You are overpaying by $3.17/month.
Switch to DeepSeek V4 Flash — save $3.17/month
97% lower than GPT-4o at this usage ($0.084 vs $3.25 per month).
Consider routing to DeepSeek V4 Flash to save 97% — minimal quality trade-off.
How are costs calculated?
API costs are calculated as: (input tokens / 1000 × input cost per 1K) + (output tokens / 1000 × output cost per 1K). Subscription costs are flat monthly fees regardless of usage.
1 token ≈ 0.75 words ≈ 4 characters of English text. Learn more about tokens →
Often 10× cheaper than GPT-4o for the same output
Most content and coding tasks cost under $1/month with DeepSeek V3 via API.
Try DeepSeek V3 →