The final two scenarios are the ones that hide longest, because nothing is broken. The Ultra subscriber gets great answers. The founder's team is happy. The only symptom is a number on a statement that nobody has looked at since it was set up.
Scenario 9: Google AI Ultra for chat
Nadia signed up for Google AI Ultra at $249 a month during a launch, for the top models and the highest limits. She uses Gemini for daily chat, drafting and summarising documents. She has never generated a video and does not use the heavy compute quotas. Which plan should she be on?
Which would you trust?
Which is the cheapest plan that still does Nadia's job?
Scenario 10: the founder's three empty seats
| Seat | Last active | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 team members | This week | $125 | $1,500 |
| Contractor who finished in May | 4 months ago | $25 | $300 |
| Intern who left in July | 2 months ago | $25 | $300 |
| Founder's second account from a trial | Never | $25 | $300 |
| Total | $200 | $2,400, of which $900 is empty |
Verdict: remove the three seats today and put a monthly reminder in the calendar to look at the admin page. That is $75 a month, $900 a year, for a change nobody will notice. Unused seats are the largest and dullest source of AI overspend on this whole site: no model choice, no arithmetic, just a renewal nobody owned. The fix is not a better plan; it is a person whose job is to look once a month.
Now your own bill
Ten scenarios is enough pattern. The prompt below turns the same questions on your own subscriptions: what each is uniquely for, whether a cheaper tier does it, and where two overlap. It runs on any free tier, which is itself the point.
Your turn
The one-minute audit
I pay for these AI subscriptions: [SUBSCRIPTIONS]. Here is what I actually do with AI in a normal week: [WEEKLY USE]. For each subscription, tell me: which of my tasks it is uniquely needed for, whether a cheaper tier or a free tier of the same vendor would do those tasks, and whether any two subscriptions overlap. Then give me a one-line verdict per subscription: keep, downgrade, or cancel, with the yearly saving.
Hint: Be honest in the weekly-use slot. The audit is only as good as the usage you admit to.