"How much does this actually cost?" is the second question everyone asks about AI. The first is usually: "Isn't this all just hype?" Both are fair. The honest answer on cost: it depends on what you want to do with it.
Three tiers — and you don't have to commit to one before trying the others.
Tier 1: Trying it out — €0
Hardware: whatever you already own. Phone, laptop, tablet. Ten years old? Open a browser, you're set. AI runs on the providers' servers; your device just shuffles text back and forth.
Software: also free. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Le Chat, Perplexity, Copilot — every one of these offers free access. You can get surprisingly far. Drafting emails, summarizing texts, having code explained, converting recipes, prepping speeches.
The catch: limits. Every provider throttles after a certain number of messages or tokens. Sometimes you barely notice; sometimes you hit a wall mid-conversation. An honest overview of what's really free and where the boundaries sit lives in our article Free AI Tools: The Honest Overview.
For getting started, that's plenty. If you ask something once a week, you'll never hit a limit.
Small disclaimer on the prices below: as of May 2026. The ballpark figures are stable, but individual euro amounts shift regularly — providers adjust prices and bundles in all directions.
Tier 2: Daily use — around €20 a month
After a few weeks, you'll notice: hitting limits all the time is annoying. Or: the current model is too slow, too short on context, can't read files. Time for a subscription.
The two common options for individuals cost roughly the same:
- ChatGPT Plus — around €20 a month. More messages on the current top model, image generation without mini-limits, custom GPTs, longer conversations.
- Claude Pro — also around €20 a month. Higher message limits on the strongest Claude model, longer documents, the Projects feature for ongoing work.
Which one? Both are good. Matter of taste. Claude tends to be better for long texts and careful analysis; ChatGPT has the broader tool ecosystem around it. My suggestion: use both free tiers in parallel for a week, then pick whichever feels better. One subscription covers 95% of all individual needs.
To put it in context: €20 a month is less than most home internet plans — and probably less than the sum of your streaming subscriptions. It's a small line in the household budget. If AI saves you a single hour of work or frustration each month, the subscription has already paid for itself.
Unpaid recommendation, by the way — my own opinion, no affiliate deal.
Tier 3: Power user — around €200 a month
Up front, honestly: for most people, Tier 3 is simply overkill — and that's perfectly fine. This section isn't a recommendation; it's an honest map of how far things can go once AI becomes someone's actual job. Many readers are just curious where the rabbit hole ends. If you never need it: great, more budget for other things.
This part gets personal. I make my living as a freelance IT and AI consultant, and I let AI handle roughly 90% of my digital work — professionally and privately. Here's my current setup, with approximate monthly costs:
- Claude Max — the Swiss Army knife. Around $100–200 a month depending on the tier. Sounds like a lot at first — but it does about 80% of my daily work. Practically unlimited use of the strongest model, IDE integration, long uninterrupted sessions.
- ChatGPT Plus (~€20) — the reliable fallback. When Claude won't generate an image or won't use a specific tool, ChatGPT steps in.
- Perplexity Pro (~€20) — the AI search that actually looks at the live web. Unbeatable for research; more on that in our Perplexity article.
- Google Vertex AI — not a subscription but token-based, with a hard budget cap of €50 a month. I need it for using Gemini models in my own scripts. Rarely maxed out.
- OpenRouter — also token-based, with a $50 monthly cap. I use it to test new models and to power my own little side projects. Usually not maxed out either. Background in our OpenRouter article.
Total: in theory up to around €350 a month — in practice I usually land at about half, because the Vertex AI and OpenRouter token caps almost never fill up.
Sounds like a lot. In a professional context it really isn't:
- I make my living with this. AI measurably increases my output, so the setup pays for itself on day one of the month.
- In Germany, tools like these are typically deductible as business expenses for the self-employed. Important: we're not tax advisors. This is personal experience, not an official statement — ask your accountant.
- Compared to hardware and training: a serious AI/IT workstation isn't just the laptop. Add an external curved monitor, peripherals, desk, and chair, and you're easily at €3,000 — every three years, that's about €100 a month. Training courses and technical books come on top. In total, the "classic" cost block is clearly higher than the AI subscriptions — and it's been considered normal for decades.
What usually doesn't cost extra
Apps. The mobile apps from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc. come with the subscription. Pay once, use everywhere — browser, iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows.
The exceptions are for very specific needs. If you want AI-assisted video or audio editing, look at tools like Descript — that's a separate subscription. If you generate AI images at industrial scale, you may need Midjourney or a commercial Stable Diffusion setup. But for 95% of use cases, the big chat subscriptions cover the bases.
The bottom line
You don't need everything at once. Nobody starts at Tier 3. Almost nobody stays at Tier 1 forever.
My advice: use it free for a week. If you find yourself using it daily — pick one of the €20 subscriptions. Only when AI genuinely becomes part of your job does the jump to Tier 3 make sense. Until then it's overkill.
And if you do make that jump: expect to try a lot during the first two months, drop some of it, and rearrange your setup a couple of times. That's normal. AI tools evolve faster than most subscription contracts.