INDEPENDENT AI PRICING RESEARCH

About NotCheapAI

What does this actually cost?

NotCheapAI is an independent publisher focused on AI pricing and cost analysis. We help readers turn an advertised price into a budget they can understand, question and compare.

A monthly plan price can leave out seats, usage limits, credits, API charges, overages and retries. Running a workload yourself can add infrastructure, storage and egress costs. The right comparison starts with what you need to produce or run, then asks which charges apply.

What we publish

Our cost guides compare subscriptions, APIs, vendors and practical workloads. They examine hidden costs, tier differences and break-even points for creators, developers and teams. The aim is to support a purchasing decision with clear units and assumptions.

Pricing guides and comparisons

Plan allowances, billing units, restrictions and the costs that become visible as usage grows.

Calculators and scenarios

Adjustable estimates that show how your workload, existing credits and purchase rules affect spending.

AI Price Index

A dated pricing reference with official sources, selected plans and API rates. It is a snapshot, with its scope and limits stated.

Where the prices come from

We prefer first-party evidence in this order:

Official pricing pages for advertised prices, billing periods and plan allowances.
Official documentation for API rates, billing mechanics and technical limits.
Official support pages and FAQs for rules that need further explanation.
Official announcements and changelogs for dated changes and product availability.

When secondary material is necessary, it should be identified separately from official evidence. Source links let you check the claim and its context. A source may support one rate or limit without supporting every conclusion in a comparison.

Undisclosed prices stay unavailable, custom or quote-only. We do not turn a sales-contact offer into an invented number. Prices, availability and regional terms can change after publication; check the provider’s current terms before buying.

What “real cost” means

A useful model connects the billing unit to the work you intend to do. Depending on the product, that might mean cost per developer, minute, image, video, million tokens or workload; an annual team budget; or a break-even point between two approaches.

Official price: A stated price or billing rule taken from a source, with its unit and conditions.
Calculated cost: Math that applies those rules to a stated workload. Included allowances, rounding, minimum purchases and retries can change the result.
Illustrative scenario: An example chosen to show scale or a trade-off. It is an estimate, not a vendor quote or proof of a tested production campaign.

The calculator methodology explains demand formulas, eligibility, subscription capacity, credit balances and additional cash required. Its estimates are in USD before tax and exclude named costs such as labor and equipment. Individual guides state their own assumptions and scope. Quality scores are planning heuristics, not laboratory results; a small pilot can help you judge suitability.

Checks, updates and dates

Pricing is checked against sources when a pricing record is reviewed or updated. A visible Prices checked date refers to that verification, not the day the website was rebuilt. Older guides retain their stated dates and examples; the source-and-date presentation is available on selected pages and is not yet universal.

A page’s modification date records a material content revision under our date policy. Adding navigation does not make an old calculation newly verified. In the Price Index, a material price-change date remains Unknown without dated evidence. We do not claim continuous monitoring, a complete change history or real-time prices.

How AI assists the work

AI tools may assist with organizing research, calculations, drafting, comparison structure, consistency checks and quality assurance. Pricing claims are checked against source material, and numerical assumptions and calculations are reviewed before publication.

AI assistance does not establish whether a price is current or a model is appropriate. Those questions require evidence and judgment. A worked example also does not imply hands-on testing of every product. Readers should be able to inspect the sources and assumptions behind the result.

Editorial independence and funding

Commercial relationships do not determine our conclusions. Advertisers do not buy favorable cost comparisons, rankings or recommendations. An analysis may show that a product is expensive for a particular workload even when it is useful for another.

NotCheapAI may display advertising to help support publication. Current provider links use ordinary pricing and documentation URLs, without affiliate tracking or paid placement in the rankings. If affiliate links or sponsored content are introduced, the relationship will be disclosed where it appears. We do not claim to be free of all judgment or bias.

Our Privacy notice explains analytics, advertising services, calculator inputs and contact emails. The separate NotCheapAI Brief uses Beehiiv for newsletter signup and delivery; the main site does not collect newsletter email addresses.

Who’s behind NotCheapAI

NotCheapAI is run by Dejan Petkovic, a lifelong technology enthusiast who has been at a keyboard since the days of the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.

Born in Serbia and based in London for the past 15 years, Dejan has followed technology through several generations of change — from early home computing to the internet, cryptocurrencies and now artificial intelligence. When he is not digging into new technology, chess is usually somewhere nearby.

He started NotCheapAI for a simple reason: AI pricing is often much harder to understand than it should be. Subscription tiers, credits, API rates, usage limits, retries and infrastructure costs can make the advertised price very different from what someone actually ends up paying.

NotCheapAI is his attempt to cut through that noise and show the real cost of modern AI tools — without corporate gloss, inflated claims or pretending that every product is cheaper than it really is.

AI assists with research organisation, calculations, drafting and quality checks, but the direction of the site, what gets investigated, what gets published and the final editorial decisions remain human-led.

Our editorial responsibility is to make the source evidence, arithmetic and limitations clear enough for readers to assess. This About page is the identity reference for the site’s NotCheapAI bylines.

The site provides information and browser-based estimates. It does not buy subscriptions, generate media, request provider API keys or manage your vendor account. For billing disputes or account support, contact the provider directly.

Help us correct the record

Pricing changes and mistakes can happen. Please report outdated prices, changed limits, broken source links, calculation errors or missing tiers. Include the page, the relevant inputs or result, and a current official source if available. You do not need to share passwords, API keys or private client material.

Reports are checked against the evidence. Verified corrections are applied to the affected content; a new pricing check or material revision receives the appropriate date. Rebuilding alone does not refresh prices. Use the same contact route for site feedback and questions about our research.