How Much Do AI Tools Cost in 2026? Real Entry Prices by Category
The honest answer: it depends on the meter
AI tools are priced four different ways — flat subscriptions, per-seat plans, credit systems and per-token API rates — which is why "how much does it cost?" rarely has a one-line answer. The figures below are the entry prices our editors verify for every listing in this directory, organised by the jobs people actually search for. Every number links to a full review with the complete pricing picture.
AI chatbots and assistants
The big assistants have settled around a standard twenty: ChatGPT Plus is ~$20/mo (with a Go tier from ~$8/mo), Claude Pro is from ~$20/mo and Perplexity Pro is from ~$20/mo — all three keep genuinely usable free plans. Google Gemini undercuts the pattern with AI Plus from ~$4.99/mo. Private and local options sit outside the subscription model entirely: Underdog runs on your own computer and is free during its invite-only beta.
AI writing and content
Writing tools spread widest. Grammarly Pro is from ~$30/mo, Copy.ai's Chat plan from ~$29/mo and Jasper Pro from ~$69/mo (~$59/mo billed annually). Writesonic now bundles its article writer with AI search visibility tracking, and its plans start around ~$99/mo — a useful reminder to check what a platform has become before comparing its price with pure writing tools.
AI video
Video is credit country. Kling 4.0 plans start at $8.80/mo for 660 credits, and the meter runs per second: 10 credits per second at 720p, 15 at 1080p. Runway paid plans start from ~$15/mo after free credits, and Descript — editing rather than generation — starts from ~$24/mo. Always convert credits into finished seconds before comparing two video tools; the cheaper plan is often the one with the slower meter, not the lower headline price.
Voice, image and design
ElevenLabs voice plans start from ~$6/mo. Midjourney image plans start from ~$10/mo, and Canva Pro is $18/mo billed monthly ($144/yr) for the design suite most small teams already know.
Code and API models
Developer pricing splits in two. IDE assistants are subscriptions — Cursor starts from ~$8/mo. Raw models are per-token: MiniMax M3.1 Flash charges $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output, GPT-6.1 Terra charges $1 per 1M input and $5 per 1M output, and the OpenAI Decisions API charges $0.10 per 1M input with output free. At these rates the model itself is rarely the bill — the orchestration around it is.
Productivity and business
Per-seat pricing rules here, so multiply before you fall in love. Reclaim AI keeps a free Lite plan and paid tiers from ~$12/user/mo for calendar defence. Asana AI is not sold separately at all — it rides inside Asana plans from $10.99/user/mo billed annually, with AI request caps that matter more than the seat price. For design-to-engineering work, zCAD keeps a free AI tier (200 credits a month) before AI Plus at $49.99/mo.
Marketing and brand visibility
The newest category is also the most split. AI-answer visibility starts free: Dageno's Brand Explorer and Operato AI's readiness score both cost nothing. Classic monitoring starts at Awario's $29/mo and Brand24's $79/mo (both billed annually), and full SEO suites with AI layers start at Ahrefs $129/mo and Semrush $139.95/mo. Our Dageno alternatives guide compares this cluster properly.
Three pricing traps to watch
- Credits that hide the meter. Convert every credit plan into cost per finished output — per second of video, per image, per article — before comparing.
- Per-seat creep. A $11 tool is a $550 line item at fifty seats. Check whether AI features are capped per account, not per user.
- Annual-billing headlines. Most "from" prices assume annual billing; monthly billing commonly runs 15–30% higher. Reclaim's published annual discount, for example, is 29%.
Paying for several tools already? Add them up in our free AI Tool Cost Calculator — it uses the same verified prices as this guide and flags overlapping subscriptions you can cut. Or browse the full directory with pricing on every card.