Subscriptions and API costs

AI pricing comparison: price the work, not the plan name

A headline price says little until you know what it buys. This page puts plan prices from ChatGPT, Claude, Google and ZeroTwo in one table, shows how the same token count produces very different API bills, and gives you a calculator for your own workload. Vendor figures were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 5 October 2026.

ZeroTwo sells one of the plans compared here. Its numbers come from the same catalog as the pricing page, and the verdicts below say where a competitor is the better fit.

One API bill, itemised

  1. uncached input× input rate
  2. + cached input reads× cache-read rate
  3. + cache writes× cache-write rate
  4. + output tokens× output rate

Rates are per million tokens. A subscription swaps this formula for a flat price and a limit rule, so compare the rule as well as the price.

plans on the price table
13
sellers: ChatGPT, Claude, Google, ZeroTwo
4
date vendor pages were read
5 Oct 2026

Plan prices, lowest to highest

Monthly list prices as each seller displayed them on 5 October 2026, with the annual option and what the seller says about usage. The bar is scaled to the highest plan listed.

Consumer AI plans from ChatGPT, Claude, Google and ZeroTwo: monthly list price, annual option and what the seller says about usage, sorted by monthly price.
PlanMonthlyAnnual optionWhat the seller says about usage
Google AI Plus$4.99Not stated on the pageEntry tier of Google's AI plans.
ChatGPT Go$8Monthly plan, per its FAQMore messages with tools, uploads and image creation than Free. The page notes this plan may include ads.
ZeroTwo Plus$14.99$11.99/mo billed annually1,650 monthly credits and 1,000 free Auto requests / month.
Google AI Pro$19.99$199.99 per yearIncludes $10 in monthly Google Cloud credits.
ChatGPT Plus$20Monthly plan, per its FAQExpanded messages and uploads. The page says limits apply.
Claude Pro$20$17/mo equivalent, $200 billed up frontMore usage than Free. Limits reset on a rolling five-hour window with weekly limits on top; there is no fixed message count.
ZeroTwo Pro$29.99$26.99/mo billed annually3,500 monthly credits and 2,500 free Auto requests / month.
ZeroTwo Pro 2x$59.98$53.98/mo billed annually7,000 monthly credits and 5,000 free Auto requests / month.
Google AI Ultra 5x$99.99Monthly onlyIncludes $40 in monthly Google Cloud credits.
ChatGPT ProFrom $100Not stated on the pageYour choice of three usage tiers. Items marked unlimited are subject to abuse guardrails.
Claude MaxFrom $100Monthly onlyChoose 5x or 20x the usage of Pro.
ZeroTwo Ultra$120$96/mo billed annually14,000 monthly credits and 12,000 free Auto requests / month.
Google AI Ultra 20x$199.99Monthly onlyIncludes $100 in monthly Google Cloud credits.

Sources, read 5 October 2026: chatgpt.com/pricing, claude.com/pricing, one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans. ZeroTwo rows (highlighted) come from our pricing page catalog. Prices exclude tax and can differ by country. “From” marks the lowest tier of a plan with several.

Why a headline price is not the price

Four things change what the same number means.

Caps differ in kind, not just size

ChatGPT's page describes text chat as unlimited subject to abuse guardrails. Claude's page says there is no fixed message count: limits reset on a rolling five-hour window with weekly limits on top, and depend on the model and features you use. ZeroTwo draws every model, image, video and deep-research run from one monthly credit pool, and heavier models and longer tasks use more credits. "Unlimited", "more usage" and "credits" are three different promises, and none converts into another without your own workload.

Billing cadence moves the price

Claude Pro is $20 billed monthly or $200 billed up front, which the page shows as $17 a month. Google AI Pro is $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year, about $16.67 a month. ZeroTwo Pro is $29.99 monthly or $26.99 a month billed annually. Compare plans on the same cadence.

The limit has a price too

When you hit a cap, the options differ. Claude's page lists waiting for the reset, moving up a plan, or turning on usage credits that bill at standard API rates. On ZeroTwo you can top up credits, purchased credits never expire, and the plan allowance refreshes each billing period.

Personal, seat and usage pricing are different units

Claude Team lists a standard seat at $20 per seat per month billed annually ($25 monthly). Claude Enterprise lists a seat price plus usage billed at API rates, so the total scales with the models and tasks your team runs. ZeroTwo Business is $39.99 per seat per month ($35.99 billed annually) with 4,000 monthly credits per seat (pooled). A per-seat number only becomes a budget once you know the usage on top.

Model enterprise deployment costs

The same million tokens a day, four different bills

API prices are quoted per million tokens, but input, output and cached input have separate rates. Hold the volume at one million tokens a day for 30 days and only the mix changes. Rates below are Anthropic's published Sonnet 5.5 prices on claude.com/pricing, read 5 October 2026: $2.00 input, $0.20 cache read, $2.50 cache write and $10.00 output per million tokens. They stand in for whichever model you use.

Monthly cost of one million tokens a day for 30 days at Sonnet 5.5 list rates, by input and output mix.
Token mixPer dayPer 30 days
90% input, 10% output$2.80$84.00
70% input, 30% output$4.40$132.00
50% input, 50% output$6.00$180.00
70% input, 30% output, 60% of input read from cache$3.64$109.32

The widest gap, $84.00 against $180.00, comes from nothing but the input-to-output split. Any claim that a workload costs “about $X a day” without stating that split and the cache hit rate is not a price.

Monthly API cost calculator

Enter your monthly volume in millions of tokens and your vendor's rate per million. The rates are pre-filled with the Sonnet 5.5 rates from the table above; replace them with the model you use.

Uncached input
Cached input reads
Cache writes
Output tokens

Your monthly cost

$132.00

$4.40 a day over 30 days

Uncached input
$42.00
Cached input reads
$0.00
Cache writes
$0.00
Output (reasoning included if billed as output)
$90.00

Tokens, rates and cost add up on your device; nothing is sent anywhere.

Where ZeroTwo sits, and where it does not

ZeroTwo sells subscriptions with a monthly credit allowance, not per-token metering. We do not publish a credits-per-token conversion, so ZeroTwo cannot go in the calculator above. Here is what each personal plan includes. Ultra 2x is also listed at $240 a month with double Ultra's monthly credits.

  • Plus

    $14.99/mo

    $11.99/mo billed annually

    • 1,650 monthly credits
    • 1,000 free Auto requests / month
    • Unlimited fast models in chat

  • Pro

    $29.99/mo

    $26.99/mo billed annually

    • 3,500 monthly credits
    • 2,500 free Auto requests / month
    • Better selection of chat models

  • Pro 2x

    $59.98/mo

    $53.98/mo billed annually

    • 7,000 monthly credits
    • 5,000 free Auto requests / month
    • Same as Pro at double the allowance

  • Ultra

    $120/mo

    $96/mo billed annually

    • 14,000 monthly credits
    • 12,000 free Auto requests / month
    • Unlimited fast models, with priority processing

Where a rival plan is the better buy

If one vendor's app covers all your work, its $20-class plan costs less than ZeroTwo Pro at $29.99. If you want a vendor's own tools and caps rather than a shared credit pool, buy from that vendor.

Where the pool trade-off pays

If you would otherwise stack two or more vendor plans, one credit pool can cost less. The catch is that heavier models and longer tasks draw the pool down faster than light chat does, so a heavy month on expensive models is the case to test first.

Which option fits which buyer

Our take, with the cases where ZeroTwo is not the answer.

One vendor covers your workBuy that vendor's own planAt the $20 tier it costs less than ZeroTwo Pro at $29.99, and you keep the vendor's own app and features. Price is not a reason to leave.See Claude's plans You pay for two or more vendorsAdd up your real stack firstOn the prices above, ChatGPT Plus plus Claude Pro is $40 a month. ZeroTwo Pro is $29.99 and puts several providers' models behind one credit pool. The trade is a credit pool instead of each vendor's own caps and apps.ZeroTwo plans and credits You build on an APIGo direct and meter itPer-token pricing is the honest unit for API work. Use the calculator above with your vendor's rates. ZeroTwo plans are not metered per token, so they do not belong in that arithmetic.Browse models in ZeroTwo You are buying for a teamAsk for seat price and usage termsA seat price is half the bill when usage is billed on top. ZeroTwo Business is $39.99 per seat with pooled credits; ask every vendor what happens when the pool or the usage runs out.Model enterprise deployment costs You use AI a few times a weekStart on a free planChatGPT and Claude both list a $0 plan. ZeroTwo Free gives you 100 free credits to start plus 20 bonus credits every day you log in, with limited model selection, and needs no card. Pay only once a limit costs you more than the plan would.Start on ZeroTwo Free

Six checks before you pay for anything

The same order works for a $5 plan or a team contract.

  1. Write the workload in units

    Messages a day, tokens a month, seats, images a week. If you cannot write the unit down, no price table can help.

  2. Split what gets billed

    For API work separate uncached input, cached input, cache writes and output. Check how your vendor bills reasoning tokens; commonly they count as output.

  3. Put every option on one cadence

    Convert annual plans to a monthly equivalent, and note which plans are monthly only.

  4. Read the limit rule

    Rolling window, daily cap, credit pool or metered. The rule decides whether the sticker price is the real price.

  5. Price the overflow path

    Find what a heavy month costs once you pass the limit: top-ups, usage credits or the next plan up.

  6. Re-read before you pay

    Plans change. The vendor figures here were read on 5 October 2026; open the vendor page before you commit.

Questions about AI pricing

Is ZeroTwo cheaper than a $20 AI subscription?

No. ZeroTwo Pro is $29.99 a month ($26.99 a month billed annually), which is more than ChatGPT Plus at $20, Claude Pro at $20 or Google AI Pro at $19.99 as those vendors list them. ZeroTwo Plus is $14.99. The case for ZeroTwo is covering several providers' models in one plan, not a lower sticker price.

Why can the same token count cost twice as much?

Output tokens are billed at a higher rate than input tokens, and cached input is billed lower still. At Anthropic's published Sonnet 5.5 rates, one million tokens a day for 30 days costs $84.00 if 90% is input and $180.00 if the split is 50/50. The table on this page shows the arithmetic.

What is the difference between a subscription and an API price?

A subscription is a flat monthly price with a usage limit. An API is metered, usually per million tokens, with separate rates for input and output. ZeroTwo plans are subscriptions with a monthly credit allowance, so they are compared by plan fit rather than per token.

Do annual plans cost less?

Where an annual option is listed, yes. Claude Pro is $20 monthly or $17 a month billed up front, Google AI Pro is $19.99 monthly or $199.99 a year, and ZeroTwo Pro is $29.99 monthly or $26.99 a month billed annually. Claude Max and Google AI Ultra are listed as monthly only.

What happens when I reach my limit on ZeroTwo?

You can top up credits at any time. Purchased credits never expire, and the plan's monthly allowance refreshes at the start of each billing period. On the Free plan you start with 100 free credits and get 20 bonus credits every day you log in.

Is there a free ZeroTwo plan?

Yes. The Free plan includes 100 free credits to start, 20 bonus credits every day you log in, one file upload per message and limited model selection, image generation and tools. It does not need a card.

How current are the vendor prices on this page?

They were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 5 October 2026 and exclude tax. Prices, plan names and limits change, and some vary by country, so open the vendor page before you buy. We do not track changes after that date.

Is this page neutral?

ZeroTwo publishes it and sells one of the plans compared. To keep it checkable, vendor figures link to the vendor's own page, ZeroTwo figures come from the same catalog as the pricing page, and the verdicts say where a competitor is the better fit.

Sources and method

Vendor plan prices and limits
Read from the three vendor pages linked under the price table on 5 October 2026. Nothing was taken from third-party roundups.
API rates
Anthropic's published Sonnet 5.5 input, cache and output rates from claude.com/pricing, read 5 October 2026. The arithmetic is shown so you can swap in other rates.
ZeroTwo prices and allowances
Read from the same plan catalog that renders the pricing page. Pro's annual figure is quoted per month only.
What we did not do
We did not run a head-to-head quality test, so there is no ranking here, and we do not claim any plan is the best value for everyone.

Keep going

ZeroTwo pricing

Every plan, credit allowance and billing option in one place.

Best and cheapest AI

A price-led shortlist built on the same cost questions.

ChatGPT alternative

What changes if you move from a single-vendor plan.

Enterprise AI platform

Model enterprise deployment costs beyond the seat price.

ZeroTwo vs ChatGPT

A feature-by-feature comparison of the two products.

Models in ZeroTwo

Browse the model catalog behind the credit pool.

Test your own workload on the Free plan before you pay for any plan