Stack economics
Which AI productivity tools earn their subscription? Run your own numbers.
Most lists rank tools by features. This page gives you a worksheet instead: time a task by hand, time it again with the tool including the minutes you spend checking its work, and keep only the subscriptions that clear their price. ZeroTwo sells one of the plans you can test. The worksheet works for any of them.
The ledger, in one line
- Minutes the task took by hand
- Minutes it takes with the tool
- Minutes you spend checking and fixing the output
- Times you do the task each month
- What an hour of your time is worth
- What the subscription costs
= Net per month. Keep the tool only if it is clearly positive.
Buy the smallest stack that fixes your top three time sinks
That is a judgement, not a measurement. A generalist platform covers many jobs at one price. A specialist can go deeper at one job at its own price. Only your own timings can say which side of that you are on.
Consolidate when
Most of your recurring jobs are text, research, images or light code, and one platform handles them at a quality you accept after your own edit pass. You trade some depth for one bill and one place to work.
Keep a specialist when
One job drives most of your hours and a niche tool is visibly better at it on your real files. Depth in the job you do daily is worth paying for.
Cut when
The ledger shows no net gain after review time, or you have not opened the tool in a month. An unused subscription is a loss at any price.
The productivity ledger
Enter your own task frequency, before and after times, and the time you spend reviewing output. The table does the arithmetic and nothing leaves your browser.
Placeholder numbers. The rows below are there so the table is not empty. They are not measurements, and they are not what ZeroTwo users save. Replace them with your own timings.
| Task | Times per week | Min. by hand | Min. with tool | Min. checking | Net min. per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 173 | |||||
| 156 | |||||
| 130 | |||||
| 65 | |||||
| 0 |
A negative figure means checking and fixing took longer than doing the task by hand. That is a real outcome; keep it in the ledger.
- Time returned per month
- 8.7 h
- Worth at your hourly value
- $350
- Stack cost per month
- $30
- Net per month
- $320
These results are arithmetic on whatever is in the table above. Until you replace the placeholder rows, they describe made-up inputs.
Net positive with room to spare. Keep it, and re-check in a month. Break-even is about 45 minutes of net time saved per month. The decision rule (keep at twice the cost, trial below that) is our rule of thumb, not a standard.
To fill the cost box for other vendors, use each vendor's own pricing page. Our AI pricing comparison lays out plan costs and limits side by side, and you should still confirm any number there against the vendor before relying on it.
How to time a task honestly
The ledger is only as good as the minutes you give it. Four steps keep the numbers from flattering the tool.
Time the task by hand
Pick three to five recurring tasks. For one week, note how long each takes and how often you do it. Use a timer, not memory.
Time it with the tool
Do the same kind of task with the tool, starting the clock at the first prompt and stopping when the result is ready to send or ship.
Count the checking
Record the minutes spent verifying names, numbers and sources and rewriting weak passages. This is the line most claimed savings leave out.
Re-run at 30 days
Early results flatter new tools. Enter the figures again after a month of real use and let the decision column settle.
What the research does and does not tell you
Two sources are worth knowing. Both are real, and both are easy to over-read. This page does not list per-task time savings, because we have no measured ones to give you.
- more issues resolved per hour, on average, for customer-support agents given a generative-AI assistant5,179 agents at one company
- 14%
- improvement for novice and low-skilled agents, with minimal impact on experienced, highly skilled onesSame study
- 34%
- of global knowledge workers said they use AI at workMicrosoft 2024 Work Trend Index
- 75%
- of those users say AI helps them save time, which is a self-reported answer, not a measured savingMicrosoft 2024 Work Trend Index
- 90%
- The 14% comes from customer-support chats at one company. Do not paste it onto your own email or research without timing them.
- The gain concentrated in less experienced workers. If you are already fast at a task, expect a smaller effect.
- A survey saying people feel faster is not the same as a stopwatch. That is why the ledger asks for before, after and review minutes.
Sources, read 5 October 2026: Brynjolfsson, Li and Raymond, Generative AI at Work, NBER Working Paper 31161; Microsoft 2024 Work Trend Index.
Start from the time sink, not the tool category
Six common frictions, what to try first, and what to put a stopwatch on.
Email and writing eat my week
Try first
AI chat, a writing assistant, a grammar check
Time this
From blank page to a reply you would send, including your edit pass.
ZeroTwo AI chatMeetings leave me with notes to write up
Try first
A summarizer for notes or transcripts
Time this
From raw notes to a recap people can act on. Check whether you need live call capture; this page does not claim ZeroTwo records meetings.
Meeting action extractorI research before every project
Try first
Web-grounded research plus a chat model
Time this
From question to a brief you would cite, including opening each source to confirm it says what the answer says.
Deep researchI make decks, posts and visuals
Try first
Document and slide drafting, image generation, video
Time this
From brief to an asset you would publish, counting retries.
AI image generatorI write or fix code daily
Try first
A code agent or generator, plus chat for design questions
Time this
From ticket to a change you would merge, including review and tests.
AI code generatorMy calendar and inbox run my day
Try first
A personal assistant for planning and reply drafts
Time this
From a messy list to a plan you will follow. Daily-assistant jobs have their own page.
AI personal assistant
Consolidate or keep the specialist: what to test first
A single plan only replaces a subscription if it passes a real task of yours. The checklist lists what ZeroTwo offers for each job and a concrete test to run before you cancel anything.
| Job | What ZeroTwo offers | Test before you cancel a specialist |
|---|---|---|
| Chat and drafting | Chat across 60+ models. Model selection is limited on Free and broader on Plus and Pro. | Run your three most frequent prompts on the model you use today and on one alternative. Compare after your own edit pass. |
| Long documents | Canvas, a side editor for long drafts. Canvas | Take a real two-page document through two revision rounds and count the rounds you needed. |
| Research | Web search (Serper on Free, Exa on paid plans) and deep research (limited on Free, 150 a month on Plus, included on Pro and above). Deep research | Re-run a question you have already researched. Open every cited source and check it supports the claim. |
| Images | Image generation, limited on Free. Plus and above include image and video generation. AI image generator | Recreate the last asset you paid for. Judge it against your brand needs and count retries. |
| Video | Video generation on Plus and above. AI image to video | Brief it with a clip you actually need and check duration, format and look against your requirements. |
| Code | A code agent on Plus and above, ZeroCode on Pro and above. Code agent | Give it a ticket from your backlog and time it to a change you would merge. If you rely on in-editor completion, check that separately; it is a different workflow from an agent session. |
| Meetings and notes | Summaries of notes or transcripts you paste or upload. Uploads are one per message on Free and multiple per task on Plus and above. | This page does not claim live call recording or auto-join. If you need either, confirm it before cancelling a recorder. |
| Slides | Outlines and slide text drafted in chat. AI document editor | If you need finished layouts or brand templates, build one real deck before consolidating. |
| Multi-step chores | Work agent on Plus and above. AI agent platform | Pick one recurring chore, run it three times and note where it needed you. |
Plan gating follows ZeroTwo's plan catalog. We have not run a side-by-side feature test against other vendors, so this is a checklist for you to run, not a verdict.
What a specialist can still win
Depth and workflow fit in the one job you do all day: an editor-level coding tool, a recorder that joins your calls, or an image tool whose look your brand depends on. If a job carries most of your hours, test the specialist against the platform on that job first.
Where one plan helps
The long tail: occasional research, a few images a month, a draft here and there. Those jobs rarely justify their own subscription, and a plan that covers them at an acceptable quality removes bills you barely use.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed annually, per month | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 100 free credits to start; +20 bonus credits every day you log in; 1 file upload per message; Limited model selection; Limited image generations; Limited projects; Limited tool selection; Limited memories; Serper web search |
| Plus | $14.99 | $11.99 | 1,000 free Auto requests / month; 1,650 monthly credits; +20 bonus credits every day you log in; Unlimited fast models in chat; Image and video generation; Memory unlocked; Multiple file uploads per task; Access to Work agent; Access to code agent; 150 deep researches / month (uses credits); Exa web search |
| Pro | $29.99 | $26.99 | 2,500 free Auto requests / month; 3,500 monthly credits; +30 bonus credits every day you log in; Better unlimited chat model selection; Expanded memory; Unlimited projects; Access to deep research; Access to ZeroCode; Access to Work agent; 1,500 Firecrawl credits |
Prices and allowances come from ZeroTwo's plan catalog. See the pricing page for every plan and for how credits are used.
For teams, count seats and last-use dates
Per-seat tools multiply. A tool that is cheap for one person becomes a line item across a team, and unused seats are where the waste hides. Run the ledger per role, not per company.
- List every AI subscription, its seat count and who last used it.
- Review the list each quarter and drop what nobody opened.
- Prefer one shared workspace over tools that need glue to pass work along.
ZeroTwo Business
$39.99per seat per month
4,000 monthly credits per seat (pooled); pooled team credits & shared workspaces.
One page per job
If the ledger points at a single job, these ZeroTwo pages go deeper on it. The full list lives in the AI tools directory.
- AI chatQ&A, drafting, brainstorming
- AI writingLong-form drafts and edits
- AI researchWeb-grounded multi-step research
- AI imageGenerate and edit images
- AI videoShort clips from images and prompts
- Meeting notesRecaps and action items
- Slides and docsOutline and draft documents
- AI codeGenerate, refactor, debug
- AI agentsMulti-step, tool-using workflows
- SummarizerCompress articles and threads
- Grammar and editClarity, tone, structure
- Personal assistantPlanning and reply drafts
Questions about AI productivity tools
Do AI productivity tools actually save time?
Sometimes, and it depends on the task and the person. One NBER study of 5,179 customer-support agents found 14% more issues resolved per hour on average, with a 34% gain for novice and low-skilled workers and minimal impact on experienced ones. Microsoft's 2024 Work Trend Index reports that 90% of AI users say it helps them save time, which is a self-reported figure. Neither tells you what happens on your email or your research, so time your own tasks with the ledger on this page.
How do I measure whether a tool is worth its price?
Record minutes by hand, minutes with the tool and minutes spent checking its output for a handful of recurring tasks. Multiply the net minutes by how often you do the task and by the value of your hour, then subtract the monthly price. If the result is negative after a month of real use, cut the tool.
Are AI productivity tools free?
ZeroTwo has a Free plan with 100 free credits to start and 20 bonus credits every day you log in, one file upload per message and limited model selection, and no card is required. Other vendors' free tiers and limits vary and change, so check each vendor's own pricing page before you compare.
Should I replace several specialist subscriptions with one platform?
Only for the jobs where the platform passes your own test. A consolidated plan can cover chat, writing, research, images and light code at one price, but a specialist can be better at the one job you do all day. Use the equivalence checklist on this page to test a real task before you cancel anything.
What does ZeroTwo cost?
ZeroTwo Plus is $14.99 per month and Pro is $29.99 per month, or $26.99 per month billed annually. Business is $39.99 per seat per month. Allowances and included features differ by plan, so read the plan table on this page or the pricing page.
Is there a free trial?
No. ZeroTwo has no free trial. It has a standing Free plan that needs no card, and you can move to a paid plan when the ledger says it pays for itself.
Who wrote this, and what we have not tested
ZeroTwo publishes this page and sells the plans it mentions, so weigh our opinions accordingly. The ledger is built to test any tool the same way. We have not run matched-task tests across vendors, we do not quote competitor prices here, and the figures in the ledger start as placeholders until you replace them. Read the AI personal assistant page for day-to-day assistant jobs and the platform comparison or AI models for text generation for the wider field.