𝗔𝗜 𝗪𝗮𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 $𝟮𝟬 𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵
The low price of AI was a lie.
For three years, users paid twenty dollars a month. This felt like a fair price. Now, the industry is changing. The cheap years were a subsidy paid by investors to get you hooked.
The subscription prices look the same. Pro is still ten dollars. Pro+ is thirty-nine dollars. But what you get for those dollars has changed.
Each plan now uses a credit system. You get a set amount of credits. When you run out, you pay more or you stop. There is no safety net anymore.
This change hits hard:
- One developer saw a monthly bill jump from 29 dollars to 750 dollars.
- A user spent 8 percent of their monthly credits in two hours.
- A single code change request cost 6 dollars.
Why is this happening? Software usually costs almost nothing to serve one extra person. AI is different. Every time you run a model, it costs money. Smarter models cost more because they do more work. An agent that writes code and runs tests uses massive amounts of power.
Investors paid the gap for three years. They wanted you to build the habit.
OpenAI expects to lose 14 billion dollars in 2026. They want profit by 2029. They are moving toward a utility model. You will pay for what you use, just like electricity or water.
Companies are feeling the pain too:
- Uber burned its entire 2026 AI budget in four months.
- Uber engineers increased usage from 32 to 84 percent.
- Microsoft restricted access to certain tools after cost reviews.
The price of tokens is falling, yet bills are rising. This is because we use the tools differently. We no longer ask simple questions. We give AI entire jobs. Jobs cost more than questions.
The tools are better than ever. That is the problem. They work so well that companies cannot afford to use them freely.
The era of unlimited AI for a flat fee is over. The grown-up phase of AI has begun.
Source: https://dev.to/apoorvdarshan/ai-was-never-20-a-month-2plo
Optional learning community: https://t.me/GyaanSetuAi