Know what AI will actually cost before you pay: I built NotCheapAI

dejan0301 — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 19:56:51 +0000

Most AI pricing pages are a small accounting nightmare.

Headline plans advertise a simple "$20/month", but once you start building and producing work, you run into:

Opaque credit systems and burn rates
Billed retry attempts (paying for failed generations)
Separate token multipliers
Surprise team-tier expansions

Having spent over 15 years in tech, I got tired of the hidden math. So I built NotCheapAI
— a 100% free, independent platform to calculate the real costs before paying.

What is live today:

6 Decision & ROI Calculators:

Multi-model Studio Video/Image/Voice budget
GitHub Copilot Seat vs Credit efficiency
AI Customer Reply ROI
Micro-SaaS Unit Economics & Break-even
Avatar video cost comparison (HeyGen vs Synthesia)

AI Price Index:

Verified pricing and allowances for 43+ top models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Midjourney, Canva, Runway, etc.) backed directly by primary documentation.
Open JSON dataset for agent builders: notcheapai.com/prices.json

139 worked cost guides: Real production budgets without vendor marketing fluff.

The site is completely free, requires no sign-up, and has no sponsored vendor rankings.

Check it out and calculate your project budget: https://notcheapai.com

I'd love your feedback!

DEV Community: dejan0301

Know what AI will actually cost before you pay: I built NotCheapAI