I built a tool to compare cloud and AI costs, because I couldn’t trust the numbers anymore

Thales Horta — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:17:46 +0000

If you’ve ever worked with cloud infrastructure, you probably had this feeling:

“Are we overpaying for this?”

Now add AI into the mix — OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini — and it gets even harder.

The problem

Most tools today focus on what you already spent.

But that’s not the real question.

The real questions are:

What would this workload cost on another cloud provider?
Is AWS really more expensive than OCI for this setup?
How much more am I paying by choosing one LLM over another?
What happens to my cost when I scale this?

Surprisingly, it’s still hard to answer these quickly.

What I built

I created a simple tool called:

👉 https://costifyhq.com

The idea is straightforward:

Input a workload (CPU, RAM, storage, traffic)
Or simulate AI usage (tokens, requests)
Instantly compare costs across:
- AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini

And get a quick answer like:

“You could save ~25% by switching providers”

Why this approach

I didn’t want another dashboard.

I wanted something that answers:

“What should I be paying instead?”

So the focus is:

Fast input
Simple estimates
Clear comparison
Immediate insights

Not perfect accuracy — but fast decision-making

Example

Let’s say you run:

8 vCPU
16 GB RAM
some storage and traffic

Instead of digging through pricing pages, you just get:

AWS:   $1,240
OCI:   $920
GCP:   $1,050

→ Potential savings: ~25%

Same idea for AI usage:

OpenAI:   $120
Anthropic: $95
Gemini:    $80

What I’m trying to validate

This is still early, and I’m trying to understand:

Is this something people would actually use in real workflows?
Would you trust a tool like this for decision-making?
What’s missing to make this truly useful?

Where this could go

Some ideas I’m exploring:

Saving and tracking cost scenarios over time
Alerts when a cheaper option becomes available
Real integrations with cloud billing
Smarter recommendations (not just comparison)

Would love your feedback

If you work with cloud or AI costs, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

Even if it’s:

“This is useless”
“This is interesting but missing X”
“I would actually use this if…”