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brian austin
brian austin

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AI costs are rising exponentially. Here's the one that isn't.

#webdev #ai #opensource #discuss

AI costs are rising exponentially. Here's the one that isn't.

The Hacker News front page today has two uncomfortable stories for anyone paying for AI:

  1. Claude 4.7's new tokenizer costs 20-30% more per session — same prompts, bigger bills
  2. AI agent costs are rising exponentially — one analysis shows hourly AI agent costs doubling every 6 months

If you're a developer in Lagos, Lahore, Jakarta, or Nairobi, this isn't just an inconvenience. It's a question of whether you can afford to compete at all.

The math is getting worse

Here's what $20/month ChatGPT Plus costs in real terms — measured in days of average developer salary:

Country Avg Dev Salary/Day ChatGPT $20/mo SimplyLouie
🇺🇸 USA ~$200 0.1 days 0.01 days
🇮🇳 India ~$12 1.7 days 0.17 days
🇳🇬 Nigeria ~$8 2.5 days 0.25 days
🇵🇰 Pakistan ~$9 2.2 days 0.22 days
🇵🇭 Philippines ~$10 2.0 days 0.20 days
🇰🇪 Kenya ~$7 2.9 days 0.29 days
🇬🇭 Ghana ~$6 3.3 days 0.33 days
🇮🇩 Indonesia ~$9 2.2 days 0.22 days

Three days of work. Every month. Just to access an AI tool that's getting more expensive each quarter.

Now imagine that trajectory continuing. AI agent costs doubling every six months. Tokenizers costing 20-30% more. New "Pro" tiers at $200/month being pushed.

Why we're not moving

SimplyLouie is $2/month. It's been $2/month since launch. It will stay $2/month.

Here's why that's sustainable:

We built on top of Claude's API — the same model everyone else uses — but with a fixed pricing model designed around what developers in emerging markets can actually afford. Not what the US market will bear.

When Anthropic raises API costs, we absorb it. That's our bet. The $2/month price is the product.

What you get

  • Full Claude access (not a stripped-down free tier)
  • Developer API (build your own tools on top)
  • 7-day free trial, card-first, cancel anytime
  • 50% of revenue goes to animal rescue organizations

Try the API 

curl -X POST https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Write a Python function to parse JSON safely"}'
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Full developer docs: simplylouie.com/developers

Country-specific pages

Local currency pricing (because $2 is still abstract if you think in rupees):

AI costs are rising everywhere. We're the exception. And we intend to stay that way.

SimplyLouie was named after a rescue dog. 50% of every subscription goes to animal rescue organizations. The rest pays for Claude API costs and keeps the lights on.

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