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brian austin
brian austin

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ChatGPT costs P1,120/month in the Philippines — here's the P112 alternative

#philippines #ai #webdev #claudeai

ChatGPT costs P1,120/month in the Philippines — here's the P112 alternative

If you're a Filipino developer, here's the math that doesn't feel right:

ChatGPT Plus = $20/month = roughly P1,120/month at current exchange rates.

That's not a coffee. That's groceries for a week in many parts of the Philippines.

The real cost in Filipino terms

The Philippine minimum wage in Metro Manila is around P610/day. So ChatGPT Plus costs roughly 2 days of minimum wage salary every single month just to access an AI tool.

For developers in Cebu, Davao, or outside Metro Manila where wages are lower, the math is even worse.

Why this matters for Pinoy developers

The Philippines has one of the fastest-growing developer communities in Southeast Asia. Filipino developers are building apps, freelancing on Upwork, shipping products for global clients.

But $20/month AI tools were designed for Silicon Valley salaries, not Philippine peso wallets.

Silicon Valley engineer: $20/month = 0.05% of salary
Filipino developer: P1,120/month = 5-10% of salary
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That's a 100-200x difference in relative cost.

What I built instead

I'm running SimplyLouie — a Claude-powered AI API and chat interface at P112/month.

That's 10x cheaper than ChatGPT. Same Claude model. No tricks.

Here's the actual API call:

curl -X POST https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello from Manila!"}]
  }'
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Response:

{
  "id": "msg_01...",
  "content": [{"text": "Hello! How can I help you today?"}],
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5"
}
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The Python integration 

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    api_key="YOUR_SIMPLYLOUIE_KEY",
    base_url="https://simplylouie.com/api"
)

message = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-5",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Kumusta!"}]
)

print(message.content[0].text)
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Just change base_url to point to SimplyLouie. Your existing Anthropic SDK code works without any other changes.

Who it's for

  • Filipino freelancers billing in USD but earning in PHP
  • Startups in the PH tech ecosystem (Makati, BGC, Cebu IT Park)
  • Students and junior developers learning to build with AI
  • Anyone who thinks P1,120/month for ChatGPT is too much

The mission behind it

I built this because AI tools shouldn't only be accessible to people with US-dollar salaries. 50% of revenue goes to animal rescue organizations — because accessible technology and compassion should go together.

7-day free trial. No credit card required to start.

→ simplylouie.com/ph/

P112/month. That's less than a Jollibee meal. For an AI that can write code, answer questions, help with your freelance projects, and keep up with your Upwork clients.

Built for #PinoyDevs. Priced for the Philippines.

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