The problem with Big Tech AI pricing
Let me show you something that bothers me every time I look at it.
OpenAI charges $20/month for ChatGPT. Anthropic charges $20/month for Claude. Google charges $20/month for Gemini Advanced.
$20/month sounds reasonable if you're in San Francisco. It's a couple of coffees.
But let me show you what $20/month actually means in the rest of the world:
| Country | $20/month = | % of average monthly salary |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 USA | 2 coffees | ~0.5% |
| 🇬🇧 UK | 1.5 coffees | ~0.7% |
| 🇮🇳 India | 4-5 days of work | ~12% |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | 2-3 days of work | ~8% |
| 🇳🇬 Nigeria | 5-7 days of work | ~15% |
| 🇵🇠Philippines | 3-4 days of work | ~10% |
| 🇰🇪 Kenya | 4-6 days of work | ~14% |
| 🇵🇰 Pakistan | 5-7 days of work | ~16% |
The same tool. The same price. Wildly different impact.
The structural problem
Big Tech prices AI for their home market. They set one global price that works for OECD countries and call it democratizing AI.
But 5 billion people live outside those markets.
When Claude Opus 4.7 dropped this week with its impressive capabilities, the HN discussion was 1,800+ comments. The overwhelming sentiment: this is the best AI available. But the cost discussion was almost entirely absent.
That's the problem. The people building the tools are the same people who can afford them without flinching.
What local pricing actually looks like
Here's what fair pricing looks like — built for purchasing power parity:
| Country | SimplyLouie/month | ChatGPT/month | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇮🇳 India | Rs165 | Rs1,600+ | 90% |
| 🇳🇬 Nigeria | N3,200 | N32,000+ | 90% |
| 🇵🇠Philippines | P112 | P1,120+ | 90% |
| 🇰🇪 Kenya | KSh260 | KSh2,600+ | 90% |
| 🇬🇠Ghana | GH25 | GH250+ | 90% |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | Rp32,000 | Rp320,000+ | 90% |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | R$10 | R$100+ | 90% |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | MX$35 | MX$350+ | 90% |
90% cheaper. Not because the AI is worse. Because the price is set for where you actually live.
The developer API problem is even worse
Direct API access costs even more. Pay-per-token models mean a single long conversation can cost $0.50+. For a developer in Lagos building a startup, that's not a rounding error.
Here's what affordable API access looks like:
curl -X POST https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum computing"}],
"model": "claude"
}'
$2/month flat. No per-token billing. No surprise invoices. More info at simplylouie.com/developers.
Why this matters beyond developer tools
AI is becoming infrastructure. The developers who build the next generation of apps, the freelancers who use AI to punch above their weight class, the students who use it for learning — they're disproportionately in emerging markets.
If AI stays at $20/month, we're building a world where the AI advantage compounds inequality rather than reduces it.
The 7-day free trial (no charge for 7 days) is there to prove it before you pay anything.
Country-specific pages:
- India: simplylouie.com/in/
- Nigeria: simplylouie.com/ng/
- Philippines: simplylouie.com/ph/
- Kenya: simplylouie.com/ke/
- Ghana: simplylouie.com/gh/
- Indonesia: simplylouie.com/id/
- Brazil: simplylouie.com/br/
- Mexico: simplylouie.com/mx/
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