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One $20 Plan Usually Covers It: Free vs. Paid AI, and a Flowchart to Pick a Plan From the Jobs You Hand Over

#ai #agents #productivity #automation

You do not need ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all at once. I put 19 jobs people hand to AI against 6 AI services and 2 free programs in one table, and most common setups need one paid plan or none. You can start at $0. If you use AI every day, though, a paid plan is worth it for the convenience, and one plan at about $20 a month usually covers it: ChatGPT Plus ($20), Google AI Pro ($19.99) or Claude Pro ($20).

This part shows what you actually get for free and for $20, and then a flowchart that takes you from the jobs you want to hand over to the AI service and plan to sign up for.

This is part 5 of the series. Part 4 (the top 15 jobs people hand to AI) listed the jobs and how to start each one. This part answers the next question: which AI service to sign up for.

I use the same two terms as part 4 (the top 15 jobs):

  • Asking AI. You ask each time, and the AI does the work itself: writing, summarizing, looking things up. Free plans can do this.
  • Running it unattended. The AI starts on its own, at a set time or when an email arrives, and you only check or approve the result. This is mostly where paid plans come in.

The short answers

  • You do not need every AI service. Pick the one AI service you will use most, then add another only when a job needs it.
  • You can start at $0. If you use AI every day, one paid plan is worth it. About $20 a month. You can ask more, use the smartest models, and have the AI run at set times.
  • Which plan is enough depends on how much work you give the AI. A cheaper plan can usually do the job; it just runs out sooner. Start at the lowest plan, and upgrade when you see "limit reached" several times a week.
  • One $20 plan, Claude Pro, covers a sole proprietor's writing, social post text, morning briefing (today's schedule and priorities) and email.
  • You do not need a separate plan for Claude Code. It comes with Claude Pro.
  • You do not need to buy a special machine. Scheduled jobs run in the AI company's cloud. But not everything runs in the cloud: jobs where AI clicks and types in apps on your screen, or data that must stay in-house, run on your own computer.

Prices and features were checked on the official pages on October 16 and 17, 2026, and checked again on October 19. Prices are US list prices before sales tax, and they change often. This part covers fixed monthly prices only.

Free vs. paid

Part 4 summed up the difference in three things: how much you can ask, which models you can use, and whether the AI can run unattended. Here it is with each company's plans and prices.

Free ($0) One paid plan (about $20 a month)
How much you can ask Low limit More. Claude Pro: at least 5x what Free allows every 5 hours. Google AI Pro: 4x Free
The smartest models Not available Available (ChatGPT: from Plus)
Have the AI run at set times Mostly no (*) Yes (ChatGPT scheduled tasks, Claude scheduled tasks, Gemini tasks)
Sort many files on your computer (Claude Code, Codex) Claude Code: no. Codex: a little, with a lighter model (rolling out) Included in Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus
Make pictures Free ChatGPT and Gemini can More pictures
Price $0 ChatGPT Plus $20, Google AI Pro $19.99, Claude Pro $20. Cheaper plans exist (ChatGPT Go $8, Google AI Plus $4.99)

(*) For free ChatGPT, OpenAI's help page says you can set one scheduled task a day, while the pricing table says free has none. Part 6 (ChatGPT) checks it.

If you ask AI now and then, the free plan is fine. If you ask every day, or want the AI to run at set times, one paid plan means hitting the limit less and doing more. Few people need a second or third paid plan.

How much work you give the AI decides the plan

Paid plans have limits too. How soon you hit them depends less on the price of the plan than on how much work you give the AI.

The same job uses a different amount depending on whether you use the AI app as it is, or go through software that makes it more convenient. Paperclip, for example, is free software that gives each AI helper a role and makes a person approve before anything is sent. Through it, each request sends the AI much more to read, so the same job brings you closer to the limit sooner.

So a cheaper plan is not "unable" to do the job. If you give the AI a lot of work, you need a higher plan.

Whether to upgrade your plan: each company's plans from cheapest up, with what the next plan adds (as of October 19, 2026). Claude: Free, Pro $20 (at least 5x what Free allows every 5 hours), Max 5x $100 (5x Pro), Max 20x $200 (20x Pro). ChatGPT: Free, Go $8, Plus $20 (the smarter models start here), Pro $100 / $200 / $500 (no five-hour limit, but a weekly limit). Gemini: Free, AI Plus $4.99 (2x Free), AI Pro $19.99 (4x Free, plus tasks that start when mail arrives and Meet notes), Ultra $99.99 / $199.99 (5x / 20x AI Pro). Perplexity: Free, Pro ($17 a month billed yearly), Max $200. Grok: Free, Plus $8, Premium $30 (4x Plus), Super $100 (15x Plus), Ultra $200 (50x Plus).

Start at the lowest plan that covers the job, and upgrade when you see "limit reached" several times in one week. Where an official page gives no number for the limit, the chart shows none.

You can also pay nothing monthly and pay only for what you use (pay-per-use), but it costs a lot. That is for jobs that truly run unattended; for everyday use there is no reason to pick it.

Three common assumptions

"I need every AI service to hand work to AI"

No. Pick the one AI service you will use most, and add another only for a job it cannot do. Most of what you add is a free plan. If your main AI is Claude and you want pictures for social posts, free ChatGPT or free Gemini makes them. Unless you make a lot of pictures, you do not need a second paid plan just for them.

A second paid plan mostly makes sense in two cases: to see what people say on X (Grok, free to start, Plus $8 for more), or when research is the core of your work (Perplexity Pro, $17 a month billed yearly).

"I have to pay for Claude Code separately"

No. Claude Code is included in Claude Pro (not in the free plan). There is also no job that only Claude Code can do: sorting and converting many files in your own folders can also be done with Codex, which comes with ChatGPT Plus.

"This job has to be done in ChatGPT"

About the only thing only ChatGPT does is dots, a ChatGPT feature that keeps working on a job you hand it and decides its own next step. For individuals it is in ChatGPT Pro ($100 and up), rolling out in stages. Gemini also makes pictures. Claude and Gemini also run jobs at set times, and Gemini also runs tasks when mail arrives.

The table: jobs you hand over, by AI service

19 jobs (20 rows, with posting to X as 11b) against 10 columns: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Paperclip, OpenClaw, the computer you have, and a computer left on. ◎ means that one service is enough, and each cell shows the lowest plan that job needs (as of October 19, 2026). For example: scheduled news, ChatGPT Go $8; morning briefing, Claude Pro $20; email summaries and drafts, free inside personal Gmail in the US, or ChatGPT Plus $20; pictures, free ChatGPT; Meet notes, Google AI Pro. Handing work between several AI workers needs Paperclip ($0); asking your own computer from a phone chat needs OpenClaw ($0, plus a paid plan).

How to read it:

  • Find your row and pick the service marked ◎. If a cell says Need, that one is hard to replace, so add it. If your main AI service's column shows ◎ or ○, that row needs nothing more.
  • The price is the lowest plan that job needs.
  • ◎ under "The computer you have" means you buy no new machine. Jobs at set times run in the AI company's cloud.

Three rows worth a closer look:

  • Email (row 1). On personal Gmail in the US, Gemini's drafts inside Gmail are free. Tasks that start when mail arrives need Google AI Pro ($19.99). A company on Microsoft 365 uses Microsoft 365 Copilot (Business Standard with Copilot, $23.50 per user per month, billed yearly).
  • Customer chat (row 9). WhatsApp, Messenger, LINE. At a few messages a day, the cheapest way is $0: a free chat AI drafts the reply and you send it from the app yourself. For fixed replies, the apps have free auto replies.
  • Bookkeeping (row 8). Start with your accounting app's own receipt capture; it needs no AI plan. QuickBooks and Xero offer an official way to connect AI to your books, but it runs on your own computer and takes some technical setup.

Chart 1: which AI service and plan to sign up for

A flowchart for picking an AI service and plan. Start by asking a free chat AI to do one everyday job ($0). Question 1: do you ask AI a lot every day, or want it to run at set times? If neither, the free plan is often enough, and the following questions check whether a job needs a paid plan. If yes, question 2 picks the one AI service you will use most from where your work email and calendar are: personal Gmail, Gemini (drafts in Gmail free in the US; AI Pro $19.99 for tasks on arrival and Meet notes); company Google Workspace, Gemini in Workspace; Microsoft 365, Copilot ($23.50); no preference, Claude for briefing, writing and email, or ChatGPT for pictures, news and social posts, both free to start and paid for daily use or set times (Claude Pro $20; ChatGPT Go $8, Plus $20). Six more questions (bookkeeping, meeting notes, pictures, research, X, customer messages) ask whether your current service is enough or you add one: pictures from free ChatGPT or Gemini, Perplexity Pro ($17 a month billed yearly) if research is your core work, Grok (free to start) for X, and for many customer messages Paperclip ($0) with a paid ChatGPT or Claude. Finally, do not keep two paid plans that do the same thing, and start at the lowest plan that covers the job.

Go down the questions in order:

  1. Do you ask AI a lot every day, or want it to run at set times? If neither, the free plan is often enough, but some features are paid only, so the questions that follow check that.
  2. Pick the one AI service you will use most. The easiest way is where your work email and calendar are: personal Gmail, Gemini; a company Google Workspace, Gemini in Workspace; Microsoft 365, Copilot. With no preference, Claude suits briefing, writing and email, and ChatGPT suits pictures, news and social posts.
  3. Go through your jobs one by one. For each, your current service is enough, or you add something. Most answers are "enough" or "add a free plan."
  4. Do not keep two paid plans that do the same thing. If you keep a second paid plan only for a few pictures, it can go back to free.

For customer messages, the answer depends on how many:

  • Fixed replies are fine: the app's free auto replies.
  • A few a day, and you check each: the AI drafts, you send from the app ($0).
  • Many, or you need a record of who approved what: Paperclip ($0), plus a small free program that forwards each incoming message to Paperclip (it runs on Cloudflare Workers; the free tier covers 100,000 incoming calls a day, resends included). Paperclip needs a paid ChatGPT or Claude, one of the two; if you already pay for one, it adds $0. It gives the AI more work, so you may need a higher plan.

Quick-pick table: which plan, by how you use AI

Quick-pick table, monthly in US dollars. Asking AI only: one free chat AI, $0. Sole proprietor: Claude Pro $20 plus accounting software (Xero from $27, QuickBooks Simple Start $38); when it is not enough, Max 5x $100. Personal Gmail: Google AI Pro $19.99 (drafts alone are free in the US); then Ultra $99.99. Microsoft 365: Business Standard with Copilot $23.50. A shop running news and social posts: ChatGPT Go $8 to Plus $20 plus Meta Business Suite $0. Watching X: add Grok $0 to $8. Research at the core: add Perplexity Pro, $17 a month billed yearly. A few customer messages: $0. Many customer messages: a paid ChatGPT or Claude ($20 and up) plus Paperclip and a message forwarder ($0). Data that must stay in-house: chart 2.

Each row is where chart 1 ends: what to sign up for, what you do not need, the monthly price, and the next plan when it is not enough. Start from the row closest to you.

Chart 2: jobs the cloud cannot do, and software that runs on your computer

Most jobs at set times run in the cloud of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Anthropic, for example, says Claude's scheduled tasks run with your laptop closed. Claude Code can also run jobs at set times in the cloud.

But not everything runs in the cloud. These jobs run on your own computer:

  • Using apps on your screen. Having AI click and type in a logged-in browser or Windows and Mac apps, take screenshots, or use iMessage. An AI in the cloud cannot see your computer's screen.
  • Data that must stay in-house. If customer names or drafts must never reach any outside AI under any plan, you run the AI model itself on your own computer. Small models run on an M2 or M3 Mac you already have (steps in part 4, Note A). Do not give that data to Claude Code or Codex either; both talk to an AI outside your company. If you only want to keep your data out of training, turning training off in your plan's settings is enough (on a personal Gemini account, jobs that use Gmail stop working when you do).
  • Files on your computer. Sorting or converting many files in your folders, or answering from documents stored there. Claude Code (in Claude Pro) or Codex (in ChatGPT; Plus if you use it a lot) does this.

A flowchart separating jobs the cloud can do from jobs that run on your own computer. Question 1: must customer names or drafts never reach any outside AI? If yes, run the AI model on your own computer and keep that data away from the AI below (small models on the M2 or M3 Mac you have; large models on a GPU machine such as DGX Spark, from $4,999). Question 2: have AI click and type in a logged-in browser or apps? If yes, software on your computer such as OpenClaw or Perplexity Personal Computer, with the computer kept on while it runs. Question 3: sort many files on your computer? If yes, Claude Code (in Claude Pro) or Codex (in ChatGPT; Plus if you use it a lot). Question 4: split work among several AI workers, approve before anything is sent, keep a record, and get decisions waiting for you in one list? If yes, Paperclip ($0) plus a paid ChatGPT or Claude. Question 5: ask your computer from a chat app, or hear only when a page changes? If yes, OpenClaw ($0) plus a paid plan. If all are no, the computer or phone you have is enough, and jobs at set times run in the AI company's cloud.

The reason to pick software that runs on your computer is what it can do:

  • Paperclip ($0). Split work among several AI workers and pass it from one to the next. Make a person approve before an email is sent or deleted. Who decided what is recorded in one place, and decisions waiting for you collect in one list, so you can answer them from your phone.
  • OpenClaw ($0). Ask your own computer to do work from the chat apps you already use, such as WhatsApp or Telegram. It works with the files on your computer and a logged-in browser. It can also watch a page and wake the AI only when the page changes.

Neither includes an AI model, so you connect one paid ChatGPT or Claude plan. Both keep working at night or while you are away, as long as the computer they are installed on stays switched on.

And if a job only delivers something at a set time (a morning briefing, the news), you do not need this software. The AI company's cloud is enough.

What's next, and tell me which job you want

The next part (part 6, ChatGPT for morning news and social posts) starts the hands-on parts: one service at a time, set up from scratch, with a screenshot of each step, in the order ChatGPT, Claude, then Gemini. Each part ends by going back to one row of the quick-pick table: what that plan covered and what it did not. The titles of every part are in the table of contents at the top.

If there is a job beyond these 19 that you want to know which AI service to sign up for, tell me in the comments. I will add it to the table.

The rest is extra detail for those who want it.

Note. Not clearly forbidden today, but worth watching

  • Perplexity's personal plans. Section 5.1 of its terms says "personal, non-commercial use only." For serious work use, look at the company plan, Enterprise Pro.
  • Signing in to a monthly plan from other companies' software, such as Paperclip or OpenClaw. Anthropic's support article mentions this use, but its handling changed several times during 2026. OpenAI's Codex documentation says: "Use API key authentication for programmatic Codex CLI workflows," that is, sign in with pay-per-use access when a program runs it.
  • Answering customers on a monthly plan. I found no official text that allows it. When you reach a thousand or two thousand customers, consider moving to pay-per-use (part 14).
  • Running Gemini unattended on a personal Google account. It requires Keep Activity (saving your Gemini activity) to be on; with it on, chats are used for training and some are read by human reviewers. Replace customer names before you paste anything.
  • Posting to X unattended. X's rules say that posting unattended without going through X's official posting access (for example, by having AI drive a browser) can get the account permanently suspended.

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