Short on time? Here’s the whole article in four lines.
- Start free. Free versions are good enough to learn on and to handle light use.
- Upgrade when you keep hitting limits, usually once you’re using AI most days for work.
- The standard paid tier costs about $20 a month across Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
- Pay for one assistant, not three. The $100-plus plans are for heavy daily users, not beginners.
| Free | Paid (around $20/month) | |
|---|---|---|
| How much you can use it | Limited; you’ll see “come back later” messages on busy days | Several times more |
| Which AI you get | A good, fast model | The company’s most capable models |
| Long documents and big projects | Works for short ones | Handles long files and bigger tasks |
| Extra features | The basics | Deeper research modes, more file uploads, and more |
| Ads | ChatGPT’s free plan shows ads in the US | No ads on the main paid plans |
| Free | Budget tier | Standard tier | Power tiers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | Yes | None | $20/month ($17/month billed yearly) | $100 or $200/month |
| ChatGPT | Yes, with ads in the US | $8/month (Go, still has ads) | $20/month (Plus) | $100 or $200/month |
| Gemini | Yes | $4.99/month (AI Plus) | $19.99/month (AI Pro, includes cloud storage) | $99.99 or $199.99/month |
Prices as of October 2026. They change often, so check the company’s own pricing page before you buy.
If none of those sound like you, stay free. There’s no prize for paying early.
Ask yourself: does this save me at least one hour a month?
If your time is worth $50 an hour and a $20 plan saves you one hour, you’re $30 ahead. Most people who use AI regularly save far more than an hour.
Nina is a freelance bookkeeper. She used a free assistant for three months, mostly for client emails. Then tax season hit, and she was running into limits every afternoon.
She upgraded to the $20 plan for a month to test it, and it paid for itself in the first week. She kept it, and switched to yearly billing once she was sure.
