Check your card statement. Somewhere in there, odds are, is $20 for ChatGPT Plus. Maybe another $20 for Claude Pro. $19.99 for Google AI Pro. Perplexity too? That's roughly $80 a month — $960 a year — and that's before a coding assistant, an image generator, or a writing tool joins the pile.
AI subscriptions have quietly recreated the cable bill. Same mechanics: each service feels reasonable alone, none feels cancelable, and the total only shows up when you actually add it.
How the pricing settled
The 2026 market has converged on a standard: about $20 a month buys the flagship tier almost everywhere. ChatGPT runs Free, Plus at $20, and Pro at $200 for unlimited access to its heavyweight reasoning models. Claude mirrors it — Free with daily caps, Pro at $20, then Max at $100 for 5× usage or $200 for 20×. Google sells AI Pro at $19.99 (the plan formerly called Gemini Advanced) and AI Ultra at $249.99.
The convergence is the trap. When everything costs "just $20," subscribing to three doesn't feel like a decision. It feels like three small decisions — until it's €55+ a month, or about €660 a year, as one audit of a typical European statement put it.
The question that kills most of the bill
Here's the audit that matters, and it takes one week: notice which AI you actually open, versus which one you just default to because it loads fastest.
Most people discover their usage is wildly lopsided — one tool carries 80% of the work while the others collect renewal fees. The honest follow-up: would the free tier of your second and third tools cover what you actually do with them? For most casual use, the free tiers of every major AI are now good enough.
The one-anchor strategy
The pattern analysts keep landing on for 2026: pick one paid anchor subscription — whichever tool fits your main work — and pair it with the free tiers of everything else. Strategic stacking beats brand loyalty, and it definitely beats subscribing to the whole market.
A few refinements worth stealing. Match the tier to reality: the $100–$250 power plans exist for people hitting caps daily; if you've never hit a limit, you're donating. Rotate instead of accumulating: subscribe to the tool that fits this month's project, cancel when it wraps — these things take two clicks to restart. And recheck quarterly, because model quality leapfrogs constantly and your anchor choice from January may be the wrong one by August.
The bigger habit
None of this is really about AI. It's the streaming-services problem wearing a new badge — small recurring charges that survive on inattention. The fix is the same too: a calendar reminder, a statement scan, and the willingness to cancel things you like but don't use.
The tools are remarkable. The bill can be too. One of them deserves your $20 — probably not four.
Image: Anna Tarazevich, via Pexels
