- Standfirst (first paragraph, distinct from meta): "A token is the small piece of text an AI model reads or writes, and API pricing charges you separately for the tokens you send in and the tokens the model sends back.
- Standfirst (first paragraph, distinct from meta): "AI companies make money in three main ways: monthly subscriptions from people, per-token API bills from developers, and per-seat enterprise contracts from organisations.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot all charge about $20 a month — and sell completely different things. What free and paid AI plans actually include, when paying is worth it, and the family, team and cancellation fine print.
Google shares a pool, Microsoft shares everything except the AI, and ChatGPT and Claude sell seats instead. How family and team AI plans really work — and what ‘up to 6 people’ actually promises.
Trials that convert silently, annual plans with one-way doors, a 24-hour cancellation clock, non-refundable renewals and app-store detours — the recurring traps in AI subscriptions, and a five-minute audit that defuses them.
Microsoft retired the standalone Copilot Pro plan — support for it ended on 1 August 2026. Copilot now rides inside Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro. Here is the current ladder and the family-sharing catch.
Google’s AI plans are bundles: Gemini plus storage plus apps. Free, AI Plus at $4.99, AI Pro at $19.99 with 5 TB, and AI Ultra from $99.99 — every tier translated from Google’s own subscriptions page.
Claude’s four plans — Free, Pro at $20, Max at $100, Ultra at $200 — sell one product at four flow rates. What each tier includes, how the five-hour and weekly limits work, and which one your usage actually justifies.
Google has expanded its voluntary employee buyout programme to five countries — Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland — as the technology giant looks to cut costs while stepping up investments in artificial intelligence, according to a Reuters report carried…
Apple is quietly rationing its own staff’s use of artificial intelligence. The company cut the daily AI spending allowance for some of its engineering teams from $300 to $200 in October, Bloomberg reported, in a move first summarised by TechCrunch,…