AI Pricing Comparison 2025

ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Self-Hosted Open Source LLMs

💡 Quick Verdict

🏆 Best for Individuals

ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) - Best general-purpose AI

💼 Best for Teams

Claude Pro ($20/month) or Team ($30/user) - Best for writing & coding

💰 Most Cost-Effective

Self-Hosted Open Source - Free after hardware investment

🚀 Best for Developers

API Usage - Pay per token, scale as needed

💳 Subscription Plans Comparison

Provider Free Tier Pro/Plus Team Enterprise
ChatGPT (OpenAI) ✅ Free
GPT-3.5, Limited		 $20/month
GPT-4, DALL-E 3		 $25-30/user
Team workspace		 Custom
Contact sales
Claude (Anthropic) ✅ Free
Limited usage		 $20/month
5x more usage		 $30/user
Priority access		 Custom
Contact sales
Gemini (Google) ✅ Free
Gemini Pro		 $19.99/month
Advanced, 2TB storage		 N/A Custom
Google Workspace
Perplexity ✅ Free
Limited searches		 $20/month
Unlimited Pro searches		 N/A Custom
Self-Hosted LLM $0/month after hardware investment
One-time: GPU ($500-$3000), Electricity (~$20-100/month)
See cost calculator below →

🔌 API Pricing Comparison (Pay-per-use)

Prices per 1 million tokens (Input / Output)

OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo

$10 / $30

per 1M tokens (in/out)

  • 128K context window
  • Best for general tasks

Claude 3 Sonnet

$3 / $15

per 1M tokens (in/out)

  • 200K context window
  • Best for writing & analysis

Gemini Pro 1.5

$1.25 / $5

per 1M tokens (in/out)

  • 2M context window
  • Best for long documents

Self-Hosted (vLLM)

$0.01 / $0.01

per 1M tokens (electricity)

  • Depends on model size
  • One-time hardware cost

🖥️ Self-Hosted LLM Cost Calculator

One-Time Hardware Costs

Budget (7B Model)
$500-800
RTX 3060 12GB
Mid-Range (13B)
$1,200-1,800
RTX 4080 16GB
High-End (34B+)
$2,500-5,000
RTX 4090 24GB or A100

Monthly Operating Costs

Electricity
$20-50/mo
Depends on usage & GPU
Internet (optional)
$0-100/mo
If hosting publicly
Maintenance
~$10/mo
Updates, monitoring

💡 Break-Even Analysis

With $1,500 hardware investment + $30/month operating costs:

  • vs ChatGPT Plus: Break-even in 15 months
  • vs API usage (heavy): Break-even in 6-12 months
  • After 2 years: Save $480+/year vs subscriptions

🎯 Which Option is Best for You?

👤 Casual Users

Occasional chatting, homework help, simple queries

Recommendation: ChatGPT Free or Gemini Free
Cost: $0/month

✍️ Writers & Content Creators

Article writing, editing, research

Recommendation: Claude Pro
Cost: $20/month

💻 Developers

Coding, debugging, API integration

Recommendation: API access or Self-hosted
Cost: $50-200/month or one-time hardware

🏢 Small Teams (5-10 people)

Collaboration, shared workspace

Recommendation: ChatGPT Team
Cost: $125-250/month for 5-10 users

🚀 Startups

Product integration, customer support

Recommendation: API with rate limits
Cost: $100-500/month based on usage

🏭 Enterprise

High volume, privacy-critical, custom needs

Recommendation: Self-hosted or Enterprise plan
Cost: Custom pricing

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