Choosing an AI pricing model seems simple until you scale. That $20/month API bill becomes $2,000 overnight when you launch publicly. Understanding pricing models before you commit saves painful migrations later.
Pay-per-token (OpenAI, Anthropic) is ideal for variable workloads. You pay exactly for what you use, making it cost-effective at low volumes. But costs become unpredictable at scale—a viral feature can drain your budget in hours. Build in hard spending limits and alerts.
Subscription models (some Anthropic tiers, various wrappers) trade flexibility for predictability. You know your monthly cost, but you're paying for capacity you might not use. Good for consistent, predictable workloads. Self-hosted open models require upfront infrastructure investment but eliminate per-query costs. The breakeven point is roughly 1 million tokens per day.
Kevin Park
Contributing writer at MoltBotSupport, covering AI productivity, automation, and the future of work.