Roundups
The Best AI Tools of 2026: Complete Pricing Comparison
Every major AI tool's pricing in one place: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Midjourney, Runway, Cursor and more, compared in plain English for September 2026.
Twenty dollars a month has become the unofficial going rate for a premium AI subscription — but it is far from the whole story. Entry plans now start as low as $5, power-user tiers run to $300, and some of the best tools cost nothing at all if you stay within their free limits. This is the master pricing hub for ToolPilot: every major AI tool, grouped by what it does, with the prices we verified against pricing pages and trackers in September 2026.
A quick warning before the numbers: Treat every price below as a snapshot of late September 2026, and always verify on the vendor's official pricing page before you pay.
The master comparison table (September 2026)
| Tool | Free plan? | Entry price | Best-value plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatbots & assistants | ||||
| ChatGPT | Yes, with limits | $8/mo (Go) | Plus, $20/mo | The all-rounder: chat, images, voice, research |
| Claude | Yes, with limits | $20/mo (Pro; $17/mo annual) | Pro, $20/mo | Natural writing, long documents, Claude Code |
| Gemini (Google AI) | Yes | $4.99/mo (AI Plus) | AI Pro, $19.99/mo | Google users; best-value bundle (5 TB storage, Veo, Imagen) |
| Grok | Yes, limited | $10/mo (SuperGrok Lite) | SuperGrok, $30/mo | Real-time news, X sentiment, crypto/social tracking |
| Microsoft Copilot | Yes (chat + image creation) | $0 (Copilot Pro retired) | Free tier, or M365 Premium ~$19.99/mo | Word, Excel, Outlook, and Windows users |
| Perplexity | Yes (3 Pro Searches/day) | $20/mo (Pro; $17/mo annual) | Pro, $20/mo | Research with citations; multi-model access |
| Image generators | ||||
| Midjourney | No | $10/mo (Basic) | Standard, $30/mo | Best-looking AI art, painterly and cinematic |
| DALL-E / GPT Image | Yes, limited | Included in ChatGPT plans (from free/$8) | ChatGPT Plus, $20/mo | Editing images conversationally inside ChatGPT |
| Imagen (via Gemini) | Yes, limited | $4.99/mo (Google AI Plus) | AI Pro, $19.99/mo | Photorealistic images for Google users |
| Grok Imagine | Yes, basic | $10/mo (SuperGrok Lite) | SuperGrok, $30/mo (720p video; 1080p on $100 Plus) | Fast, playful social clips with an edge |
| Video generators | ||||
| Runway | Limited (125 one-time credits) | $12/mo (annual; $15 monthly) | Standard, $12–15/mo | Frame-level control and a full editing suite |
| Kling | Yes (daily free credits) | ~$7–10/mo (Standard) | Standard, ~$7–10/mo | Realistic human motion and lip sync |
| Pika | Yes (watermarked 480p) | ~$8/mo (annual) | ~$8/mo | Cheapest quick social clips |
| Google Veo 3.1 | Limited (Flow free credits) | $4.99/mo (AI Plus, limited) | AI Pro, $19.99/mo | Most cinematic, lifelike clips with native audio |
| Sora | No | Discontinued | — | Gone: app shut April 2026; try Veo 3.1 or Kling |
| Writing tools | ||||
| Jasper | No (7-day trial) | $49/mo (Creator) | Pro, $69/seat/mo | Marketing teams and brand voice |
| Writesonic | Trial only | $79/mo (Starter, annual) | Starter, $79/mo | SEO article pipeline (15 articles/mo) |
| Coding assistants | ||||
| Cursor | Yes (Hobby, limited) | $20/mo (Pro) | Pro, $20/mo | AI-native coding editor |
| GitHub Copilot | Yes, limited | $10/mo (Pro; $100/yr) | Pro, $10/mo | Best value for everyday developers |
| Windsurf | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | Pro, $20/mo | Agentic IDE with daily quotas |
Chatbots: what each one actually costs
For plain chatting, the headline is simple: $20 a month buys the premium tier of ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity alike, while Google's AI Pro matches them at $19.99 and throws in 5 TB of cloud storage. The real differences are in the budget and power ends of the ladder. ChatGPT's Go plan ($8) and Google's AI Plus ($4.99) are the cheapest ways off the free tier, and Google's Ultra tier ($99.99 or $199.99) undercuts Claude's and ChatGPT's $200 top tiers. Grok is the outlier: its standalone ladder runs $10 / $30 / $100 / $300. One trap to avoid: OpenAI paused new sign-ups to the $200 Pro tier on September 10, 2026, so that tier is only available to existing subscribers for now.
Microsoft's lineup needs a note because it changed. The standalone Copilot Pro ($20/month) was retired in late 2025; its replacement is Microsoft 365 Premium (about $19.99/month), which puts Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The free Copilot chat at copilot.com is still genuinely free, and it remains the best deal in this category if you mostly want casual help and the occasional image. For a fuller breakdown of the three big chatbots, see our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini guide; Grok gets its own explainer in Grok explained, Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Copilot explained, and Perplexity in our Perplexity guide.
Image generators: the only tool with no free option
Midjourney stands alone as the only major AI tool on this page with no free tier at all: entry is $10/month (Basic), and the $30 Standard plan is the real sweet spot because it unlocks unlimited Relax-mode images that don't burn your fast GPU hours. Everyone else bundles image generation into a chatbot plan. DALL-E's successor (GPT Image) comes with ChatGPT plans starting at free, Imagen comes with Gemini plans starting at the $4.99 AI Plus tier, and Grok Imagine rides on the SuperGrok tiers — 720p video on the $30 plan, 1080p on the $100 Plus plan. If you only make images occasionally, do not buy a separate subscription: use the image tool inside the chatbot you already pay for. Our best free AI image generators guide rounds up the no-cost options in detail.
Video generators: cheap entry, watch the credits
Video is the category where the sticker price lies to you most. Every major generator runs on credits, and the same plan can produce a few finished clips or a few dozen depending on resolution, length, and how many takes you need. Entry prices look friendly: Runway from $12/month billed annually, Kling from about $7–10/month, Pika from about $8/month, and Veo 3.1 riding inside Google's $19.99 AI Pro plan. The quality crown belongs to Google's Veo 3.1: native audio, up to 4K, and the most lifelike motion of any tool here. Kling is the pick for realistic human motion and lip sync, Runway for frame-level creative control and its editing suite. And one name is missing from the price list entirely: Sora, OpenAI's video app, was shut down in April 2026 and its API retired in September 2026, so no subscription includes it anymore. For the full model-by-model breakdown, see the best AI video generators.
Writing tools: the specialists charge a premium
The dedicated writing tools cost more than the chatbots, so they only make sense if you publish at volume. Jasper starts at $49/month for the Creator plan, with the $69-per-seat Pro plan being where brand voice and team features live. Writesonic went through a major repricing in 2026 and is now an SEO article platform rather than a budget writer: entry is $79/month for 15 SEO articles plus site audits, scaling to $199 and $399 for heavier pipelines. For most solo writers, Claude Pro ($20) or ChatGPT Plus ($20) produce comparable drafts for far less — the writing specialists earn their premium through brand voice training, SEO workflows, and team collaboration, not raw prose quality. See our best AI writing tools guide for the full comparison.
Coding assistants: $10–20 is the whole game
Coding is the most price-competitive AI category. GitHub Copilot is the value king at $10/month ($100/year) for unlimited completions plus a monthly AI-credit allowance for chat and agent mode. Cursor and Windsurf both charge $20/month for Pro with free tiers, differing mainly in how they meter usage — Cursor on credits, Windsurf on daily and weekly quotas — and both offer $200/month power-user tiers. Claude's Pro plan ($20) also includes Claude Code, its agentic coding tool, which makes it a strong crossover pick if you already want Claude for writing. For the deep dive on which coding tool fits which workflow, see the best AI coding assistants.
How to choose without overspending
Start with one subscription, not three. For most people that means a $20 chatbot plan — ChatGPT Plus for the all-rounder, Claude Pro for writing and long documents, Google AI Pro if you live in Gmail and Drive. Before paying anything, live on the free tiers for two weeks; the free plans of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, Perplexity, and the coding tools are all good enough to reveal whether you actually need more. Never pay for an image or video generator separately until you have exhausted what is bundled into your chatbot plan — DALL-E, Imagen, and Veo all ride inside subscriptions you may already own. And watch for the three ways AI subscriptions quietly cost more than the headline: credit meters that burn faster than you expect, per-seat pricing that multiplies across a team, and usage tiers that unlock models you may never notice. If a tool cannot save you roughly an hour a month, it is not worth $20 a month.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest AI subscription worth paying for?
Google AI Plus at $4.99/month is the cheapest paid tier from a major vendor, and ChatGPT Go at $8/month is the cheapest way into a paid ChatGPT plan. But honestly, the best value is $0: the free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot cover a surprising amount of everyday use.
Is the $20/month plan the same across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity?
Roughly, yes — $20 a month is the standard premium tier for all three (Google matches it at $19.99). What differs is the bundle around it: ChatGPT Plus adds image generation and voice, Claude Pro adds Claude Code, Perplexity Pro adds multi-model access, and Google AI Pro adds 5 TB of storage plus Veo and Imagen.
Why is there no free Midjourney?
Midjourney has never offered a free tier — it sells GPU time, not software, and every image costs it real compute. If you want free AI images, use the image tools bundled into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot instead.
What happened to Sora?
OpenAI shut down the Sora app in April 2026 and retired its API in September 2026. No current subscription includes video generation from OpenAI. Google's Veo 3.1 and Kling are the closest replacements.
Do I need a separate image or video subscription?
Probably not at first. DALL-E-style image generation comes with ChatGPT plans, Imagen with Google AI plans, and Veo 3.1 video with Google AI Pro — all for the same $20 or less you might already pay for a chatbot. Buy a standalone tool like Midjourney or Runway only when you regularly hit the bundled limits.
A final word on these prices
This page is a snapshot of late September 2026, verified against pricing pages and trackers available at the time. AI vendors reprice, rename, and retire plans constantly — sometimes with a week's notice — so treat every number above as a starting point, not a promise. Before you enter payment details, open the vendor's official pricing page and confirm the plan, the price, and what's included. If anything on this page looks out of date when you read it, the official page is the one that's right.