AI Companies Are Raising Crazy Amounts of Money So Why Not Use Their Free Tiers?
Postedabout 2 months agoActiveabout 2 months ago
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Artificial IntelligenceCost OptimizationLarge Language Models
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Artificial Intelligence
Cost Optimization
Large Language Models
The article discusses how AI companies are raising large amounts of money, making their free tiers more viable for users, and commenters share their experiences and opinions on optimizing costs for AI services.
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Nov 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM EST
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I think most people on the $200 tiers could get 90% of what they want from a cheaper tier
When I’ve talked to friends about this, they’re ‘sure’ they’re maxing out or using it to it’s fullest, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if they were to try a cheaper / free tier setup they would probably be mostly fine.
So, if you have the money and enjoy it, continue on, but if you’ve been looking for a way to save $200-$180 a month, try the free tiers, they’re really just as good.
This is why folks making software products that sell or are expected to sell are willing to pay the monthly fee. It's peanuts versus the value of the code we're getting.
The modern tools have a pay-to-play interface and you can see your actual cost in dollars and cents for each prompt. If you don't have enough budget in your plan (or pay extra) you simply can't submit such a prompt.
Disclosure: I spent over $100 on Cursor this month and will likely go to the $200 plan next month.