AI Tool Pricing Index 2026: What 31 Popular AI Tools Actually Cost
We catalogued every public pricing plan of 31 popular AI tools (107 plans in total). The median entry price of a paid AI tool is $16.99/month (average $24.75), 71% offer a free plan, and the median “most popular” plan costs $24/month. The cheapest paid entry point is ElevenLabs at $5/mo; the priciest is SEMrush at $139.95/mo.
How AI tool entry prices are distributed
Entry price = the cheapest paid plan of each tool, normalized to USD/month. Free plans excluded from the distribution.
Median AI tool price by category
| Category | Tools | Median entry | Cheapest | Priciest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Chat Assistants | 6 | $19.99/mo | Grok ($16) | Perplexity ($20) |
| AI Image & Design | 5 | $9.99/mo | Mixo ($9) | Leonardo AI ($12) |
| AI Video | 5 | $19/mo | Runway ML ($12) | Fliki ($28) |
| AI Voice & Audio | 3 | $14/mo | ElevenLabs ($5) | Otter.ai ($16.99) |
| AI Writing & SEO | 10 | $24.95/mo | Easy Peasy AI ($5.99) | SEMrush ($139.95) |
| Productivity & Automation | 2 | $15.29/mo | Make.com ($10.59) | Julius AI ($20) |
The full index: all 31 tools
| Tool | Category | Free plan | Entry paid | Popular plan | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatbase | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $19/mo | $99/mo | Pricing guide |
| ChatGPT | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Pricing guide |
| Claude AI | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Pricing guide |
| Copy.ai | AI Writing & SEO | Yes | $49/mo | $49/mo | Pricing guide |
| Decktopus AI | AI Image & Design | No | $9.99/mo | $9.99/mo | Pricing guide |
| Descript | AI Video | Yes | $16/mo | $24/mo | Pricing guide |
| Easy Peasy AI | AI Writing & SEO | Yes | $5.99/mo | $15.99/mo | Pricing guide |
| ElevenLabs | AI Voice & Audio | Yes | $5/mo | $22/mo | Pricing guide |
| Fliki | AI Video | Yes | $28/mo | $28/mo | Pricing guide |
| Frase | AI Writing & SEO | No | $15/mo | $45/mo | Pricing guide |
| Google Gemini | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $19.99/mo | $19.99/mo | Pricing guide |
| Grammarly | AI Writing & SEO | Yes | $12/mo | $12/mo | Pricing guide |
| Grok | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $16/mo | $16/mo | Pricing guide |
| Jasper AI | AI Writing & SEO | No | $69/mo | $69/mo | Pricing guide |
| Julius AI | Productivity & Automation | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Pricing guide |
| Leonardo AI | AI Image & Design | Yes | $12/mo | $30/mo | Pricing guide |
| Make.com | Productivity & Automation | Yes | $10.59/mo | $18.82/mo | Pricing guide |
| Mangools | AI Writing & SEO | No | $29.90/mo | $44.90/mo | Pricing guide |
| Midjourney | AI Image & Design | No | $10/mo | $30/mo | Pricing guide |
| Mixo | AI Image & Design | No | $9/mo | $19/mo | Pricing guide |
| Mubert | AI Voice & Audio | Yes | $14/mo | $39/mo | Pricing guide |
| Otter.ai | AI Voice & Audio | Yes | $16.99/mo | $16.99/mo | Pricing guide |
| Perplexity | AI Chat Assistants | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Pricing guide |
| Pictory | AI Video | No | $19/mo | $39/mo | Pricing guide |
| Runway ML | AI Video | Yes | $12/mo | $28/mo | Pricing guide |
| Rytr | AI Writing & SEO | Yes | $9/mo | $29/mo | Pricing guide |
| SEMrush | AI Writing & SEO | No | $139.95/mo | $249.95/mo | Pricing guide |
| Simplified | AI Image & Design | Yes | $9/mo | $9/mo | Pricing guide |
| Surfer SEO | AI Writing & SEO | No | $89/mo | $129/mo | Pricing guide |
| Synthesia | AI Video | Yes | $22/mo | $67/mo | Pricing guide |
| Writesonic | AI Writing & SEO | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Pricing guide |
Methodology
We maintain detailed pricing guides for each of these 31 tools, built from the tools’ own public pricing pages. This index normalizes those plans: for each tool we record the cheapest paid plan (USD/month), the plan the vendor marks as most popular, and whether a free plan, free trial, or custom/enterprise tier exists. Per-tool verification dates are shown on each linked pricing guide; the most recent update in the dataset is 2026-07-07. Prices for tools billed per-user are counted at the single-user rate. No vendor pays for placement in this index.
Cite this data
This dataset is free to use in articles, research, and presentations under CC BY 4.0 — just credit “ShelbyAI — AI Tool Pricing Index” with a link to this page. Journalists and creators: if you need a custom cut of the data (a category, a price range, a comparison), contact us and we’ll pull it for you.
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