AI coding pricing, compared
There are three ways to pay for AI coding agents: a monthly subscription, the vendor API at list price, or Code By AI. This page puts the real numbers side by side so you can pick in a minute.
Three ways to buy
Subscription
A flat monthly fee for a capped amount of usage. Predictable, but you stop working when the cap hits, and unused quota does not roll over.
Vendor API
Pay per token at list price. No ceiling, but a heavy month on a frontier model costs far more than a subscription.
Code By AI
The same agents behind one key, billed from 1/6 of list price per token. No monthly commitment, no per-vendor accounts.
What a working month costs
Example workload: 20M input tokens and 2M output tokens per month, before cache savings.
| By channel | Workload | List price | Code By AI | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codexgpt-5.6-terra | 20M / 2M | $80.00 | $10.67 | 87% |
| Claude Codeclaude-sonnet-5 | 20M / 2M | $60.00 | $8.00 | 87% |
| Geminigemini-2.5-pro | 20M / 2M | $45.00 | $4.50 | 90% |
Code By AI plans
Prepaid token packs — pick a size, or stay pay-as-you-go.
Lite
$9.90
10M tokens
For students and hobbyists. Entry-level access with ~10M tokens per month.
Pro
$39.00
50M tokens
Best value for individual developers. ~50M tokens per month for daily coding tasks.
Team
$99.00
200M tokens
For startups and small teams. ~200M tokens per month with high cost efficiency.
By channel
Pricing questions
- Does Code By AI really start at 1/6 of the official price?
- Yes — token prices are calculated as one sixth of the vendor list price, then adjusted by the per-channel discount. Every model page shows both the list price and what you pay.
- Do unused tokens expire?
- Plans are prepaid token packs; pay-as-you-go usage is billed per token against your balance. Check the plan table above for the quota included with each tier.
- Can I switch between Claude, Codex and Gemini?
- Yes. One API key works across all three channels — change the model name in your request, nothing else.