AI price tracker · verified August 2026
What it really costs
Every price read off the vendor’s own page — with the month we checked it.
AssistantsWriting toolsCRMs
30-second tour · what this page is for
What does AI really cost this month?
- Checked every Saturday — Official pricing pages, US region — not last year’s blog post.
- Change log — Every verified price move, with the date we confirmed it.
- Free tiers included — Because the honest answer is often zero dollars.
Every price on this page was read off the vendor’s own pricing page in August 2026. That sounds like a small thing. It isn’t: while writing this month’s reviews I found one popular tool that had quintupled its entry price and another that had quietly deleted its free plan — both still recommended, at their old prices, by articles ranking on page one of Google.
So this page exists to be re-checked, not to be right forever. Prices below are per user, per month, on annual billing unless noted.
AI assistants (the ones most people should start with)
| Tool | Free tier | Paid from | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Yes — unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna (uploads, images, voice and memory limited) | $8 Go · $20 Plus · Pro from $100 | Ad test running on Free and Go since Feb 9, 2026 — the pricing page flags Go itself with “This plan may include ads.” Plus and above are ad-free |
| Claude | Yes — real free tier | $17 Pro on annual ($200 up front) · $20 monthly | Most natural long-form prose in my tests; free week available by referral (card required). Paid per token instead, Sonnet 5 is $2/$10 per million — the September 1 rise to $3/$15 was cancelled |
| Gemini | Yes | $7.99 Google AI Plus · $19.99 AI Pro | Best if your work already lives in Docs and Gmail |
Deep dive: Is the API cheaper than the subscription? · ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini · What the ads cost you · New to all of this? Start here instead.
Dedicated writing tools
| Tool | Free tier | Paid from | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jasper | No — 7-day trial, card required, auto-converts | $59 annual · $69 monthly | The old $39 Creator plan is gone. Brand Voice + 100+ agents is what you’re paying for |
| Rytr | Yes — 10,000 characters/month, no card | $9 Unlimited | Note the naming trap: “Unlimited” is the $9 tier; $29 is Premium |
| Writesonic | 7-day trial, no card | $79 Starter | No longer a budget writer — it’s an AI-search (GEO) platform. The old $16 product survives only as Chatsonic |
| Copy.ai | Discontinued | $29 chat, then $12,000/yr | Left the blogger market — listed here only because other articles still recommend it |
Deep dive: The 5 best AI writing tools · Jasper, walked through start to finish.
CRMs for small business
| Tool | Free tier | Paid from | Real cost, 3-person team |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Yes — 2 users, 1,000 contacts, no card | $7 Starter (promo; $20 month-to-month) | $0 if two seats do; watch the $90 Professional tier + $1,500 onboarding |
| Bigin by Zoho | Yes — 1 user | $7 Express | $21/mo — the cheapest tier here with real substance |
| Freshsales | Yes — 3 users (unadvertised) | $9 Growth | $27/mo · Freddy AI billed at $49 per 100 sessions |
| Zoho CRM | Yes — 3 users, no email sync | $14 Standard | $42/mo · full Zia AI only from the $40 tier |
| Pipedrive | No — 14-day trial | $14 Lite | $42/mo · plans were renamed in 2025; “Professional $49” articles are stale |
| monday CRM | No — 14-day trial | $12/seat | $36/mo — three-seat minimum, so that’s the true floor |
Deep dive: Best CRM for small business, including what AI you actually get on each tier.
Home robots & smart speakers
Price change log
Every verified price change to the major AI subscriptions, in one running table. We check the official pricing pages every Saturday and log only what actually changed. Cite freely: “AI subscription price history: profhlab.com AI Price Tracker.”
| Date | Product & plan | Change | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-30 | Microsoft 365 — Family | (new) → $129.99/year | Baseline added; read on microsoft.com Aug 30, 2026. Was $99.99/yr before the Jan 2025 Copilot bundle. |
| 2026-08-30 | Microsoft 365 — Personal | (new) → $99.99/year | Baseline added; read on microsoft.com Aug 30, 2026. Was $69.99/yr before the Jan 2025 Copilot bundle (+$3/mo). |
| 2026-08-29 | Google Gemini — AI Plus | $7.99 → $4.99 | Cut from $7.99 on June 8, 2026; now confirmed first-party in Google’s Aug. 19, 2026 student-offer post. Storage doubled to 400 GB. |
Method: prices are read from each vendor’s official pricing page, US region, monthly billing unless noted. See How we count.
VERIFIED AUG 2026 · READ OFF VENDOR PAGES
The Physical AI library’s test bench, in one table. Ranges mean the street price moves week to week; exact figures were on the vendor’s own page this month.
| Machine | Type | Price · Aug 2026 | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narwal Flow 2 | Robot vacuum-mop | $1,099.99 promo · list $1,499.99 | Successor to the Freo Z10 Ultra, which has left the official store |
| Roborock Saros 10R | Robot vacuum | $900–1,000 | 22,000 Pa is a spec-sheet number, not cleaning power |
| Dreame X50 Ultra | Robot vacuum | $850–900 | Register within 30 days to double the 1-year warranty |
| Roborock Q5 Max+ | Robot vacuum (budget) | under $200 | Vacuum-only — no mop, which is why the price drops |
| eufy X10 Pro Omni | Robot vacuum-mop | $400–500 | The mid-market default in most US roundups |
| Dyson V15 Detect | Stick vacuum | $849.99 | Rated in air watts (240 AW) — pascals don’t compare |
| Dyson Gen5detect | Stick vacuum | $1,049.99 | Same platform, bigger bin and battery |
| Shark stick line | Stick vacuum | $149–$299.99 | Where “good enough” usually lives |
| ECOVACS WINBOT mini / W2S / W3 OMNI | Window robots | $239.99 / $399.99 / $699.99 | US homes: exterior screens keep robots off outside glass |
| iRobot Select | Subscription robot | $29.99/mo | Three years ≈ $1,079.64 — and you never own it |
| Alexa+ | Assistant | $19.99/mo · free with Prime | The hardware is $99; the assistant is the real price |
| Echo Dot Max / Google Home / HomePod mini | Smart speakers | $99.99 / $99 / $99 | All three landed on the same number |
Every machine above has a full ownership guide — repair bills, subscriptions, the parts question — in the Physical AI library.
How I verify these
- I open the vendor’s own pricing page — not a directory, not another article. Software directories carry stale prices for years; two of them list plans that no longer exist.
- Regional pricing exists. Where a page renders in local currency, I say so rather than converting and pretending it’s precise.
- Promotional rates are labeled as promotional. A “$7” that becomes $20 next quarter is not a $7 product.
- When something changes, the article changes too — and the verification date at the top moves with it.
Spotted a price that has moved? Tell me and I’ll re-check it — contact page. Or get the changes as they happen: the Lab Report, one email a month. Unsubscribe anytime.