Subscription vs API

Compare a chat subscription against the same volume on the API and see which side of the break-even your usage lands on.

Subscription planEquivalent API modelRequests per day

Input tokens/request

Output tokens/request

$8.00

ChatGPT (OpenAI) Go, flat per month.

$0.4230

Same volume on the Qwen Flash API (900 requests/month).

At this volume pay-as-you-go is cheaper by $7.58/month — the subscription only pays off at higher usage.

Uses rates verified 2026-08-31. Estimates only — actual bills depend on tokenizer behavior, caching hit rates, and provider-side rounding.