The rise of $200/pm AI plans — why Perplexity, ChatGPT and Gemini are all going up

Tom's Guide

5 days ago

AI systems aren't cheap to run. Between the huge amount of training, the servers to keep them going, and the teams made up of the best brains in computing, the money has to come from somewhere.
Originally, that cash seemed to be coming from investing, as the push for AI development received rounds and rounds of funding. Now, the costs are turning to you, the user of the tools.
Along with their lower-priced base models, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have all revealed top-of-the-line plans, costing hundreds of dollars a month. Now, Perplexity has joined in too, revealing its Perplexity Max plan with a monthly price tag of $200.
Seemingly designed for the power users of Perplexity, this offers an unlimited version of the plan. Most notably, users get unrestricted access to Labs.
This is Perplexity's latest selling point. Labs is a tool described as similar to having a whole team complete tasks for you. It can code, write, research, and assemble its findings in one place.
Where Labs stands out compared to other similar tools is the time it puts in. Perplexity states that it can take 10 minutes, which feels like a lifetime in today's AI world. However, that time allows the tool to complete incredibly detailed research, providing full reports, graphs, and apps for you to look through.
The Max plan also gets you early access to any new tools or features from Perplexity and advanced model options. You also get priority support if anything goes wrong.
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Perplexity Max, like its expensive competitors, has a clear demographic. It's the people with money to burn and no time to wait for long load times and more credits to come back in.
For the average person, you just don't need to spend $200 a month on any AI plan. Sure, it's nice having the latest features as they come out and not having to worry about the number of credits you have left, but unless you're using these tools all day every day, it seems excessive.
For the average person, you just don't need to spend $200 a month on any AI plan.
This, however, does seem to be becoming the norm. When OpenAI launched its $200 ChatGPT Pro plan, the response from many was along the lines of 'Who on Earth is going to pay that?'... seemingly a lot of people.
While it seemed excessive at first, other companies quickly followed suit. In fact, along with pretty much every chatbot you've used having a plan around this price, image and video generators, AI research tools, and even AI tools have quickly added similar plans.
Right now, you're not missing out on much by not going for one of these plans. However, like most industries, AI is quickly falling behind a paywall. Yes, free plans still exist, but to make these top-of-the-line plans more tempting, they need to stand out.
Free versions, and even the lower-end paid subscriptions, are seeing more restrictions put in place. Less credits and slower load times become more common, and, with the best plans offering the most energy-consuming features, those willing to pay $200 a month or more getting priority in a queue will slow the process for those paying less.