Guides · Cost
How much does an AI agent cost? (2026)
Every personal agent we track, its price and where it's from, plus per-seat business costs, what it costs to run your own agents, and the hidden extras.
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Short answer. For one person, an AI agent costs $0–20 a month for most needs, and $100–200 if you hand it hours of work a day. For a team, budget $20–30 per seat per month. Open-source agents are free software, but you pay for the AI model behind them. Running your own agents on a cloud platform is metered: tokens plus compute by the hour.
The three ways you pay
- Flat subscription (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok Bot, Gemini, Muse): a monthly price with usage limits. Simple to budget.
- Credits (Manus, Lindy): each task burns credits. Manus Pro starts at $20 for 4,000 credits23; Lindy starts at $29.99 for 3,000 and pauses when you run out, unless you top up at $10 per 1,00024.
- Metered (agent platforms for builders): you pay model tokens plus runtime. Claude Managed Agents, for example, is model tokens plus $0.08 per session-hour11.
Personal AI agents: every price we track
From our pricing data. Each price links to the vendor's own page; "No" in the confirmed column means the number wasn't visible in the fetched pricing-page text (blocked or rendered by script) and comes from another official page, so treat it as unconfirmed.
| Product | Price | Confirmed on pricing page? | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok Bot xAI | Included in X Premium $30/mo ($300/yr), Super $100/mo ($1,000/yr), Ultra $200/mo ($2,000/yr); not included in Free or Plus ($8/mo). Team plans: Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200 per seat/mo, seat tiers can be mixed; Plus not available for teams; annual team pricing unknown1 | Yes | 2026-10-17 |
| ChatGPT dots OpenAI | First dot included in Pro, Business Premium, Enterprise (rolling out)2 | No, from another official source | 2026-10-16 |
| Claude (app) Anthropic | Free $0; Pro $20/mo ($17/mo annual); Max from $100/mo (5x) to $200/mo (20x); Team $25/seat monthly ($20 annual)3 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Manus Manus AI | Free $0; Pro from $20/mo or $40/mo; Team from $20/seat/mo; 17% off annual4 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Lindy Lindy | From $29.99/mo (3,000 credits), scaling to $99.99/mo (15,000 credits); $50 free credits5 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Gemini Agent | Requires Google AI Ultra (entry source: $99.99/mo or $199.99/mo); US, English only6 | No, from another official source | 2026-10-16 |
| Perplexity Comet Perplexity | Free; Comet Plus $5/mo (included in Perplexity Pro/Max)7 | No, from another official source | 2026-10-16 |
| Muse from Meta Meta | Free with in-app purchases (App Store listing); paid tier prices unknown8 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| OpenClaw OpenClaw Foundation (501(c)(3)) | Free, open source, self-hosted9 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Hermes Agent Nous Research | Free (MIT); optional Nous Portal subscription, price unknown10 | No, from another official source | 2026-10-16 |
Notes: Meta's subscriptions help page lists Muse at free with limits, Power $20/mo and Maximum $100/mo25, newer than the App Store listing above. ChatGPT Plus is $20/mo and Pro comes at $100 or $200/mo, with a $500 Pro tier added in September26. Claude's Max tier runs from $100/mo27.
For teams: price per seat
| Plan | Per seat / mo | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business | $20–25 | Annual vs monthly; Premium $100–12528 |
| Claude Team | $20–25 | Annual vs monthly; Premium $100–12529 |
| Gemini Enterprise (Business) | from $21 | 30 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | $21 | Add-on; needs a Microsoft 365 business plan; $18 promo to Dec 31, 202631 |
| Manus Team | from $20 | Credit-based23 |
| Grok Bot team seat | $30–200 | Same as Premium, Super, Ultra32 |
| Perplexity Enterprise Pro | $40 | Or $400/yr33 |
Ten people on ChatGPT Business or Claude Team at the annual rate is $2,400 a year; at the monthly rate, $3,000. More detail in the small-business guide.
Running your own agents: platform prices
If you're building agents rather than subscribing to one, you pay a platform. These prices exclude model tokens unless stated.
| Product | Price | Confirmed on pricing page? | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Managed Agents Anthropic | Model tokens + $0.08 per session-hour11 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| OpenAI Agents API OpenAI | No platform fee; tokens + tool/container rates12 | No, from another official source | 2026-10-16 |
| Vertex AI Agent Engine Google Cloud | $0.085/vCPU-hr, $0.009/GiB-hr memory13 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Amazon Bedrock AgentCore AWS | Runtime $0.0895/vCPU-hr + $0.00945/GB-hr; V2 $0.1276/vCPU-hr + $0.0169/GB-hr14 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Microsoft Foundry Agent Service Microsoft | Prompt/workflow agents: tokens + tools; hosted agents billed by container compute per hour15 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Relevance AI Relevance AI | Pro $19/mo annual or $29 monthly; Team $234/mo annual or $349 monthly; Enterprise custom16 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Letta Cloud Letta | Free $0; Pro $20/mo; API plan $20/mo + $0.10/active agent/mo + usage17 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| LangSmith Deployment (formerly LangGraph Platform) LangChain | Developer $0/seat; Plus $39/seat/mo incl. 1 free small serverless deployment18 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| CrewAI AMP CrewAI | Basic free (50 workflow executions/mo); Enterprise custom19 | Yes | 2026-10-17 |
| E2B E2B | Hobby free ($100 one-time credit); Pro $150/mo + usage; Enterprise custom ($3,000/mo minimum)20 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Modal Modal | Starter $0 + compute ($30/mo credits); Team $250/mo + compute ($100/mo credits)21 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
| Daytona Daytona | Pay as you go: $0.0504/vCPU-h, $0.0162/GiB-h memory; $200 free compute22 | Yes | 2026-10-16 |
Worked example: one Claude Managed Agents session running 8 hours a day, 22 working days a month, is 176 session-hours × $0.08 = $14.08 a month in runtime11, plus the model tokens it uses. Token costs depend on the model and the workload, so the total for your use case is unknown until you measure it.
Hidden costs to budget for
- Shared pools. Grok Bot usage comes out of a weekly pool shared with Grok and Cursor34.
- Required base licences. Copilot Business needs a Microsoft 365 business plan and an annual commitment3135.
- Gated features. Gemini Agent requires Google AI Ultra ($99.99 or $199.99/mo) and is US and English only36. ChatGPT dots need Pro or Business Premium26.
- Overage. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both sell extra usage credits beyond the included limits2829.
- Open-source isn't $0. OpenClaw has no subscription or hosted tier37, and Hermes Agent's optional Nous Portal tiers sell model credits38. You still pay a model provider and spend time on setup and security (see Is OpenClaw safe?).
How to keep the bill sane
- Start on monthly billing; switch to annual (about 20% cheaper on ChatGPT and Claude seats2829) after two months of real use.
- Give Premium seats only to the people who hit limits. Both ChatGPT Business and Claude Team let you mix seat types2829.
- For credit plans, set a monthly cap and check usage weekly.
Prices change. We re-check vendor pages weekly and log changes on the pricing page and in the buyer's guide.
FAQ
Questions people ask
How much does an AI agent cost per month?
For one person, $0–20 covers most needs: ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro are $202627. Heavy users pay $100–200 (ChatGPT Pro, Claude Max, Grok Bot via X Super or Ultra)262732.
How much does an AI agent cost for a business?
About $20–30 per seat per month. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team are $20 annual or $25 monthly per seat2829; Copilot Business is $21 on top of Microsoft 36531.
Are open-source AI agents free?
The software is: OpenClaw and Hermes Agent are MIT-licensed3738. You still pay for the AI model you connect and for hosting if you don't run it on your own computer.
Keep reading
Related
- The Personal AI Agent Buyer's Guide (2026): eleven agents, by job, with security and cost tables.
- AI agent pricing: every plan, linked to the vendor's page with the date checked.
- Grok Bot vs ChatGPT dots
- Manus vs Lindy
- Claude Managed Agents vs OpenAI Agents API
- Vertex Agent Engine vs Bedrock AgentCore
- All head-to-head comparisons
More guides: Best personal AI agent for founders · Best AI agent for small business · ChatGPT vs Claude for business · Is OpenClaw safe? · AI agent for email and calendar · Best AI agent for customer support · ChatGPT agent vs Manus · Best AI agent for sales and CRM · OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent · AI agent for research · Are AI agents worth it for business? · all guides
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Sources
Where these facts come from
We read each vendor's own pricing page, help center, docs or release notes. No review sites, no paid placement. Research and drafting were assisted by an AI agent (Grok Bot, one of the products covered); every fact was checked against the linked source.
- Pricing page: grok-bot docs.x.ai/x-subscription/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: chatgpt-dots help.openai.com/en/articles/20001530-getting-started-with-your-dot · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: claude-app claude.com/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: manus help.manus.im/en/articles/11711111-what-is-the-current-membership-pricing-for-manus · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: lindy www.lindy.ai/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: gemini-agent one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: perplexity-comet www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-comet-plus · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: muse apps.apple.com/us/app/muse-from-meta/id6760173601 · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: openclaw openclaw.ai/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: hermes-agent hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: claude-managed-agents platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: openai-agents-api help.openai.com/en/articles/20001551-agents-api-beta-faq · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: vertex-agent-engine cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: bedrock-agentcore aws.amazon.com/bedrock/agentcore/pricing/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: azure-foundry-agents azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/foundry-agent-service/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: relevance-ai relevanceai.com/docs/get-started/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: letta-cloud docs.letta.com/pricing/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: langgraph-platform www.langchain.com/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: crewai-amp crewai.com/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: e2b e2b.dev/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: modal modal.com/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Pricing page: daytona www.daytona.io/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Manus membership pricing help.manus.im/en/articles/11711111-what-is-the-current-membership-pricing-for-manus · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Lindy pricing & FAQ www.lindy.ai/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- About Muse subscriptions (Meta) www.meta.com/help/subscriptions/1021145227643680/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- ChatGPT release notes (OpenAI Help Center) help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes · checked 17 Oct 2026
- Claude pricing & plan comparison claude.com/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- ChatGPT Business overview (re-checked) help.openai.com/en/articles/8792828-chatgpt-business-overview · checked 17 Oct 2026
- Claude Team plan (re-checked) support.claude.com/en/articles/9266767-what-is-the-team-plan · checked 17 Oct 2026
- Gemini Enterprise Business edition cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise/business · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Microsoft Copilot business pricing www.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/pricing/business · checked 16 Oct 2026
- The X Subscription pricing docs.x.ai/x-subscription/pricing · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Perplexity plans (Enterprise Pro) www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11187416-which-perplexity-subscription-plan-is-right-for-you · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Grok Bot on The X Subscription docs.x.ai/x-subscription/grok-bot · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Microsoft Copilot for business www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/business · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Google AI plans one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- OpenClaw homepage openclaw.ai/ · checked 16 Oct 2026
- Hermes Agent homepage hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/ · checked 16 Oct 2026