What is your AI actually costing you? — three ways it is priced now, why the bill creeps, and a two-line test for whether it is paying back

Microsoft is spending the next month running webinars for business customers on controlling AI costs and proving that Copilot agents pay for themselves, and the invitation puts the problem in one sentence: “AI costs are easy to start and hard to forecast.” When the company selling the product says so, it is worth looking at your own AI line. For most businesses it started as one subscription on one card. It is now more likely to be several: ChatGPT Plus for two or three people, a Claude plan for whoever does the modelling, Copilot switched on inside Microsoft 365, and, since last month’s agent launches, at least one thing billed by use rather than by seat.

The total is rarely on a budget line, and the return is rarely measured. Bank polled 1,000 senior finance leaders in the United States and reported on 29 September that 51 per cent said spending on AI tools and platforms had exceeded budget over the past year, while 69 per cent said the investment had delivered benefits. A June survey of 260 finance executives by the cost-management firm CloudZero found that only 22 per cent could tie AI spend to business outcomes, and 60 per cent agreed with the statement that they were “spending more on AI than we can currently justify with measurable outcomes.” Both are vendor-run surveys, mostly of large US companies, so hold the exact figures loosely.

Per seat: ChatGPT Plus US$20, Claude Pro US$20, Microsoft 365 Copilot US$30 per user amonth on an annual commitment. Per use: tokens, or Copilot Credits at one US cent each, 25,000 forUS$200 a month prepaid. Included: a starting price, not always the final price.

(Branded graphic by PGH Consulting, LLC) Three ways you are now charged AI is priced in three shapes, and the confusion comes from mixing them up. ChatGPT Plus is US$20 a month, Claude Pro is US$20, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is US$30 per user a month on an annual commitment, or US$21 on the small-business edition for companies under 300 users. A seat is predictable: you know the number in January.

The second is per use, and this is where the forecasting breaks. Under the hood every AI model charges by the token, roughly three-quarters of a word, counted on what you send and on what comes back.