Which AI subscription is really worth it: ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Google AI Pro, GitHub Copilot or Cursor?
Four of these five subscriptions cost around USD 20 a month and only GitHub Copilot Pro costs 10. The price gap is close to nothing: what decides is what each one replaces and how predictable next month's bill is.
| Options compared | Average cost | Price range | Strength | Weakness | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | US$20 | US$20 | The clearest price of the group: USD 20 a month with no options, no annual discount and no credits to keep track of. It is the reference generalist assistant for writing, analysis and daily work. | There is no route to paying less: with no annual billing, twelve months stay a full USD 240. API usage is not included. | Confidence: High |
| Claude Pro | US$20 | US$17 – US$20 | The same monthly list price as ChatGPT Plus but with annual billing at an effective USD 17, and it includes Claude Code: the only twenty-dollar subscription covering both general use and work on code. | Usage limits are the real variable: anyone working on code for many hours a day gets pushed towards the higher tier, which moves the comparison into a different price bracket. | Confidence: High |
| Google AI Pro | US$19.99 | US$19.99 – US$100 | At USD 19.99 a month it is the only one here that replaces a second subscription: it bundles 5 TB of cloud storage, as much as a standalone paid storage plan. | Its value depends almost entirely on the ecosystem: anyone not using Gmail, Drive and Photos pays for five terabytes they do not need and is left with the assistant alone. | Confidence: High |
| GitHub Copilot ProLowest cost in this comparison | US$10 | US$10 – US$100 | The cheapest entry in the comparison at USD 10 a month, half of everything else in the table: for anyone who just wants code completion in the editor, it is the minimum-cost option. | It does one thing: it is not a general assistant, and the higher tiers at USD 39 and USD 100 a month arrive quickly once more credits are needed. | Confidence: High |
| Cursor Pro | US$20 | US$16 – US$200 | Twenty dollars a month, sixteen with annual billing, for an editor built entirely around AI: people who code all day work inside it rather than switching windows. | It has the least predictable real cost of the group: extra model usage can take monthly spending up to two hundred dollars, ten times the base fee. | Confidence: High |
Which AI subscription is worth it
The market for individual AI subscriptions has settled on a single threshold, twenty dollars a month, which makes comparing on price nearly pointless: ChatGPT Plus costs USD 20, Claude Pro 20, Google AI Pro 19.99, Cursor Pro 20. The one exception is GitHub Copilot Pro, which at USD 10 costs half of everything else because it does one thing. If the fees are identical, the right question is not which is cheapest but which is cheapest for you, and the answer turns on three things the price list does not mention. The first is whether the subscription replaces something you already pay for: Google AI Pro bundles five terabytes of cloud storage, Claude Pro bundles Claude Code, the others bundle nothing. The second is billing: Claude Pro and Cursor Pro offer annual plans that bring the effective cost to USD 17 and 16, while ChatGPT Plus has none and stays at a full USD 240 a year. The third, and the trickiest, is how predictable the spend is: two of these five have a ceiling the base fee does not contain, and the bill can multiply. This comparison puts all five in the same unit, the month, and tries to say who each one actually suits.
Our verdict
On price alone the comparison is already over and it barely matters: GitHub Copilot Pro costs USD 10, everything else sits between 19.99 and 20. A one-cent gap between Google AI Pro and ChatGPT Plus should decide nothing. What decides is the cost avoided. If you already use Gmail, Drive and Photos and pay for a storage plan, Google AI Pro is the only one that absorbs it: its five terabytes are worth a separate subscription on their own, at which point the assistant is nearly free. If you write code, Claude Pro is the most efficient of the group, because at twenty dollars — seventeen annually — it covers both general use and Claude Code, two things bought separately elsewhere. If all you want is an assistant for writing, analysis and reasoning, ChatGPT Plus remains the cleanest choice, provided you accept there is no way to pay less than USD 240 a year for it. GitHub Copilot Pro is not in the same category: at USD 10 it does code completion in the editor and nothing more, making it the cheapest way to start rather than the most complete. Cursor Pro is the only one where we urge caution on budget rather than quality: the fee is twenty dollars, but extra model usage can take monthly spending to two hundred, and a subscription whose real cost can multiply tenfold belongs in the variable column, not the fixed one. The practical conclusion is single: pay for one generalist assistant and, if you need it, one coding tool — never two generalists at once. Two twenty-dollar assistants come to USD 480 a year, and nobody genuinely uses both every day.
Who each option suits
- Choose ChatGPT Plus if you want a generalist assistant and do not need to save through annual billing, which it does not offer.
- Choose Claude Pro if you write code: at twenty dollars, seventeen annually, it is the only one here that also includes Claude Code.
- Choose Google AI Pro if you already live in the Google ecosystem and pay for a separate storage plan: the bundled 5 TB replaces that expense.
- Choose GitHub Copilot Pro if all you need is code completion in the editor: at USD 10 it is half of every other option in the table.
- Consider Cursor Pro if you code all day, but budget it as variable spending: extra model usage can reach two hundred dollars a month.
- Do not pay for two generalist assistants at once: USD 480 a year for two tools doing the same job is the easiest expense to cut.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI subscription is the cheapest?
GitHub Copilot Pro at USD 10 a month, half of everything else in the table. It should be said, though, that it is not a like-for-like comparison, because it does code completion inside the editor rather than acting as a general assistant. Among the generalists the difference is negligible: Google AI Pro costs USD 19.99, ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro USD 20. With fees this close, look at annual billing instead, which brings Claude Pro to an effective USD 17 and Cursor Pro to 16, while ChatGPT Plus offers none.
Is a generalist assistant or a coding tool better value?
It depends how many hours a day you write code. If programming is your main job, a specialised tool saves more time than it costs, and GitHub Copilot Pro at USD 10 is the cheapest way in. If code is one part of a job that also involves writing, analysis and research, a generalist assistant covers more ground for the same money. The interesting case is Claude Pro, which at twenty dollars also includes Claude Code: it is the only one here that does not force you to choose between the two categories.
Why can Google AI Pro be better value even at the same price?
Because it is the only one that absorbs a cost you may already be paying. The USD 19.99 fee includes 5 TB of cloud storage, which as a standalone product carries its own price. Anyone already paying for Drive space and using Gmail and Photos daily can cancel that line when they take Google AI Pro and gets the assistant on top. Anyone outside the Google ecosystem is paying for five terabytes they will never use, and the comparison goes back to being about the quality of the assistant alone.
What can Cursor Pro really cost in a month?
The fee is USD 20 a month, an effective 16 with annual billing, but the dedicated guide records a maximum cost reaching USD 200 a month once model usage beyond the included allowance is added. That is a tenfold difference, and it makes this the one line in the comparison that cannot be treated as a fixed fee. It is not a flaw in the product but a different pricing model: anyone adopting it should budget for variable spending and monitor consumption, rather than treating it as a subscription.
Does it make sense to pay for two AI subscriptions?
Almost never, if both are generalists. Two twenty-dollar subscriptions come to USD 480 a year for tools that overlap on most daily tasks, and in practice only one gets used every day. The combination that does make sense is different: a generalist assistant plus a specialised coding tool, because they cover different moments of work. Before adding a second, look at how much you used the first over the past month — that is the figure that decides, not the price list.
Why are the prices in dollars rather than euro?
Because that is how the vendors publish them: the price lists for ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Pro, Copilot and Cursor are all in US dollars, including for Italian customers. Converting them into euro would produce a figure nobody sees on screen and that shifts daily with the exchange rate. What lands on your statement is a euro amount set by the rate your card network applies plus any foreign-currency transaction fee: those are variables of your bank, not of the vendor, which is why they stay out of the comparison.
How we worked it out
The comparison uses prices already verified in the five catalogue guides, all expressed in the shared monthly unit and in the currency the vendors publish, which is the US dollar. The packages are not equivalent and we do not pretend they are: ChatGPT Plus and Google AI Pro are generalist assistants, GitHub Copilot Pro is a tool for writing code in the editor, Cursor Pro is an editor built around AI, and Claude Pro straddles both categories. For each we give the base fee and, where it exists, the annual billing with its equivalent monthly cost. Left out are business and team plans, pay-as-you-go API usage, local taxes, the exchange rate applied by your card, temporary promotions and student offers. The higher ceilings quoted for Cursor and Copilot are not fees but the maximum costs stated in their respective guides.
First comparison published on 31 July 2026, lining up the catalogue's five AI subscriptions — two generalist assistants, two coding tools and Claude Pro, which spans both — on the same monthly unit.