The average AI power user pays for three to five separate AI subscriptions. Add them up: $20 for ChatGPT, $20 for Claude, $19.99 for Gemini Advanced, $20 for Perplexity. That's $79.99 per month before factoring in GitHub Copilot ($10), Midjourney ($10), and any other AI tools you use. There's a better way.
The AI Subscription Math
Let's be precise about what people are actually paying. Here are the standard subscription prices for the most common AI tools as of 2025:
| Service | Monthly Cost | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | $20.00 | GPT-4o, DALL-E 3, advanced data analysis |
| Claude Pro | $20.00 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude Opus, Projects |
| Gemini Advanced | $19.99 | Gemini Ultra, Google One storage |
| Perplexity Pro | $20.00 | Pro search, Claude and GPT-4o answers |
| GitHub Copilot | $10.00 | Code completion in your IDE |
| Midjourney Standard | $10.00 | Image generation |
| Total | $99.99/mo | $1,199.88/year |
$1,200 per year for AI tools that you're probably not using to their full capacity in any single service. Most people with this many subscriptions have a clear primary tool (usually ChatGPT or Claude) that they use for 80% of their AI work, plus several others they check occasionally.
The Overlap Problem
The core issue is that these tools overlap massively. All of them can:
- Answer questions and explain concepts
- Write and edit text
- Summarize documents
- Help with coding tasks
- Brainstorm and generate ideas
The differences are real but modest. Claude is better for long-form writing. GPT-4o is better for math and image analysis. Gemini handles very long documents. But for 70–80% of everyday AI tasks, any of the three would serve you equally well.
What You're Actually Paying For When You Subscribe to Multiple Services
When you subscribe to multiple AI services separately, you're paying for:
- Overlap: The majority of capability is duplicated across services
- Context switching: The mental overhead of deciding which tool to use, switching tabs, maintaining separate conversation histories
- Provider lock-in: Your conversation history lives in silos: your Claude conversations and your ChatGPT conversations are separated forever
- Missed comparisons: You rarely see what the other model would have said, so you can't tell when you're getting a suboptimal answer
The Alternative: An AI Aggregator
An AI aggregator gives you access to multiple models through a single interface and a single subscription. Instead of paying $20/month each for ChatGPT and Claude, you pay one subscription and can run any query through GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini, and dozens of other models.
The practical benefits:
- One login, one bill: No managing five separate accounts
- Simultaneous comparison: Run the same prompt through multiple models and compare responses side by side
- Access to rare models: Models you'd never subscribe to individually (Mistral, DeepSeek, Qwen) are included
- Better answers: When you can compare responses from multiple models, you're less likely to act on a bad answer from a single model
What You'll Need to Keep vs. What You Can Cancel
Being realistic: some specialized tools are worth keeping even with an aggregator.
| Tool | Keep or Cancel? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | Cancel (or downgrade) | GPT-4o accessible via aggregator |
| Claude Pro | Cancel (or downgrade) | Claude accessible via aggregator |
| Gemini Advanced | Cancel (or downgrade) | Gemini accessible via aggregator; Google One storage is separate value |
| Perplexity Pro | Keep if heavy search user | Specialized for real-time web research with citations |
| GitHub Copilot | Keep | IDE integration not replaceable by aggregator |
| Midjourney | Keep or reduce | Image generation quality is unique; some aggregators include image models |
The Realistic Monthly Budget
With an aggregator replacing your ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini subscriptions:
- AI aggregator (Deepest Plus): $20/month
- GitHub Copilot: $10/month (if needed)
- Midjourney (if heavy image user): $10/month
- Perplexity Pro (if heavy search user): $20/month
Even keeping Copilot and Midjourney, you're down from $99.99 to $40–60/month, saving $40–60 per month, $480–720 per year, without giving up meaningful capability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Won't I get worse models through an aggregator?
No. Aggregators like Deepest give you direct API access to the same GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Gemini models as their native apps. The models are identical. What you lose is some native-app-specific features (like ChatGPT's memory, Claude's Projects, or Gemini's Google Workspace integration).
What about ChatGPT's memory feature?
ChatGPT's memory (where it remembers things about you across conversations) is a native feature not available through the API. If you rely heavily on this, you might keep a basic ChatGPT subscription alongside an aggregator. For most users, this feature is a nice-to-have rather than essential.
Is an AI aggregator more or less expensive than separate subscriptions?
Significantly less expensive if you currently subscribe to 2+ AI services. Deepest's Plus plan ($20/month) includes access to GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini, and 300+ other models, replacing three $20/month subscriptions at one-third the price.
Will I lose my conversation history if I cancel ChatGPT or Claude?
Before canceling, export your conversation history. ChatGPT: Settings → Data controls → Export data. Claude: Settings → Privacy → Export. Your history exports as JSON files you can reference later. You'll lose the in-app interface, but you keep the data.
