I Spent $487 on AI Coding Tools Last Month. Here's What's Worth It (And What's Not)

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Nobody talks about what AI coding actually costs.

The marketing says $20/month. The reality is different.

I tracked every AI tool subscription and API charge for 3 months. Here's the real breakdown—and what I'd cut if I had to start over.

My current stack (December 2025)

Total: $287/month average

Peak month (heavy refactoring): $487

That's $3,400-$5,800/year on AI tooling.

The subscription creep problem

Here's how it happens:

Month 1: "I'll just try the $20 Cursor plan."

Month 3: "I keep hitting limits. Let me add Claude Pro."

Month 6: "ChatGPT is better for some tasks. Just $20 more."

Month 9: "I need Perplexity for research. And Copilot as a backup."

Month 12: "I'm spending $300/month and half these tools overlap."

Sound familiar?

What's actually worth it

Tier 1: Essential (keep no matter what)

Claude Max ($100/month)

If you're using Claude Code seriously, the $20 Pro plan runs out by day 10. The 5x plan ($100) is the minimum for professional use.

Worth it because: Claude Code fundamentally changes how I work. Multi-file refactors, autonomous agents, ultrathink reasoning. Nothing else does this.

Cursor Pro ($20/month)

Tab completions alone justify this. I save 20+ minutes daily on autocomplete. The agent mode is gravy.

Worth it because: It lives in my IDE. Zero friction. No context switching.

Tier 2: Valuable but could cut

ChatGPT Plus ($20/month)

I use this for non-coding tasks: writing, brainstorming, research that isn't code-related.

The honest truth: Claude can do most of this. I keep ChatGPT because some prompts just work better on GPT-4o. Force of habit.

Verdict: Could cut. Would miss it slightly.

Perplexity Pro ($20/month)

Fast web search with citations. Great for "what's the current best practice for X" questions.

Verdict: Nice to have. Claude's web search is catching up.

Tier 3: Probably unnecessary

GitHub Copilot ($10/month)

I pay for this "just in case" Cursor goes down. It hasn't gone down.

Verdict: Cut it. Cursor subsumes this entirely.

OpenRouter API overages

I tell myself I'm "testing models." I'm procrastinating.

Verdict: Set a $20 hard cap and stick to it.

The hidden costs nobody mentions

1. Token overages

Claude Max has "5x usage" but that's still capped. Blow through it, and you're either waiting for reset or paying overages.

Heavy refactoring week? Easy $50 extra.

2. "Just trying" new tools

Windsurf free trial → forgot to cancel → $20

Replit Pro for one project → $25

Some MCP server with a paid tier → $15

These add up to $50-100/month if you're not careful.

3. Time cost of managing subscriptions

Every tool has different billing cycles, usage dashboards, and limit structures.

I spent 2 hours last month just figuring out why I was rate-limited. That's expensive time.

What I'd do with a $50 budget

If I had to cut to bare minimum:

1. Cursor Pro ($20) — Non-negotiable for IDE autocomplete

2. Claude Pro ($20) — Claude Code at lower volume

3. Save $10 — Use free tiers for everything else

You lose heavy Claude Code usage, but you keep the core workflow.

What I'd do with a $100 budget

1. Claude Max 5x ($100) — Go all-in on Claude Code

2. Use Claude for everything — Skip Cursor, use Claude Code + VS Code

Wait, no Cursor?

Here's the contrarian take: if you're disciplined about Claude Code workflows, you don't need Cursor's agent mode. You need a good editor (VS Code is free) and a powerful AI agent (Claude Code).

Cursor's value is convenience. Claude Code's value is capability.

The ROI calculation

Developer salary: ~$150-200K/year

Monthly cost: ~$12,500-16,500

AI tooling: ~$300/month

If AI makes you 10% more productive, that's $1,250-1,650/month in value.

If AI makes you 20% more productive, that's $2,500-3,300/month in value.

Even at $500/month in AI costs, the math works if the productivity gain is real.

The question isn't "is $300/month expensive?"

The question is "am I actually more productive, or does it just feel that way?"

(See: METR study, 19% slower)

My recommendations

If you're coding < 20 hours/week:

• Cursor Pro ($20)

• Claude Pro ($20)

• Total: $40/month

If you're coding 20-40 hours/week:

• Cursor Pro ($20)

• Claude Max 5x ($100)

• Total: $120/month

If you're coding 40+ hours/week:

• Cursor Pro ($20)

• Claude Max 20x ($200)

• Total: $220/month

If budget is tight:

• Claude Pro ($20)

• VS Code (free)

• Total: $20/month

What to try today

1. Add up your actual AI spending (subscriptions + API + trials you forgot about).

2. Check which tools you used in the last 7 days. Be honest.

3. Cancel anything you haven't touched in 2 weeks.

4. Set hard caps on usage-based services.

The goal isn't to spend less on AI. It's to spend intentionally on AI.

Catch you tomorrow.

If this made you audit your AI subscriptions, share it with a developer who's wondering where their money is going.