stage · Before you start
03What this really costs
The floor, the comfortable option, and "can I do it free"
Let's count it as it is, no fine print.
The floor is about ten dollars a month. An entry tier on one AI (ChatGPT Go is eight dollars, for example) plus a domain for a few dollars a year. Hosting is free to start. That's enough to build and launch a real first project, as long as you keep an eye on the limits.
Comfortable is twenty to thirty. A normal subscription where you're not constantly watching the limits. This is the one I'd suggest: saving ten dollars usually ends with you hitting the ceiling at the worst possible moment and quitting.
Serious is a hundred to two hundred. That's when AI becomes your job and you're in it eight hours a day. I pay that, but I also live in it. Definitely don't start here.
Completely free works too: Qwen, Kimi and DeepSeek cost nothing, and in places they're catching up with the paid leaders. Plenty for learning and first projects. Just don't make free a principle: once you hit the limits, twenty dollars a month pays for itself in saved evenings.
Separately: a server, if you even need one, is another two to ten dollars a month. First projects usually don't.