01 / COSTS
What will AI actually cost?
Understand the charges behind the monthly price.
- Credits and usage allowances
- Paid add-ons and higher tiers
- Four questions to ask before paying
19 tools, each with source and check date
Understand AI pricing →What will it cost? Can it connect to your software? And what does llms.txt actually do? Start with the question you need answered.
Understand the charges behind the monthly price.
Learn what MCP does and what to check in a vendor's setup.
A practical look at the file we publish and what remains uncertain.
Bring these questions to your next software evaluation.
Check the allowance, how much each action uses, whether retries count and what happens when you run out. Compare the work you need to finish, not the credit balances. Read more →
Look for the supported assistant, the plan it needs and the permissions it gets. Reading information and changing it are different risks. Check the vendor's documentation before connecting an account. Read more →
Ask what was measured and whether other changes could explain the result. Publishing a file by itself does not show that it caused more visits or citations. Read more →
The guides explain the terms. The Atlas holds the pricing notes and cost flags for each of the 490 tools in our catalog; the same research is available as an open dataset and through our MCP server. How we review.
Content last changed 1 October 2026.
New dossiers, cost-traps we found, and what actually changed in AI tooling — no hype, no sponsored-disguised-as-advice. Unsubscribe anytime.