Pay-Per-Use AI – Why We Don't Sell Credit Packs
Most AI platforms charge $20–50/month whether you use them or not. We charge $9.99 for the platform and real provider costs for what you actually use.
Most AI platforms charge a flat monthly fee – $20 for ChatGPT Plus, $20 for Claude Pro, $20 for Gemini Advanced. You pay the same whether you use it once or a thousand times. That sounds simple, but it hides a fundamental problem: you're either overpaying or hitting limits.
We built Amplify's pricing differently. $9.99/month for the platform. Everything else – every message, every image, every search – you pay at cost, plus a transparent 7.5% service fee. Here's why.
The Problem with Flat-Rate AI
Flat-rate pricing works for streaming services because the marginal cost of one more viewer is nearly zero. AI is different. Every message costs real money – LLM inference, API calls, compute time. When a platform charges $20/month flat:
The credit-pack model (buy 100 credits for $10) is worse. "Credits" are arbitrary units designed to obscure real pricing. They often expire. And the conversion rate between credits and actual services is deliberately confusing.
How Amplify's Pricing Works
Our model is straightforward:
1. Platform Fee: $9.99/month
This covers infrastructure, all skills and integrations, persistent memory, communication channels, platform updates, and async support. Everyone pays this – it keeps the lights on.
2. Usage Deposit: Pay What You Use
Add funds to your wallet (minimum $3, no maximum). Every action has a transparent cost:
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Text message (LLM) | ~$0.003 |
| Image generation (GPT Image) | $0.145 per image |
| Image generation (Flux) | $0.05–$0.09 per image |
| Video generation (Seedance) | $0.11–$0.43 per 5s clip |
| Video generation (Kling) | $0.27–$0.86 per 5s clip |
| Video generation (Veo) | $0.09–$0.16 per video |
| Voice generation (ElevenLabs) | $0.03–$0.15 per generation |
| Web search (Tavily) | ~$0.01–$0.02 per search |
| Audio transcription (Whisper) | ~$0.007 per minute |
| Morning briefing | ~$0.01 per briefing |
All prices include 7.5% service fee. These are the real provider costs passed through to you, not arbitrary "credits."
3. Service Fee: 7.5%
Applied to all usage costs. Covers payment processing, infrastructure overhead, and ongoing platform development. We show this upfront rather than hiding it in inflated per-unit prices.
4. No Expiry, No Tiers
Your deposit never expires. There are no tiers – everyone gets the same features. There's nothing to "upgrade to." You add funds, you use them, they last until you use them.
What Real Usage Actually Costs
Based on real user patterns (these match the persona cards on our pricing page):
Light Use: ~$25/month
Profile: Calendar reminders, quick lookups, document summaries, occasional note-taking.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Platform fee | $9.99 |
| LLM (budget models) | $8.50 |
| Web search | $3.00 |
| PDF processing | $2.00 |
| Other tools | $1.50 |
| Total | ~$25/month |
Moderate Use: ~$49/month
Profile: Daily briefings, image generation for work, email management, voice generation, regular search.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Platform fee | $9.99 |
| LLM (balanced models) | $20.00 |
| Image generation | $10.00 |
| Voice generation | $4.00 |
| Web search & tools | $5.00 |
| Total | ~$49/month |
Heavy Use with BYOK: ~$99/month
Profile: Deep research, video and image generation, meeting prep, scheduled automations. Uses own OpenAI key for LLM.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Platform fee | $9.99 |
| LLM (own key — billed by OpenAI) | ~$100 (not from wallet) |
| Video generation | $50.00 |
| Image generation | $24.00 |
| Web search & tools | $8.00 |
| Other tools | $7.00 |
| Total from wallet | ~$99/month |
The heavy user's LLM costs go directly to OpenAI via their own API key – not through Amplify's wallet.
BYOK: The Ultimate Cost Control
BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) is our most underrated feature. Here's how it works:
Why this saves money:
Who BYOK is for: Power users who want maximum cost control, developers who already have OpenAI API accounts, and anyone who wants to separate their AI spending into clear categories.
Amplify vs Flat-Rate Pricing at Different Usage Levels
| Monthly usage | ChatGPT Plus | Claude Pro | Amplify (managed) | Amplify (BYOK) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barely use it (10 messages) | $20 | $20 | ~$11 | ~$10 |
| Light use (daily basics) | $20 | $20 | ~$25 | ~$18 |
| Moderate use (daily + media) | $20 (may hit limits) | $20 (may hit limits) | ~$49 | ~$35 |
| Heavy use (all features) | $20 (definitely hitting limits) | $20 (definitely hitting limits) | ~$99 | ~$99 from wallet + OpenAI bill |
At light use, ChatGPT's flat $20 is comparable to Amplify's ~$25 – but Amplify includes messenger access, persistent memory, video generation, and proactive automation that ChatGPT doesn't offer.
At heavy use, flat-rate platforms throttle you with rate limits. Amplify scales with your usage – you pay more, but you get more, without artificial caps.
Why We Think This Is Better
Frequently Asked Questions
You pay the $9.99 platform fee and whatever tiny usage costs you incurred. If you only sent 20 messages, that's about $0.06 in LLM costs. Your total for the month: ~$10.05. Compare to $20 for ChatGPT sitting unused.
No. Your deposit balance carries over indefinitely. Add $50, use $10 this month – the remaining $40 is there next month, next year, whenever.
Yes. Your deposit amount is your spending limit. When it runs out, your assistant pauses until you top up. No surprise charges. You can also enable auto-top-up with a cap.
By removing the LLM middleman. Instead of paying Amplify (who pays OpenRouter, who pays OpenAI), you pay OpenAI directly. Fewer intermediaries = lower cost. Amplify's 7.5% fee only applies to non-LLM costs (media, search, tools).
Because running the platform has fixed costs: server infrastructure, channel connections (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack), persistent memory storage, scheduled task execution, platform development, and support. The platform fee covers these regardless of usage. Without it, we'd need to inflate per-use prices to cover infrastructure – which is less transparent.
Most AI platforms don't disclose their markup – it's hidden in the flat fee or credit pricing. 7.5% on transparent provider costs is lower than the effective markup of most subscription-based platforms. We chose to show it explicitly because it aligns with our pricing philosophy: no hidden costs.
Amplify pricing details: [getamplify.team/pricing](https://getamplify.team/pricing). All costs include 7.5% service fee. Deposit never expires.
