How to pay far less for AI without noticing the difference
Where AI money actually goes, and four changes that cut it without changing what you get back — starting with the most common way to overpay.
Step by step
- Stop paying frontier prices for simple tasksFixing a comma does not need the most expensive reasoning model on the market.
- Let something else pick the modelaiCat routes each task to the cheapest model that is good enough, and shows you what it picked.
- Pay per use, not per monthCoins do not expire. A quiet month costs nothing.
- Use low-cost providers for bulk workGonka's decentralised inference is dramatically cheaper for high-volume text work.
- Buy coins in larger blocksThe rate improves from x2 to x10 as the amount goes up, and your plan sets a floor you never drop below.
Start on the free tier and watch what a task actually costs
10 aiCatCoins a month, every task included, nothing expiring.
The four changes, in order of how much they save
First: stop paying frontier prices for simple tasks, either by choosing the model yourself or by using something that routes each task to the cheapest adequate one. This is usually the largest single saving and it costs you nothing in quality.
Then: pay per use rather than per month if you are not a daily user; use low-cost providers for bulk work; and buy credit in larger blocks, where the rate improves. None of the four requires accepting worse output — they are all about not buying capacity you do not use.
Pay for what you use, and see the number
Download for free — no card to start.
Frequently asked
Is the plan that starts from $6/month really enough?
For most people, yes: Premium includes 3000 aiCatCoins, roughly 30M average text tokens per month. Heavy users top up at up to $1 = 1000 coins, and anybody who uses it rarely can buy coins outright and skip the subscription.
Which operating systems does aiCat support?
macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10/11, and Linux as AppImage, .deb or .rpm.
How much does aiCat cost?
Free to start, with 10 aiCatCoins a month and everything aiCat does included. Premium starts from $6 a month (40% off the $10 list price) and adds Think More, read-aloud, encrypted memory, 5000-character selections and 3000 coins a month. Team + Offline starts from $18 per member and adds local models, a memory you can edit by hand, and MCP access from your other tools. Coins can also be bought outright instead of subscribing, and they do not expire.