What’s the psychological price ceiling you’d pay for software?
There’s an interesting trend unfolding.
Most major AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude etc.) started with friendly $20/month plans. It felt accessible, almost casual.
But then around New Year, OpenAI dropped the first $200/month Pro plan. A few months later, the rest of the market followed - Google, Anthropic, Grok.
Now here’s the thought experiment:
What if tomorrow they announced a $2,000/month plan?
Would you pay it?
What would it have to include to make it worth it?
And where’s your own psychological limit when it comes to monthly software costs?
Curious to hear your take 👇
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Replies
Finden
I think there is value in assisting the productivity flow, when you hit that sweet spot where tools actually reduce friction instead of adding it, it's hard to go back.
If an AI tool could reliably understand my context across apps, proactively fetch info before I ask, and help me execute without bouncing between tabs, I’d start justifying higher costs. But $2,000/month? That’s not a “better AI” price tag, that’s a “full-on replacement for an employee” tier. And at that point, it’d need enterprise-grade reliability, full autonomy on repetitive workflows, and would only want that 1 AI tool to solve ALL my problems.
While I have no problem paying a high price tag for products of value, I do thing something like this could stunt growth for those smaller, scaling businesses which rely on AI now.
@randeep_wilkhu That's true. It’s really interesting to see what the future will bring. Because $200 has already become the norm. It’s only a matter of time before we see $2,000 as well.
If it worked and was consistent and excellent, it could warrant the price of a great VA. So $2k might even be low in some instances. As it currently operates, even the $20 can be a question mark some days.
@dmitcha Exactly. As of today, it still requires supervision.
20 per month, but for some unlogical reason, I am okay to pay way more for yearly plans :D
@busmark_w_nika Yes, but how much exactly? Because $200 a year already turns into $2000+?
@byalexai yep, when you invest in the right tools, you can benefit from it.
Buy it ASAP, find it's limits, and make content/a vlog to recoup my money in the worst case scenario is my plan!
But in all seriousness it depends on the phase of my business. Just starting? I'm probably more focused on ROI, as are most responses in this thread, and thats reasonable from a profit perspective. I too enjoy a lot of avocado toast.
More established? I think the psychology shifts to "will this help me sleep at night or mentally compartmentalize whatever this does?". If I had a $2k AI tool to monitor my infrastructure and essentially gaurantee the ability to spin everything back up in the event of something catastrophic (e.g. terraform/kubernetes/docker/proxmox are borked or something like Cloudflare/AWS/Azure/Google go down) I'd do it in a heartbeat, even if either myself or someone else on the team could manage it.
Like anything in life, sometimes it's best to splurge, even if it doesn't give you "enjoyment". I think a lot of teams definitely stay in grind mode until they get a little too dusty by the end. Also preferencing the above with my view is definitely US centric. I'm well aware depending on where someone is that amount could buy an army of workers a month and then yeah, all of the above is out the window, definitely region specific advice.
@csurita I agree. I too would gladly pay more and more.
The question is that right now, it’s hard to trust it completely. It always requires a person to guide it. It often makes mistakes. It forgets things. It doesn’t take some things into account. It’s still far from being an employee.
Yes, it’s very smart (or sometimes quite dumb), like an intern. But I definitely need someone to supervise it. The real question is when will it get smart enough so we can actually trust it. And then we’ll be able to pay it $2,000–3,000–5,000 a month without worry.
Droidrun
From my point of view, the ROI calculation is the decision maker. I think it is not a question about the price it is more a question about the value that you get.
@pe_lae Alright, as of July 23, 2025, what is your ROI from AI tools? How much would you pay for ChatGPT if the current plans were discontinued?
Droidrun
@byalexai Fair question! :-) The ROI I did not calculate yet and I do know not even the cost in detail, since I see the value and our demand. We are using not only ChatGPT, but we would probably pay even more than 2K$ per month even 5K$, which is a ton of money but our value generation is still more.
If they create a $2000/month plan; the VC system will fund a new model that offers $20/mo pricing plan and is closer to what OpenAI offers.
But I doubt these companies are in any hurry to make money. They've infinite money supply because AI is the biggest revolution of our times after computers.
I believe AI will become freely available or super cheap.
@thebigk Interesting. What do you base that on?
@byalexai I have been observing the software industry for two decades.
Phygital+
Recently, there was a statistic showing that most of Gen AI companies have relatively low retention and their current pricing is based on dumping practices, as no one is trying to optimize profits yet. However, since this moment is inevitably coming, it’s only a matter of time before prices increase in B2C Gen AI. Those who learned how to bring value to Enterprises with Gen AI can definitely count on much higher AOV. In Phygital+ we see that companies can easily go 5-10 times higher with AOV per seat than B2C prices.
@olga_zueva Hey Olga! What price level do you think B2C tools rise to?
Gridapps Testimonials
If it helps me ship faster, close users, run growth loops, and replace 1-2 hires — I’ll pay. $2K/month is steep, but if it drives ROI like a team member, it’s worth it. Otherwise, $200–300 is my comfort zone.
For me, the psychological ceiling depends on who’s paying. As an individual, $20–40/month feels fair for daily-use tools. Once it hits $100+, it needs to directly save me a lot of time or make me money.
For a business tool, $200–500/month is doable if it drives measurable ROI. At $2,000/month, I’d need serious value: team-wide access, top-tier reliability, premium support, and ideally a competitive edge I can’t get elsewhere.
That said, if it 10x’s my output or helps win clients, I’d consider it..... price is relative to impact.
It really depends on the value it provides. When I see something like DocuSign or TypeForm that has very simple functionality (signature on document / forms), charging $50+ a month, I don't think it's worth it.
I use value-based pricing for my product, AllForms. It's 17 SaaS tools for $29 - I think at the level of value provided, hopefully no one would think the price is too high.
If ChatGPT had a $2,000/mo plan that truly gave incredible value, I'd have no problem paying for it, though. But it'd have to be almost AGI level...
@frederikb I agree. There are a lot of tools that overpriced and often unjustified. Still, I'm curious: would you accept such a price increase if the tool remains at its current level?
@byalexai definitely not at the current level, no
There’s a weird illusion with software pricing. $20/month feels cheap until you realize it’s multiplying across the team, the stack, and the stuff no one uses. I’d rather pay $2,000/month for a product that’s actually critical than $200/month for one that’s just “meeh, it's okay for the basics.”
@a11yexpert Do you ChatGPT currently fulfills this?