Index · stack cost calculator
What does your whole AI app stack cost?
Hosting, database, transactional email, payments — and the LLM API on top. Set your users and pick your stack: every line is priced from the providers' published tiers (verified 2026-09-10), and the LLM share from the same cross-checked prices as the LLM cost calculator.
Adjust the assumptions
Medians for a typical web app, not measurements — the low/high range divides and multiplies them by 1.5. Change any figure to match what you actually observe.
| Line | Provider · tier | est. $/mo | low–high |
|---|
When do you start paying?
Smallest MAU at which each selected free tier runs out, under the current assumptions.
How it's computed
Your MAU count is converted into billable units with the assumptions above (bandwidth = MAU × pageviews × page weight; emails = MAU × emails-per-user; database storage = MAU × KB-per-user), then each line takes the smallest published tier that covers the usage, plus metered overage where the provider prices it. The LLM line is MAU × requests × tokens at the selected model's per-token prices, cached input included. Payment fees scale with revenue, not users: paying users × price × percentage fee + fixed fee per transaction — that line ignores the low/high range because it depends on your price, not on traffic assumptions. All prices are the providers' published list prices (source linked on every line, verified 2026-09-10); 0 of 15entries still await re-verification against the official page and are marked ◌. Real consumption varies widely by app — treat results as a starting range, not a quote. Method: methodology.
Stack pricing FAQ
Can I run a commercial app on Vercel's free Hobby plan?
No. The Hobby plan is limited to personal, non-commercial use under Vercel’s Fair Use Guidelines, with a hard cap of 100 GB bandwidth — the project is paused at the limit, with no overage buy-out. Any project that charges users needs the Pro plan at $20 per seat per month.
When do I outgrow the Supabase free tier?
The free tier includes 500 MB of database storage and 50,000 monthly active auth users. For a typical CRUD app storing about 500 KB per user, database storage is the binding limit at roughly 1,000 users; the Pro plan is $25/month with 8 GB included.
What is the cheapest way to send transactional email?
Amazon SES is the cheapest per email at $0.10 per 1,000, but its legacy free tier was discontinued for new accounts in July 2026 and setup is heavier (domain verification, IAM, sandbox exit). Resend offers 3,000 emails/month free, then $20/month for 50,000. Postmark starts free at 100 emails/month, then $15/month for 10,000.
Why do merchant-of-record fees look higher than Stripe?
Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per US card transaction but leaves global sales tax and VAT compliance to you. Merchant-of-record platforms like Lemon Squeezy and Polar charge around 5% + $0.50 because they become the legal seller and handle tax filing worldwide — you are paying for compliance, not just processing.
Raw data: /api/stack-pricing.json (CC BY 4.0, attribution required). Non-LLM prices are hand-verified against published pricing pages; LLM prices come from the index's daily cross-checked pipeline.