How to Use GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini Without Paying $65/Month

GPT-5 is $20/month. Claude is $20/month. Gemini is $25/month. If you want all three, you're looking at $65/month, or $780/year. Most people I know who use AI seriously want access to at least two of these models. The individual subscription model punishes exactly the users who benefit most from multiple AI tools.

There are ways around this. Some are clunky. One is straightforward. Here's the full picture.

Option 1: Free Tiers (Limited but Functional)

Every major AI provider offers a free tier. You can use all three models for zero dollars. The catch is that you'll fight rate limits, lose access during peak hours, and get bumped to weaker models when the good ones are busy.

ChatGPT's free tier includes GPT-4o (not GPT-5). Claude's free tier uses Sonnet (not Opus). Gemini's free tier gives you Gemini 1.5 Pro (not 2.0 Ultra). You're getting last year's models for free. Sometimes that's enough. Often it's not.

If you use AI a few times a week for simple tasks, the free tiers work. If AI is part of your daily workflow, free tiers will waste more of your time than they save.

Option 2: API Access (Pay Per Token)

All three providers offer API access where you pay per token instead of a flat monthly fee. In theory, this lets you access every model and only pay for what you use.

In practice, API pricing is unpredictable. A single long conversation with GPT-5 can cost $0.50-2.00 in tokens. API access also means building or finding your own chat interface. Tools like Open WebUI or LibreChat work, but they require technical setup and maintenance. You're trading subscription costs for engineering time and billing uncertainty.

For developers comfortable with APIs and variable costs, this is viable. For everyone else, it's not worth the hassle.

Option 3: Pick One and Supplement

The minimalist approach: pay for one subscription and use free tiers of the others. Keep ChatGPT Plus for daily use, use free Claude when you need better writing, and free Gemini for Google integration.

This works until it doesn't. The moment you need Claude for a long document analysis and the free tier cuts you off, you're stuck. You either wait, pay for another subscription, or compromise on quality. I tried this approach for a month. The free tier interruptions added up to real productivity losses.

Option 4: AI Aggregators (The Practical Answer)

AI aggregators bundle multiple models into one subscription. Instead of paying each provider separately, you pay once and switch between models in a single interface.

Admix is the one I use. $10/month for GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, and 350+ AI models. No separate logins. No tab switching. Pick a model from a dropdown and start chatting.

Here's what the cost comparison looks like:

How Aggregators Work

Aggregators negotiate API access from model providers and bundle it into predictable monthly allowances. They wrap everything in a clean interface so you don't need to manage API keys or calculate every token charge yourself.

You give up platform-specific features. No Custom GPTs from OpenAI. No Projects from Claude. No Google Workspace integration from Gemini. What you keep is access to every model through one interface at one price.

For most people, the features you lose are things you occasionally use. The models themselves are what you use daily. An aggregator optimizes for the common case.

What I Actually Use Each Model For

Having all models available changed how I work. Instead of forcing every task through one model, I pick the best tool for each job:

• GPT-5: Code generation, structured data analysis, multi-step problem solving
• Claude: Writing drafts, document analysis, explaining complex topics clearly
• Gemini: Quick factual lookups, multimodal tasks with images
• Mistral Large: Fast responses for simple tasks, lower latency than the big three
• Llama 3: Alternative perspective on coding problems, sometimes catches things GPT-5 misses

This isn't about using models for fun. Different models have measurably different strengths. Having access to all of them lets you match the tool to the task. That flexibility was worth $65/month before. Now it's $10.

Getting Started

If you're currently paying for multiple AI subscriptions:

1. Sign up for Admix and test it alongside your current subscriptions for a week.
2. Run your normal AI tasks through the aggregator. See if the model quality matches what you get from direct subscriptions.
3. If it does (it probably will, since it's the same underlying models), cancel the individual subscriptions.

Keep a direct subscription only if you depend on platform-specific features that the aggregator can't replicate. For everyone else, paying $65 for what $10 buys is just leaving money on the table.