The stack
- Claude Max
- ChatGPT with Codex
- Lovable — for prototypes
- Google One with Gemini
- OpenRouter — for bots
- Digital Ocean running [OpenClaw](/en/guides/openclaw)
- Granola + MyMeet — for call transcription (though Zoom has started kicking their bots from calls, so I'll probably just add Notion AI and transcribe everything there instead)
- Direct API for my Telegram agent
Total: $200–250/month on personal projects.
The token math
The exact breakdown is only visible in the terminal. Claude Code shows its own 30-day usage, Codex and Gemini CLI have their own counters, and Steinberger's CodexBar pulls stats from 20+ providers at once — def recommend. Over the past month I clocked 3.3M tokens and 255 Claude Code sessions, mostly Opus 4.8 — at API prices that's around $93, meaning my $100 Max subscription is basically breaking even.
How much do you budget for AI per month for personal use? And for work?
*(Obviously if you're on a corporate plan, it could be $10k. As one founder recently posted: looking for a developer spending $10,000+/month on tokens.)*