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Developer AI Stack - Cursor + Copilot + Claude + ChatGPT

🚀 Open the calculator

Meet Marcus Wei. Senior backend developer + side projects. "Cursor or Copilot? Claude Code? Plus ChatGPT for non-coding? What's the right developer stack?"

🔥 Trying $80/mo of overlapping tools. 60% redundant.

The story

The developer AI stack overlaps massively - but each tool has a niche. Cursor: editor-native AI coding. GitHub Copilot: same niche, different model bias. Claude Code: terminal-native code agent. ChatGPT/Claude consumer: non-coding (writing, planning, learning). Codeium: free alternative to Cursor/Copilot.

Marcus's $80/mo stack: Cursor Pro $20 + Copilot $10 + Claude Pro $20 + ChatGPT Plus $20 + Codeium Free. Audit: Cursor and Copilot do the same thing (editor coding), so $10/mo is wasted. Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus overlap 70% (general AI). One can go. Real optimal stack: Cursor Pro + Claude Pro = $40/mo. Saves $40/mo with no quality loss.

Three developer stack tiers. (1) Lean ($20/mo) - Cursor Pro covers ~80% of needs. (2) Balanced ($40/mo) - Cursor + one general AI. (3) Power user ($100+/mo) - full stack with specialized tools (v0, Replit Agent, etc) for specific workflows.

About this calculator: Developer AI Stack - Cursor + Copilot + Claude + ChatGPT

Best developer AI stack at $20-100/mo. Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Codeium. Real comparison + when to combine.

Inputs you control

Input Impact on result Range Typical
Weekly coding hours with AI Hours you actually code with AI assistance. Heavy users: 30+. Side projects: 5-15. 1 – 60 25
Languages used (count) More languages = more value from AI assistance. Single-language: fewer tools needed. 1 – 15 4
Monthly tool budget ($) $0 = free tools. $20 = one premium. $40 = balanced. $100+ = power stack. 0 – 500 40

Outputs computed for you · model: subscription

Output How inputs affect it
Monthly cost ($) computed from inputs
Annual cost ($) monthlyUsd × 12

Below: live sliders. Move them to see numbers change in real time. * Output uses the generic compute model — for precise numbers use the full calculator below.

What you're looking at

Each input shapes your cost. Move the slider — see the impact.

25

Hours you actually code with AI assistance. Heavy users: 30+. Side projects: 5-15.

Estimated: —
4

More languages = more value from AI assistance. Single-language: fewer tools needed.

Estimated: —
40

$0 = free tools. $20 = one premium. $40 = balanced. $100+ = power stack.

Estimated: —

Ready to run the numbers?

Open the full calculator — pick a model, enter your tokens, see per-call, daily, monthly, and annual cost.

🚀 Open the full calculator →

Reading your result

Lean stack ($20): Cursor Pro alone. Claude + GPT-5.5 access included. Free tier of ChatGPT for non-coding. Covers ~80% of dev needs.

Balanced stack ($40): Cursor Pro + Claude Pro. Cursor for editor coding, Claude for non-coding (planning, writing, learning). Sweet spot.

Power stack ($100+): Add specialized tools - v0 for UI, Replit Agent for prototyping, ChatGPT Plus for image gen, JetBrains AI if IntelliJ. Worth it for full-time AI-augmented dev.

Don't double-pay for editor coding. Cursor Pro AND Copilot Pro is wasted money. Pick one. Cursor often wins on flexibility; Copilot wins on GitHub integration.

What "good" looks like:
  • Side projects (<10 hr/week): Codeium free + Claude/ChatGPT free = $0
  • Active dev (10-25 hr/week): Cursor Pro alone = $20
  • Full-time AI-augmented (25-40 hr/week): Cursor + Claude Pro = $40
  • Power user (40+ hr/week, multi-stack): $80-120 across 3-4 tools

Top developer AI tools right now

Verified 20 hours ago
  1. 1
    GPT-5 Mini
    $0.250 in · $2.00 out ·
  2. 2
    Command
    $1.00 in · $2.00 out ·
  3. 3
    devstral-2
    $0.400 in · $2.00 out ·

Three real scenarios

Same calculator, three different team sizes. Click a tab to see how the numbers shift.

$0.00 / month ≈ $0.00 / year

Side projects 6 hr/week. Codeium free in-editor + Claude free for explanations. $0/mo. Don't pay until you're actually shipping daily.

Healthy range: Codeium + Claude/ChatGPT free

See inputs used
weeklyCodingHours
6
languageBreadth
2
monthlyBudgetUsd
0

Trade-offs

Cost isn't the only dimension. Click any constraint — see how recommendations change.

What matters most to you? Click any dimension — recommendations update.

Best fit for "cost":

  1. Cursor Pro $20/mo Best general dev AI
  2. GitHub Copilot $10/mo Cheaper but narrower
  3. Codeium Free Free alternative, less polished
  4. Claude Code (terminal) Different niche - agent-based

Don't double-pay for the same thing. Cursor + Copilot is wasted money. Pick one editor AI; supplement with non-coding general AI.

Use cases

Pre-loaded scenarios for the most common applications. Click a tab to see realistic numbers — then the "Try this scenario" button to load it into the calculator above.

$40.00 / month ≈ $480.00 / year

Frontend specialist. Cursor for in-editor + v0.dev $20/mo for UI generation = $40/mo. Big productivity win on visual work.

Healthy range: Cursor + v0 (UI generation)

See inputs used
weeklyCodingHours
25
languageBreadth
3
monthlyBudgetUsd
40

What this calculator can't tell you

Honest limitations — every model is wrong; some are useful. Where this one falls short:

For these, use: Subscription Picker for non-coding AI. Cost Calculator for API usage.

Where to go next

Add non-coding subscription →

Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus for general AI.

 Free tier first →

Codeium + free Claude/ChatGPT before paying.

 Annual vs monthly →

Save 15-20% on the tools you keep.

Methodology

Source
/ai-cost-economics
Extraction
Tool pricing pulled monthly. Use-case mapping from developer surveys.
Editorial gate
8-layer defense — see aicost.ai/ai-cost-economics
Last verified
6/4/2026, 8:00:00 PM

Author: Subu Vdaygiri, Founder & CEO of CloudIntelligence.ai. 17 years Fortune 100 (Ingram Micro, Siemens). Wharton CTO program · Kellogg CPO program · 10× AWS+Azure certified.

3 years of pricing history

Why this matters: pricing for major vendors has dropped 40-90% in the last 24 months. A budget set 12 months ago is probably wrong by 30%+.

View 3-year history for →
📖 Data sources & methodology 161 text models · 9 embeddings · 24 vision · 41 audio · 8 vector DBs across 10 vendor pages · last verified 2026-06-05

Methodology

  • All prices are USD per 1 million tokens, current as of 2026-06-05.
  • Vendor-published values have no mark. Inferred/extrapolated values are marked with * and listed below.
  • Batch API discounts are 50% off standard rates across providers that offer Batch mode.
  • Prompt caching discounts vary by provider (typically 80-90% off cached input tokens).
  • Regional data-residency surcharges (Anthropic 1.1x, OpenAI 1.1x, Google regional tiers) are NOT included in base rates.
  • Long-context pricing tiers apply when input exceeds model threshold.
  • Embedding prices are input-only (no output tokens generated).

Primary sources

Last-verified date is the most recent successful daily snapshot (aicost_pricing_snapshots) or, when no snapshot exists yet, the latest successful crawler run (aicost_crawler_runs). 10 of 10 vendors are currently verified. Aggregator services (TokenCost, AI Pricing Guru, etc.) are not listed.

Anthropic
2026-06-05
https://www.anthropic.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
Anthropic Docs
2026-06-05
https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
OpenAI
2026-06-05
https://openai.com/api/pricing/
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 579 days captured
Google AI
2026-06-05
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 554 days captured
Google Vertex
2026-06-05
https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 554 days captured
DeepSeek
2026-06-05
https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing
Daily snapshot since May 2024 · 493 days captured
xAI
2026-06-05
https://x.ai/api
Daily snapshot since Nov 2024 · 411 days captured
Mistral
2026-06-05
https://mistral.ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 552 days captured
Cohere
2026-06-05
https://cohere.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
Voyage AI
2026-06-05
https://docs.voyageai.com/docs/pricing

Inferred values (marked with * in calculator tables)

Derived from industry conventions, not directly published by the vendor. Typical conventions: cached input = 10% of base (90% off), Batch API = 50% of base (50% off).

Vendor / Model Field Why it’s inferred
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic publishes 90% cache-hit discount on this tier.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate; same 90% cache-hit convention as Sonnet 4.6.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchInput Derived at 50% of standard input — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of standard output — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Haiku 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic 90% cache-hit discount convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Mini cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI documents automatic 90% discount on cache hits across GPT-5.x tier.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input; no residency uplift.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI does not publish a cached rate for *-pro models; using the family convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — pro-tier convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
Google — Gemini 3 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching discount convention ~90%.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash cachedInput Derived at 25% of input per Google 2.0 family caching rates.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
xAI — Grok 4 (legacy) cachedInput Extrapolated at 25% of base.

Pricing is cross-verified against the LiteLLM community registry when available. Daily snapshots are kept in aicost_pricing_snapshots; every change is logged to aicost_price_changelog with old & new values for full audit trail. Read the full methodology →