I put an AI agent on a $7/month VPS — here's how I kept it under $2/month for users

There's a great Show HN post making the rounds right now: someone built an AI agent on a $7/month VPS using IRC as the transport layer. It's clever, minimal, and completely rejects the bloated SaaS model. I've been doing something similar with SimplyLouie — Claude-powered AI on a $7/month VPS, priced at ✌️$2/month for users. Here's how the math actually works. The infrastructure cost breakdown Most people assume cheap AI means cheap quality. Here's the actual cost structure: VPS: $7/month (Hetzner CX11) Claude API: ~$0.30 per user per month (at typical usage) Stripe fees: ~$0.10 per user per month Total cost per user: ~$0.40/month Price charged: $2/month Margin: 80% The secret? Claude's API is absurdly efficient for conversational AI. A typical user sends 50-100 messages per month. At Claude Haiku pricing, that's fractions of a cent per message. Why $2 instead of $20 Every major AI company charges $20/month. Here's why that's a choice, not a necessity: ChatGPT Plus: $20/month (OpenAI m