The hidden cost of expensive AI subscriptions (that nobody talks about)

The hidden cost of expensive AI subscriptions (that nobody talks about) Everyone talks about the sticker price: $20/month for ChatGPT. $25/month for Claude Pro. $30/month for Copilot. But that's not the real cost. The hidden cost is exclusion When you price AI tools at $20-30/month, you're not just charging money. You're drawing a line. On one side: developers in San Francisco, London, Berlin. People for whom $20/month is a rounding error on a lunch receipt. On the other side: developers in Lagos, Manila, Nairobi, Dhaka. People for whom $20/month is 10-20% of a monthly income. Not a rounding error. A real decision. The hidden cost of expensive AI is that it creates two classes of developer: Those who can afford to experiment, make mistakes, iterate with AI help Those who cannot The compounding effect Here's what makes this worse: AI coding tools aren't a luxury anymore. They're becoming table stakes. If you can afford GitHub Copilot + ChatGPT + Claude, you ship faster. You debug faster