Introduction
AI API costs vary dramatically depending on your industry and use case. A legal tech startup processing long contracts will pay 10x more per request than a simple FAQ chatbot. In this guide, we break down realistic AI API costs by industry so you can plan your budget accurately.
Legal Tech
Legal applications typically involve long documents and precise output requirements.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~6,000 tokens (contract + context + instructions)
- Output: ~1,000 tokens (analysis + citations)
Monthly cost estimate (1,000 users, weekly usage = 16,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$106/month
- GPT-4o: ~$400/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$528/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$90/month
Recommended model: Claude Sonnet 4.6 — precise instruction following is critical for legal accuracy.
Healthcare & Medical
Medical applications need accurate, safe responses with proper disclaimers.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~2,000 tokens (patient context + medical history + query)
- Output: ~800 tokens (detailed medical explanation)
Monthly cost estimate (1,000 users, weekly usage = 16,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$56/month
- GPT-4o: ~$208/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$288/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$72/month
Recommended model: Claude Haiku 4.5 or Claude Sonnet 4.6 — safety and instruction following matter most.
E-commerce & Customer Support
High volume, simple queries — cost efficiency is everything.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~500 tokens (product context + customer query)
- Output: ~300 tokens (helpful response)
Monthly cost estimate (10,000 users, daily usage = 1,200,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$396/month
- GPT-4o: ~$6,600/month
- Claude Haiku 4.5: ~$2,520/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$1,260/month
Recommended model: GPT-4o Mini — volume is high, tasks are simple.
EdTech & Tutoring
Educational apps need detailed explanations and patient, structured responses.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~1,000 tokens (student question + curriculum context)
- Output: ~1,200 tokens (detailed explanation + examples)
Monthly cost estimate (1,000 users, daily usage = 120,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$104/month
- GPT-4o: ~$1,740/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$2,520/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$396/month
Recommended model: GPT-4o or Gemini Flash — balance of quality and cost for educational content.
SaaS & Developer Tools
Developers need precise, technical responses with code examples.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~2,000 tokens (code context + error + instructions)
- Output: ~1,500 tokens (code solution + explanation)
Monthly cost estimate (1,000 users, few times/week = 40,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$84/month
- GPT-4o: ~$800/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$1,320/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$390/month
Recommended model: Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GPT-4o — coding tasks benefit from premium models.
Content & Media
Content generation is output-heavy — output token costs dominate.
Typical token usage per request:
- Input: ~800 tokens (brief + style guide + outline)
- Output: ~2,000 tokens (generated article section)
Monthly cost estimate (500 users, daily usage = 30,000 requests):
- GPT-4o Mini: ~$40/month
- GPT-4o: ~$660/month
- Claude Sonnet 4.6: ~$1,104/month
- Gemini 3.1 Flash: ~$157/month
Recommended model: GPT-4o Mini — output-heavy tasks make cost differences enormous at scale.
Summary by Industry
- Legal: Claude Sonnet 4.6 for accuracy, Gemini Flash for cost
- Healthcare: Claude models for safety, GPT-4o Mini for volume
- E-commerce: GPT-4o Mini — volume demands cost efficiency
- EdTech: GPT-4o or Gemini Flash — quality at reasonable cost
- SaaS/Dev Tools: Claude Sonnet or GPT-4o — technical precision matters
- Content: GPT-4o Mini — output-heavy tasks need cheapest output pricing
Use Our Free Calculator
Want to estimate costs for your specific industry and scale? Try our AI API Cost Calculator to get an instant breakdown across all major models.
Conclusion
Industry context matters as much as model choice. A legal tech app and an e-commerce chatbot have completely different cost profiles even with the same user count. Always estimate costs based on your actual token usage pattern — not just your user volume.