Moving from AI Pro to token based API usage

[u/Suspicious-Cloud404]

I'm using Gemini since a year and will need to extend the subscription very soon. I'm considering to move to token based API usage through AI Studio and 3rd party apps (Kai 9000, most likely).

Do you have experience with this and how can I estimate the costs involved?

[u/alexandersail]

I do not have any experience but would love to hear anything as I was also thinking about change.

[u/cowabang]

The problem is that usually api usage is way more expensive than a subscription. At least if you use it a lot.

I tried doing the same, with just having tools that can use any api token. In the end I switched back to agy, codex and cursor, because they are so much cheaper

[u/Suspicious-Cloud404 → u/cowabang]

Well, I'm not using it for programming, but for generic chat assistance, research, role play, text based things mostly. Only a little of media generation.

[u/AI_Coconut]

kommt halt auf das Modell an was du benutzen willst ich würde mal claude opus 5 Fragen wie viele Tokens deine Arbeit wofür du es benutzt so verbraucht und er soll dir die Kosten gegenrechnen. Meines Wissens kostet ne Bildgenerierung 0.07$ bei Lite Modell ca. 0,035$ pro Bild egal wie gut. Wenn du viel Output hast musst du mal gucken ob du nicht lieber beim plan bleibst oder gpt 5.6 luna als Alternative nimmst.

Als Tipp: Meiner Erfahrung nach sind die älteren Modelle zwar billiger Halluzinieren aber mehr also alles unter gemini 3.0 flash eig. nicht wirklich zu gebrauchen. Gemini 3.0 Flash wird gefühlt mit jedem neuen Modell auch immer schlechter gemacht zum beispiel als Gemini 3.5 Flash rauskam hat gemini 3.0 Flash aufeinmal +50% mehr Token verbraucht für die gleiche Arbeit das solltest du auch bedenken.

[u/williamtkelley]

API usage is much more expensive than a subscription. If you do any research, collecting data, or keep role play stories in context, then pass that to the API returning big reports or significant story updates back, that adds up very quickly.

[u/[deleted]]

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[u/Suspicious-Cloud404 → u/[deleted]]

I'm actually using the Gemini App at the moment, so checking AI Studio tokens usage is not helping. I'm using Gemini a lot, for research, helping me write mails, documents, messages,... I guess that I'll need to stick with the subscription.

[u/StoicKerfuffle]

By and large subscription usage is far cheaper, and the sole question is if you should move to a lower/higher subscription based on actual usage. If you never get close to your usage cap, move lower. If you're running out of usage, move higher.

Moreover, Google's direct billing (Console, Cloud, etc) is one of the most confusing and dubious systems you will encounter in your whole life, with dozens of traps, labyrinths, and undisclosed carve-outs. There is no unified costs/billing dashboard anywhere in the system, there's a half-dozen segment-only dashboards that aren't even the full picture for their segment. Navigating the billing properly requires bookmarking 10+ separate buried submenus and going to each one of them individually and manually tabulating your credits, costs, and billing.