Why multiple AI subscriptions are a waste of money

Ask any Dutch AI user what they use and the answer is almost never one thing. It's: ChatGPT for images, Claude for texts and code, Gemini for PDFs, Perplexity when it really has to be accurate. That's a sensible way of working, because the models simply excel at different things.

It's also an expensive way of working. Three subscriptions cost €768.36 per year, five subscriptions €1,398.96. And the painful part is that most of your questions would be answered perfectly well by any of those services. This article works out what stacking costs, why people do it anyway, when one subscription is really enough, and — to be fair — when multiple subscriptions are genuinely defensible.

What exactly does stacking cost?

The third amount is the most familiar, because that combination is common among people who work seriously with AI. €768.36 per year is more than most households pay for streaming services and phone combined, and unlike streaming you're not watching different content here: you're asking largely the same kinds of questions at three services.

Above all, calculate it per year. Three times twenty-one euros a month feels like a small amount you can reconsider every month. In practice nobody reconsiders it, and after a year it's simply €768.36. The full price list per provider is in what does an AI subscription cost.

Why almost everyone has multiple subscriptions anyway

It's too easy to accuse stackers of thoughtlessness. The reasons are good.

The models really differ. Claude writes the best Dutch of all the models, with a 5 in our language test against a 4 for ChatGPT and Gemini. Perplexity cites sources with every answer. Grok 4.5 has live data from X. Those aren't marketing differences.

The extras are tied to the provider, not the model. Sora 2 and GPT Image 2 are only in ChatGPT Plus. Claude Code and Claude Cowork are only in Claude Pro. NotebookLM and 2 TB of storage are only in Google AI Pro. If you need those three things, you can't get them from one provider.

Subscriptions creep in. For many people Google AI Pro or AI Plus is tied to their storage plan, so they don't realize they're paying for it. And Microsoft has dropped the standalone Copilot Pro: its successor, Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99), is an Office subscription with AI included.

Canceling feels like losing something. Even though you fall back on a free tier that in 2026 is a lot better than people think.

When is one subscription really enough?

For more people than the market suggests. If your work mostly consists of writing, rewriting, summarizing, asking questions, translating and brainstorming, every one of the major models does that well. The difference you experience then is in tone and convenience, not in whether the answer is correct.

Practical rule of thumb: for one week, note for each task which service you open and why. For most people it turns out that one subscription does 80% of the work and the other two mostly stay open out of habit. For the remaining 20%, the other provider's free tier is often enough — Claude gives free users Sonnet 5, and since 6 August 2026 ChatGPT gives unlimited text chat on GPT-5.6 Luna.

What the free tiers solve for you

The biggest change of 2026 is that free no longer means working with an outdated model.

That changes the math. You only take a second subscription if that provider's free tier specifically gets in your way, and that's less often the case than a year ago. Which free options work best in Dutch is in our overview of ChatGPT alternatives.

When multiple subscriptions do make sense

This article is a calculation, not a ban, for a reason. There are situations in which two or three subscriptions are simply the cheapest solution.

• You program and make video. Claude Code is in Claude Pro, Sora 2 in ChatGPT Plus. Those two don't exist together anywhere. €42.04 per month is then not waste but the market price.
• You needed that 2 TB of storage anyway. Google AI Pro is partly a storage subscription. If you were already paying for Google storage, the AI part is effectively cheaper than €21.99.
• You're a freelancer and deduct the VAT. Then the real cost is lower than the amounts in this article. We worked that out in AI for freelancers and small businesses.
• You need source citations for your work. Perplexity Pro does something the others don't do by default, and $5 of Sonar API credit per month is included.
• Your work depends on one specific model. If, for example, you have a workflow built around Claude Fable 5, keep in mind that in the apps this model runs on prepaid credits and isn't included in Claude Pro.

What doesn't apply in any of these cases: that you need three subscriptions to keep "access to the best models". Which models exist and what they're good at is in all AI models at a glance.

Going from three subscriptions to one

If you decide to cut back, do it in this order.

Determine your main task. If you mainly write, Claude Pro is your base. If you work with documents, Google AI Pro. If you want images and video, ChatGPT Plus. The full comparison of those three is in ChatGPT Plus vs Claude Pro vs Google AI Pro.

Cancel the rest just before the renewal date. Your access continues until the end of the paid period, so you lose nothing by waiting. With Poe this is extra important, because compute points don't roll over and are gone as soon as your period ends. The steps for each provider are in canceling an AI subscription.

Only then consider a bundle. If after all this it turns out you really need multiple models side by side, one subscription with all the models included is cheaper than two separate ones. That's what we're building: our Plus subscription costs €12.95 per month, or €129 per year with annual billing, with one invoice in euros including VAT.

To be honest about its limits: a bundle gives you the models, not the provider-specific extras. Sora 2, NotebookLM, Claude Code and that 2 TB of storage are tied to their own subscriptions. If you need them, the separate subscription stays alongside whatever else you use. And if you only have one subscription, a bundle saves you nothing — then staying with your current provider is fine. What the whole market looks like, you can read in the comparison of all AI subscriptions.

Conclusion