Writing · Buying Guides
Five Questions to Ask Before Paying for Any AI Subscription
The free trial is designed to impress you. These questions are designed to keep your money from leaking out monthly.
I pay for more AI subscriptions than any reasonable person should. It's part of the job. But it means I've also canceled more of them than most people, and the reasons I cancel are remarkably consistent.
Before you hand over a card number, ask these five questions.
1. What exactly counts against my limit?
"Unlimited" rarely means unlimited. Look for credits, "fast" vs. "slow" generations, daily caps, and fair-use clauses. For video and image tools especially, find out how many usable outputs your tier realistically buys, not how many attempts.
2. What happens to my work if I cancel?
Can you export your history, your characters, your projects? In what format? Some tools let you download everything cleanly. Others hold your work hostage in a proprietary format. Find out before you've put 200 hours in.
3. Who owns what I make, and what do they do with it?
Read the terms for two things: whether you have commercial rights to outputs on your plan, and whether your inputs are used to train future models. Many services let you opt out of training. Turn that setting on if it matters to you; it's often off by default.
4. Will the product I'm paying for still be the same product next month?
Cloud AI tools change their underlying models without much notice. Sometimes that's an upgrade. Sometimes a model you liked gets retired or quietly made "more careful." If consistency matters (a character voice, an art style), check whether you can pin a model version.
5. Is the monthly price hiding a better annual deal, or the other way around?
Annual plans are cheaper per month and a great deal for tools you'll definitely use. They're a trap for tools you might use. My rule: never go annual on a new tool until you've paid monthly for at least two months and actually used it in both.
Bonus: the cancellation test
Before subscribing, find the cancellation page. If it takes more than three clicks to locate, or the company makes you email support to cancel, that tells you something about how they think about customers. I factor it into every review.
— Marc
American tech writer covering AI tool comparisons and AI entertainment. Disagree, or tested something I haven't? Tell me.
