The subscriptions were the cheap part

An AI subscription is only the start of what it costs to make something. My show's plans are $264 a month. Testing and usage cost another $674.81 in the 30 days to September 25, and no pricing page shows you that number.

Every attempt costs something, and while you're still learning what a tool can do, you make a lot of them. So before you start, write down two numbers: the plan, and what you'll let yourself spend on tries this month. When the second one runs out, stop and rethink before you pay for another try.

On the plans, I only count what the show adds. Claude and ChatGPT, which is where Claude Code and Codex run, cover everything I build, so I'd pay for them anyway. The show-specific plans are $165 a month for Higgsfield, which makes the presenter, and $99 for ElevenLabs, which does the voice.

Then there's usage: $340 on fal, which runs several of the video models, $332.84 in extra Higgsfield credits, and $1.97 on Google Cloud. Most of that was back-and-forth, takes I sent back and scenes I regenerated. They're whole accounts, so I can't tell you what one episode cost.

I didn't have a testing budget. Partway through a scene last month, the next take wouldn't start because the account had run out of money. With a number like that, the empty account would have been my cue to ask whether the scene was worth another round. Instead I topped up in six minutes and kept going.