Eight companies · reconciled 2026-07-28
Where the money went
Every dollar this website has cost, copied from each company’s own billing page. July came to $1,946.78, about five times a normal month.
Since then two meters have been switched off, the other two capped low, and two subscriptions cancelled. August now lands between $283.42 and $358.42.
July
$1,946.78
84% of it was meters
August, most it can be
$358.42
$1,588.36 less than July
Subscriptions
$283.42
Down $33.76 after two cancellations
Normal month
$371.56
Average of the last twelve
Needs doing
The prepaid AI balance is down to $4.89 and does not refill itself. With the per-use meter switched off, nothing draws that balance down any more, so it can sit where it is.
01 · Start here
The bills come in two shapes
Everything on this page is one of these two things. The difference is the whole story.
Subscriptions
Like Netflix.
The same amount every month, known in advance. five of them now, coming to $283.42 a month. These were never the problem, though two of them have gone anyway.
$283.42 / month
Meters
Like a taxi meter.
You are charged for what you use. A busy month costs a lot more than a quiet one. Each meter has a setting that caps it, and in July three of the four were switched off. That is what made July expensive.
$1,629.60 in July
The subscriptions
| What it is | Per month |
|---|---|
| Claude.ai (AI subscription) | $200.00 |
| Supabase (database) | $44.03 |
| ElevenLabs (voice)cancelled | $23.76 |
| Vercel (web hosting) | $20.00 |
| GitHub (code storage) | $14.00 |
| Midjourney (images)cancelled | $10.00 |
| Telegram (house bot) | $5.39 |
| Total from now on | $283.42 |
Was $317.18 in July. Cancelling the two takes off $33.76 a month
02 · What happened
July, line by line
The subscriptions at the bottom, then each meter stacked on top. Every bar starts where the last one ended, so they add up to $1,946.78.
Charged per use, like a taxi meter. This is the tool that does the building.
Buying more capacity mid-month when the flat subscription runs out.
Stores the code, and runs the automatic checks that fire on a schedule.
Puts the site on the internet so it loads when you type the address.
Web hosting on its own was $1,039.20, or 53% of the month
03 · What is different now
Every meter has a limit now
In July, one of the four meters had a spending limit set. All four of them do today, and that is the change that makes August a smaller number.
| Meter | Cost in July | Limit then | Limit now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web hostingVercel Hard spending limit set on the account. | $1,039.20 | none | $50 |
| Code storage + automationGitHub Monthly budget set. | $241.61 | none | $25 |
| Extra AI creditClaude.ai Switched off. No more mid-month top-ups. | $180.00 | none | $0 |
| AI that writes the codeAnthropic Switched off. The $200 monthly subscription above still covers the AI itself. | $168.79 | $300 | $0 |
$1,460.81 of July, 90% of the meter spend, had nothing stopping it
Add it up
Subscriptions $283.42 plus the four limits $75.00 is $358.42. That is the most August can be. If usage looks like July did, it lands nearer $358.42.
04 · Check the arithmetic
Switch a limit off
Each switch is one of the four limits. Turn them all off to see what July's usage would cost today with nothing stopping it.
Most August can be
$358.42
$1,588.36 below July (82% less)
If usage looks like July
$358.42
Same as the maximum, because no limit sits above what July actually used.
| Meter | July | August | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web hostinglimit $50 | $1,039.20 | $50.00 | −$989.20 |
| Code storage + automationlimit $25 | $241.61 | $25.00 | −$216.61 |
| AI that writes the codeoff | $168.79 | $0.00 | −$168.79 |
| Extra AI creditoff | $180.00 | $0.00 | −$180.00 |
| Total | $1,946.78 | $358.42 | −$1,588.36 |
05 · For scale
The last twelve months
Blue is subscriptions, orange is meters. For most of the year the orange is barely there, which is why nobody thought to go looking for the limits.
Dollars per month. k means thousands
06 · Who gets paid
What each company actually does
$4,728.71 in total since 2023/03, across 142 separate charges.
The AI that writes the code. Two bills: a flat monthly subscription, and a separate meter that charges per use.
Puts the site on the internet. Flat fee to be there, plus a meter for how much traffic and computing it uses.
A different AI assistant. Cancelled April 15 2026, and nothing has been charged since.
Stores the code and runs automatic checks. Flat fee, plus a meter charging by the minute for those checks.
Makes images. Started and stopped four separate times over three years, and now cancelled for a fifth.
The filing cabinet. Every article and page on the site is stored here.
Reads writing out loud in a synthetic voice, for the audio versions of essays. Cancelled July 2026.
A messaging app. The paid tier runs the little bot that sends the house notifications.
A further $553.41 was charged and then refunded, and $28.03 was declined. Neither is counted above
07 · The receipts
Every charge, month by month
Open a month to see what it was made of. Anything crossed out was refunded or declined and is not counted in the total.
Aug 2025$230.00
Sep 2025$50.00
Oct 2025$207.14
Nov 2025$20.00
Dec 2025$71.38
Jan 2026$291.45
Feb 2026$234.00
Mar 2026$180.14
Apr 2026$573.17
May 2026$267.45
Jun 2026$387.20
Jul 2026$1,946.78
08 · Fine print
What is not in these numbers
Leaving something out is only fair if you say so next to the total.
The one number here we have to keep ourselves
Anthropic sells extra credit with no spending limit setting, so the zero on that line is a rule we keep rather than something a computer enforces. It is the one line here that depends on us remembering.
Still open: $1,059.20 from web hosting, by 2026-08-13
July's web hosting bill of $1,059.20 has not come back. The biggest piece of it, a round $1,001.00, is marked both Paid and Partial on the invoice, which usually means something is still outstanding. Bills of this shape in May and June were both refunded after being questioned, so this one is worth questioning too.
Voice usage that may or may not be billed: $117.82
The voice company's website shows $117.82 of usage over the past year. That is a running tally of what got used, and no bill for it has turned up. The $35.64 already counted above was paid through Google Play and may already cover some or all of it, so adding both would risk counting the same money twice. If it does turn out to be owed on top, the all-time figure becomes $4,846.53.
Two other subscriptions on the same receipts: about $36 a month
Google AI Pro at $19.99 and YouTube Premium at $15.99 sit on the same Google Play receipts. Neither one runs the website, so neither is counted here. They are still real household money. Counting them would put the monthly subscription total nearer $353.
Two billing lists may go back further
The AI subscription's billing page only goes back to December 2025, so anything before that is uncounted. The ChatGPT receipt list could still be scrolled further back when this was put together. So the all-time totals are a minimum.
Reconciled 2026-07-28 from each company’s own billing page. Every total here is added up from the individual charges by the site itself, and rechecked automatically each time the page is built, so no number on this page can drift away from the receipts under it.
09 · The bottom line
What August comes to
Two numbers, because a limit sets a maximum rather than a price. The low one is what happens if the meters go unused. The high one is what happens if every meter runs the whole way to its limit.
Best case
$283.42
The subscriptions and nothing else. Both switched-off meters cost nothing, and the other two go unused.
Worst case
$358.42
Every meter runs the whole way to its limit. The bill cannot go past this without someone changing a setting on purpose.
| August, added up | Best | Worst |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions fixed | $283.42 | $283.42 |
| Web hosting | $0.00 | $50.00 |
| Code storage + automation | $0.00 | $25.00 |
| AI that writes the codeswitched off | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Extra AI creditswitched off | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total | $283.42 | $358.42 |
The part worth holding on to
Even the worst case, $358.42, comes in $13.14 below what an average month has cost over the past year, and $1,588.36 below July. Getting there took two meters switched off, two capped low, and two subscriptions cancelled.
What got cancelled
The audio versions of essays go quiet. The device voice on the page still works, at no cost.
Started and stopped four times already, so it was the easiest one to stop again.
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