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How much do AI subscriptions actually cost in 2026?

Everyone knows what one AI subscription costs. Almost nobody knows what theirs cost — because the number never appears in one place. Here it is, in Australian dollars, with the parts nobody quotes you.

26 AUG 2026 · 8 MIN READ · OPPERMIND PTY LTD
TL;DR. Nobody pays the sticker price. Most AI tools list in US dollars, land on an Australian card after conversion, and add 10% GST on top for consumers. Priced properly, a normal solo stack runs A$72–95 a month and a business-grade seat lands between A$115 and A$145 a month before GST — roughly A$870 to A$1,740 per person per year. Below: the current published prices, the four things that inflate them, and three worked stacks in A$.

Everyone knows what one AI subscription costs. Almost nobody knows what their AI subscriptions cost — because the number never appears in one place. It is spread across four cards, two billing cycles, a company Microsoft invoice and somebody’s personal ChatGPT account that gets expensed once a quarter.

This is a reference page. Every price below comes from the vendor’s own pricing page or a dated report, linked at the end. Where a vendor publishes in US dollars, the A$ figure is a conversion at A$1.398 to US$1, the rate on 25 August 2026. Currency moves; treat the converted numbers as close, not exact.

The sticker price is never the price

Four things sit between the number on the pricing page and the number on your statement.

1. Currency

Most AI tools publish in US dollars. A US$20 plan is about A$27.96 today, and it changes every month whether or not the vendor announces anything. Your card issuer may also add its own foreign-transaction fee — check your product disclosure statement, because it is charged on top of the conversion.

2. GST

Since 1 July 2017, overseas businesses selling digital products and services to Australian consumers must charge 10% GST once they pass the A$75,000 turnover threshold. So a consumer-account subscription is generally the list price plus 10%. GST is treated differently for registered businesses, which is typically why business quotes are shown ex-GST and consumer charges are not — the same product, two different numbers. How it applies to you depends on your own circumstances, so confirm the treatment with your accountant rather than with a pricing page.

3. Billing period

Annual billing is discounted, typically in the mid-teens to about 20%. That discount is real, and it is also a twelve-month commitment paid up front on a category that is repricing constantly.

4. Seats

Team plans multiply. A per-seat price that reads as loose change becomes the second-largest line in a small business’s software budget at headcount five.

What the common tools charge right now

Published prices as at 26 August 2026. US-dollar plans converted at A$1.398 per US$1. Australian business pricing is shown ex-GST, as the vendor publishes it.

ToolPlanPublished priceApprox. per month
ChatGPTGoUS$8/monthA$11.18
ChatGPTPlusUS$20/monthA$27.96
ChatGPTProUS$100/monthA$139.80
CanvaProA$165/yearA$13.75
CanvaBusinessA$280/year per personA$23.33
NotionPlusUS$10/member/monthA$13.98
NotionBusinessUS$20/member/monthA$27.96
GitHub CopilotProUS$10/monthA$13.98
GitHub CopilotPro+US$39/monthA$54.52
GrammarlyProUS$12/monthA$16.78
Microsoft 365 CopilotBusiness add-onA$31.40/user/month, annual, ex-GSTA$31.40
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with CopilotBundledA$35.20/user/month, annual, ex-GSTA$35.20
OppermindProA$29.99/month, all tools includedA$29.99

Two footnotes worth reading. Microsoft’s monthly-commitment prices are about 20% higher than the annual ones — the Copilot Business add-on is A$37.68 a month if you refuse to commit for a year. There is also a promotional annual rate of A$26.91 available between 1 July and 30 September 2026, but read the conditions: it applies to the first year only, requires an annual commitment, and is limited to existing Microsoft customers on an eligible Business plan. A first-year promotional rate is a useful discount and a poor basis for a budget.

The second footnote is ads. OpenAI has begun showing ads to its free and Go users, with paid Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education tiers excluded. As at the reporting cited below this was a United States rollout, and whether it reaches Australian users on the same terms was not confirmed at the time of writing — so treat it as the direction the market is moving rather than as a line item on your bill.

Three stacks, priced honestly

The solo creator. ChatGPT Plus, Canva Pro, Notion Plus and Grammarly Pro: A$72.47 a month, or A$869.64 a year. On a consumer account with GST that is closer to A$79.72 a month.

The solo creator who also codes. Add GitHub Copilot Pro: A$86.45 a month, A$1,037.40 a year — about A$95.10 a month once GST lands, A$1,141 a year.

A team of five on Microsoft. Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, plus ChatGPT Plus, Canva Business and Notion Business for each person: A$114.45 per seat per month ex-GST. Across five people that is A$572.25 a month — A$6,867 a year. Give two of them GitHub Copilot Pro and you are at A$7,202 before anyone has bought an image generator, a video editor, or a transcription tool.

That last figure is the one worth sitting with. Nobody decided to spend seven thousand dollars a year on AI. It accumulated one A$20 decision at a time.

The commitment premium, in actual dollars

“Save 20% with annual billing” is the same sentence as “pay 20% more to stay flexible”, and Microsoft publishes both numbers side by side, so we can price the flexibility exactly.

The Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on is A$31.40 per user per month on an annual commitment and A$37.68 monthly — A$6.28 a month, A$75.36 a year per person, A$376.80 a year across five seats. Business Standard with Copilot shows the same 20% gap: A$35.20 against A$42.24, or A$84.48 per person per year.

Whether that is worth paying depends on one question: how confident are you that this is the tool you will still be using in eleven months? In a category where tiers were renamed and repriced repeatedly through 2026, the monthly premium is not obviously a bad trade. Just price it deliberately instead of clicking the default.

The shift you should be watching: credits

Flat monthly pricing is quietly being replaced by metered pricing, and the metering is where next year’s bill increase is hiding.

Notion sells agent capacity as credits — free to try, then US$10 per 1,000 monthly credits on top of your seat. GitHub’s top individual tier bundles US$100 a month of AI credits into a US$100 subscription, which tells you plainly that the subscription is now a wrapper around consumption. And below the paid tiers, the ad-supported model has arrived: the cheapest way to use ChatGPT is now partly paid for in attention rather than dollars.

None of that is sinister — inference genuinely costs money. But it does mean the question “what does this cost per month?” is becoming unanswerable for a growing share of the market. A per-seat price you can forecast is worth something real, and it is worth checking whether the plan you are quoted is a price or a floor.

A five-minute audit

  1. List every AI charge across every card, personal ones included. Most teams find at least one subscription nobody remembers approving.
  2. Convert everything to A$ per user per month. Divide annual plans by twelve; convert US-dollar plans at today’s rate. Compare like with like.
  3. Separate GST out so you are comparing consumer charges against business quotes fairly.
  4. Mark every tool you have opened in the last 30 days. The unmarked ones are your answer.
  5. Count the overlaps. Three tools that all write, two that both make slides, four that all generate images. Overlap is where consolidation is free rather than painful.

Where Oppermind fits

Oppermind is one subscription carrying a full suite of AI tools and editors — documents, spreadsheets, slides, PDFs, design, code, images, video, animation, project schedules and more — with unlimited documents, spreadsheets, decks and designs on every plan. Real .docx, .xlsx and .pptx round-trip. Full MCP support, so your own connectors come with you. And an autonomous worker that takes a goal, uses the tools and leaves finished files behind rather than a transcript.

A business seat, four tools

A$114.45

Per person, per month, ex-GST · four subscriptions · four logins · four bills

Oppermind Pro

A$29.99

Per month · full suite of AI tools and editors · one login · one bill · autonomous worker included

It is built in Perth by Oppermind Pty Ltd — an Australian entity, under Australian jurisdiction, priced in AUD, supported by an Australian team. Free with no card, Starter A$9.95/month, Pro A$29.99/month, Pro Plus A$59.99/month. Against the solo stack above, Pro is A$29.99 versus A$86.45. Against the business seat, it is A$29.99 versus A$114.45.

For the longer argument about why native beats integrated, see One AI subscription replaces 8. For what the autonomous worker actually does between the prompt and the outcome, see AI agents in Australia.

Whatever you’re here to make, make more of it.

The honest caveat

Consolidation is not automatically correct. If your team lives inside a specialist tool that genuinely has no substitute, keep it — a cheaper stack that cannot do the work is not a saving. The point of the audit is not to reach one subscription. It is to reach a number you can actually state out loud, which almost nobody with an AI stack can do today.

Work out your number first. The decision gets much easier once you have it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a typical AI stack cost in Australia in 2026?

Priced from vendors’ published rates and converted to Australian dollars, a common solo stack of a chat assistant, design tool, workspace tool and writing tool runs about A$72 to A$95 a month depending on whether GST applies to you. A business-grade seat that adds workplace AI and business tiers lands between roughly A$115 and A$145 a month before GST.

Why is my AI subscription more expensive than the advertised price?

Four things sit between the pricing page and your statement: most tools list in US dollars and convert at the rate on the day, your card issuer may add a foreign transaction fee, consumer purchases generally carry 10% GST, and annual billing is discounted relative to monthly so a monthly plan costs more per month.

Do Australians pay GST on overseas AI subscriptions?

Since 1 July 2017, overseas businesses selling digital products and services to Australian consumers must charge 10% GST once they pass the A$75,000 turnover threshold. GST is treated differently for registered businesses, which is typically why business quotes are shown ex-GST and consumer charges are not. How it applies depends on your own circumstances.

How much does Oppermind cost?

Oppermind is Free with no card, Starter at A$9.95 per month, Pro at A$29.99 per month, and Pro Plus at A$59.99 per month, billed in AUD by an Australian company.

Sources

  1. Canva — Pricing (Australia): Pro A$165/year, Business A$280/year per person. Accessed 26 August 2026.
  2. Notion — Pricing: Plus US$10 and Business US$20 per member/month; custom agents free to try, then US$10 per 1,000 monthly credits. Accessed 26 August 2026.
  3. GitHub — Copilot plans: Pro US$10/month, Pro+ US$39/month, Max US$100/month including US$100/month in GitHub AI credits. Accessed 26 August 2026.
  4. Grammarly — Plans: Pro US$12/month. Accessed 26 August 2026.
  5. Microsoft — Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (Australia): Copilot Business add-on A$31.40/user/month annual and A$37.68 monthly, promotional A$26.91 annual available 1 July–30 September 2026 (first year only, annual commitment, existing eligible Business plan customers); Business Standard with Copilot A$35.20 annual, A$42.24 monthly; all ex-GST. Re-verified 26 August 2026.
  6. TechCrunch — ChatGPT finally offers $100/month Pro plan (9 April 2026).
  7. TechCrunch — ChatGPT rolls out ads (9 February 2026) and CNBC — OpenAI to begin testing ads on ChatGPT in the U.S. (16 January 2026).
  8. Australian Taxation Office — GST on imported services and digital products.
  9. Frankfurter (European Central Bank reference rates) — USD to AUD: US$1 = A$1.398, 25 August 2026.

Prices in this article are the vendors’ published list prices as at 26 August 2026 and change without notice. US-dollar prices are converted at an indicative rate and are not a quote; your final charge depends on the rate at the time of billing, any fees your card issuer applies, and your own GST position. Promotional rates carry the vendor’s own conditions and end dates. This article is general information about software pricing and is not tax, accounting or financial advice. Oppermind is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any product named here; all product names and trade marks are the property of their respective owners. Check the vendor’s current pricing page before making a purchasing decision.

Work out your number. Then look at ours.

A full suite of AI tools and editors, with the autonomous worker included in every plan.