ADS4GPTs

To gain meaningful adoption today, offering a free tier isn’t optional. This is especially true for AI applications, where curiosity-driven users, we call them “AI tourists”, expect to explore without commitment. But here’s the catch: AI apps are not traditional SaaS. Every free interaction consumes compute, model tokens, and infrastructure resources. That means every free user carries a real and recurring cost. We call this the “Cost of Free” or more precisely, the “Cost of Adoption.” This cost varies dramatically based on model choice, user behavior, and application design. And yet, few builders have a clear, bottom-up understanding of how this erodes margins or limits scalability. To build sustainably, founders must go beyond surface-level metrics and model both cost exposure and revenue trajectory in tandem. That’s why we built the Cost of Free calculator: to give AI founders a hard look at the economic reality of free-tier growth. And as a final layer, we show how integrating ADS4GPTS can flip free-tier costs into top-line upside by unlocking monetization that respects both UX and user privacy. Made by AI builders for AI builders.