Build a Complete AI Stack Under €30 a Month (2026)

Updated: November 2026 · Prices checked: November 2026

Most people overspend on AI because they collect subscriptions. A new tool looks useful, you sign up, and six months later you pay for five assistants that do the same thing. The rule that keeps a stack under €30: one paid assistant, paid tools only where they earn or save money directly, free tiers for the rest. Below is what to pay for, what to keep free, and three example stacks with real prices.

The building blocks and their prices

These are the paid tools that show up in most small-business stacks. Prices come from each vendor’s pricing page. Dollar prices are converted at about €0.86 per dollar, before VAT. Local prices differ by country, so check at checkout.

What to pay for and what to keep free

Pay for:

• One main assistant. You will use it every day, and the free tiers stop you at the worst moment. ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro or Google AI Pro. Pick one, not three.
• Anything customers see or hear. Commercial voice (ElevenLabs free voice output is non-commercial only), brand designs you publish every week, an email tool once your list passes the free limit.
• Automation that runs your admin. If a workflow saves you an hour a week, a few euros a month is the best deal in the stack.

Keep free:

• Second and third assistants (ChatGPT Free, Claude Free, Gemini app) for a second opinion.
• Research: Perplexity Free gives 3 Pro Searches a day.
• Meeting notes: Fathom Free has unlimited recordings. Setup is in free AI meeting notes with Fathom.
• CRM: HubSpot’s free CRM for 2 users and 1,000 contacts.
• Grammar and translation: Grammarly Free (100 AI prompts a month) and DeepL Free.
• Private documents: a local model in LM Studio or Ollama, free for work use.

One habit makes the whole thing work: write down every tool, what it costs and the date you last used it. Review the list on the first of each month and cancel anything you did not open in 30 days.

Stack 1: the shop owner

An online or physical shop with one or two people. Daily jobs: product texts, customer emails, reviews, stock and order admin, a few social posts.

Why this mix: Make Core gives 10,000 credits a month, enough for a few hundred orders through a multi-step workflow. The full comparison with Zapier is in Make vs Zapier. The API budget goes a long way: on Claude Haiku 5.5 through the Batch API (half price), 1,000 product descriptions of 1,000 tokens in and 600 out cost about $0.20. Tidio’s free AI agent only has 50 conversations in total, so treat it as a test; read what Tidio really gives for €0 before you rely on it.

Stack 2: the freelancer

A consultant, designer, developer or marketer working alone. Daily jobs: proposals, client emails, research, meeting notes, files, some code or analysis.

Why this mix: Google AI Plus is €4.99 and adds 400 GB of storage plus double the free Gemini limits, which covers most freelancers’ file storage too. ChatGPT Plus is billed monthly only, so you can pause it in a slow month. If you prefer Claude, Claude Pro on an annual plan is €14.60 and brings the total to about €22.60. Watch how your plan counts usage: for example, ChatGPT and Codex share one usage pool from December.

Stack 3: the content creator

Someone who publishes videos, podcasts or social posts, alone or for clients. Daily jobs: scripts, voiceovers, thumbnails, captions, research.

Why this mix: a creator’s money comes from published output, so the paid slots go to design and voice, both of which need commercial rights. ElevenLabs Starter gives 30,000 credits a month, about 30 minutes of speech, with a commercial license. We covered the cheapest setup in AI voiceover from €5 a month. ChatGPT Go is enough for scripts; move to Plus only when you hit its limits often.

Set it up in one afternoon

You do not need a consultant for this. Block three hours and go in this order:

1. List what you pay today. Go through your card statements for the last three months and write down every AI charge. Cancel duplicates before you add anything new.
2. Pick the main assistant. Use the free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini on the same three real tasks from your week. Pay for the one whose answers you edit least.
3. Set up the free tools. Create the accounts for meeting notes, research, CRM and design. Use one business email for all of them and keep the logins in a password manager.
4. Build one automation. Pick the most boring weekly task, such as copying orders into a sheet or sending a follow-up email, and build it in Make. Run it on the free plan for two weeks before you upgrade to Core.
5. Add the API last. Only when one automation needs AI inside it. Create a key for that project alone and set a monthly spending limit of a few euros in the console.
6. Put a review in your calendar. First day of every month, 15 minutes: what did I use, what did I not open, what hit a limit.

After one month you will know which free tier is too tight and which paid tool you barely touched. Adjust then, not on day one.

The maths: €30 against €99

The maths: one person who simply buys every popular plan pays ChatGPT Plus (€17.20), Claude Pro monthly (€17.20), Google AI Pro (€17.99), Canva Pro (€10.30), ElevenLabs Starter (€5.20), Fathom (from €12.90), MailerLite Comfort (from €10.30) and Make Core (€7.70). That is about €99 a month, or roughly €1,190 a year. The stacks above cost €25–27 a month, about €300–330 a year. The difference is around €860 a year per person, and most of the lost features are duplicates.

For a team of three, that gap is over €2,500 a year. That is real money for a small business.

When to break the €30 limit

The limit is a starting rule, not a law. Spend more when the numbers say so:

1. You hit the main assistant’s limit every week. Higher tiers exist; see who should upgrade in Claude Ultra drops the 5-hour cap.
2. Your email list passes 250 subscribers. MailerLite Free stops sending above that. Paying is cheaper than losing the list.
3. A support bot answers customers all day. A free quota that stops mid-month is worse than no bot. Budget for a paid plan or an API.
4. You add a person. Move to a team plan from 2 seats instead of sharing a login.

The test for every new tool: name the hour it saves or the euro it earns. If you cannot, it stays on the free tier.

Read also: How to Cut Your AI Bill: 12 Methods With € Maths (2026) · Run a Small AI Team for Under €100 a Month With Paperclip · How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity (2026)

Sources: ChatGPT plans · Claude plans · Google AI plans · Gemini Apps limits · Make pricing · ElevenLabs pricing · Canva plans · Fathom pricing · MailerLite pricing · Claude API pricing · Perplexity plans

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Ivan Ivanov

Founder ofHawkValue

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