AI guides: prices, limits and model terms explained
The questions people actually ask about these services, answered in plain English. Each guide opens with the answer, shows the numbers from our own tables, and ends with the pages those numbers were read from and the day we read them.
Published so far, on OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and Microsoft.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
Do AI text detectors work, and what does their score mean?
AI text detectors can flag patterns associated with machine-written text, but their score is not proof of authorship. They can miss AI text and accuse human writers. OpenAI withdrew its own classifier for low accuracy, and published research shows paraphrasing can sharply weaken several detection methods. Use a score only as a reason to review evidence.
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Anthropic
How does Claude API pricing work for a small team?
Claude API pricing is usage based. Anthropic charges separate rates for input tokens, cache writes, cache reads and output tokens, with each model carrying its own rate. A small team should estimate a real workflow, include rate and spend limits, and keep Claude Pro subscription costs separate.
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Anthropic
How do Claude usage limits work on Free, Pro and Max?
Claude usage limits are rolling allowances, not a fixed number of messages. Anthropic says the amount varies with message length, attachments, model, feature and capacity. Session limits reset every five hours, while paid plans can also have weekly limits. Pro, Max and Team raise access but do not promise unlimited use.
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Google
How does Gemini API pricing work for a small team?
Gemini API pricing depends on the model, paid tier and tokens used for input, cached context and output. Some models also have a free tier or lower Batch rate, while tools can add charges. A small team should measure one workflow and price every line on Google's current table.
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OpenAI
How do you use ChatGPT well if you are just starting?
Start ChatGPT with one clear task, provide the needed context and state the form of the answer you want. Check important claims against the cited source, refine the request in the same chat, and begin a new chat when the subject changes. Do not paste confidential material without reviewing your account's data controls.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
How do you write a good AI prompt for ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?
A good AI prompt names the task, supplies relevant context, states constraints and describes the output you want. Add an example when format or judgment is hard to explain. Then inspect the result and revise one weakness at a time. Clear evidence and a review step matter more than clever prompt phrases.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
How do you read an LLM leaderboard or benchmark table?
Read an LLM leaderboard by checking the task, dataset, metric, model version and test conditions before the rank. Look for uncertainty and possible training-data overlap, then ask whether the test resembles your work. A one-point lead on one benchmark is evidence about that setup, not proof that a model is best for everyone.
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OpenAI
How much does the OpenAI API cost for a small team?
OpenAI API cost depends on the model and the input, cached input and output tokens used. For a small team, estimate each workflow with the published per-million-token rates, add any tool or storage charges, then enforce a project budget. A ChatGPT subscription does not include API use.
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OpenAI
What does the OpenAI status page tell you when ChatGPT is down?
The OpenAI status page tells you whether OpenAI has acknowledged a broad incident affecting ChatGPT, APIs, Codex or another listed service. It does not test your account, browser, network, region or exact feature. Match your symptom to the named component and time, then run local checks if no matching incident appears.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
What is an AI token, and how do token counts affect cost?
An AI token is a small piece of text that a model reads or writes. It can be a whole short word, part of a longer word, punctuation or a space. Token counts matter because they set how much fits in a model's context window and how much an API request costs.
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OpenAI
What does ChatGPT Plus actually give you over the free plan?
Plus costs $20 a month and buys three things the free plan does not clearly give you: OpenAI's newest and most capable model, published usage allowances instead of unstated ones, and enough room to lean on ChatGPT for real work rather than occasional questions.
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OpenAIGoogleAnthropicMetaMicrosoft
The EU AI Act in plain words: what it covers and what changes for you
The EU AI Act is the European Union's law for artificial intelligence. It sorts uses of AI by risk, bans a short list outright, regulates the risky uses heavily, and asks little of the rest. Its duties fall on the companies that build and deploy AI. A person who simply uses a chatbot gets protections, not obligations.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
How does AI model pricing work? Input, output and cached tokens explained
AI vendors sell models by the token, a text unit of roughly three quarters of an English word. You pay one rate for the text you send in, a higher rate for the text the model writes back, and a steep discount on input the vendor has recently processed and cached. Every rate is quoted per million tokens.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
How to read an AI model announcement: benchmarks, pricing and availability
Read a model announcement back to front. The benchmark table is the seller grading its own exam. The pricing line is the sentence with a unit attached, so it is the easiest to hold to account. The availability line tells you whether any of it reaches the product you actually pay for, and when.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
What is a context window and why does it change what a model can do?
A context window is the amount of text a model can hold in mind at once, measured in tokens. On the OpenAI, Anthropic and Google pages this guide reads, published windows run from 200,000 tokens up to just over a million. When a conversation outgrows the window, the model starts losing the beginning, which is why long chats drift.
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OpenAIAnthropicGoogle
What is an AI agent, and what is not one?
An AI agent is software that gives a language model a goal, lets it choose its own next action, run tools, read the result and go again until the job is done. A chatbot answering the question you just typed is not an agent, and neither is a script that follows fixed steps.
How a guide here is written
The answer comes first, complete enough to stop there. The numbers come from this site's own tables, so a guide and a table can never disagree. Every claim about a price, a limit or a model carries the vendor page it was read from and the date. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the guide says so rather than filling the gap, which is more often the useful answer than a confident guess would be. How this site collects and checks data.