Accounts, payments, and Free vs paid without hype

Nadia’s Visa statement for one Thursday showed three lines: $20.00 OPENAI *CHATGPT, $20.00 ANTHROPIC, and $19.99 APPLE.COM/BILL. She thought she had two tools. She had ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro on the web, and a second Claude Pro charged through her personal Apple ID from a late-night tap in the iPhone app. $59.99. Finance asked which seat was the work one. She had used her Gmail on the website and her Apple ID in the app. They were not the same bill, not the same refund path, and not a work contract. The thank-you email that started this still had not gone out.

This is Part 7 of Phase P, and Part 1 of AI setup from zero. The chooser in Which AI product should I use? told you which door to open. This series is the unglamorous part: accounts, cards, Free vs paid, without a shopping-spree. Plan names and sticker prices move. As of writing (August 2026) the consumer rungs below are in that neighborhood. Confirm on the vendor page the week you click Buy.

What you’ll learn

How to open one account on purpose (email, work vs personal, what “Sign in with Google” actually ties)
What Free is for, and what a ~$20 paid plan actually buys
Why web billing, App Store billing, and API credits are three receipts
A 15-minute setup that does not stack four logos
The $19.99 Apple charge that duplicates a plan you already pay

One account, one job family

Sign-up is a door with a lock. Use the email you will still have in a year. If the writing is for customers, that is the work email, or the work single sign-on when IT has it. “Sign in with Google” is convenient and it glues the chat to that Google account. If that Google is your personal photos, you just mixed a work thank-you into a personal identity. Part 9 of this series will go deeper on personal vs work. Today: pick the identity before you pick the plan.

You do not need four accounts to learn. The chooser’s default is one chat box for writing. Open that vendor. Stay there for 30 days. A second product is a second identity, a second card, and a second privacy policy. Nadia opened three because a group chat said “they all hit limits.” She had not hit a limit. She had hit indecision.

Rule of thumb: The email on the account is the legal person in the room. Do not sign a work draft in with a shopping Gmail.

Free vs paid, without hype

A consumer ladder: Free, cheap paid, everyday paid around 20 dollars, and heavy or team plans

Free is a real product. As of writing, ChatGPT still has a Free rung with unlimited everyday text on their lighter model family (they currently brand a Luna-class default for Free; names move). Claude Free lets you chat on web and apps with caps. Gemini Free and Grok Free exist too. Caps, slower image tools, and “come back later” messages are the tax. That tax is fine for Dana’s thank-you from Part 1.

Paid is not a personality transplant. It is mostly more: more messages in a rolling window, more access to heavier models, sometimes extra surfaces. Claude’s own pricing page (as of writing) is unusually clear: Pro is $20 a month, or $17 if you pay a year up front ($200). Pro includes Claude Code, Cowork, Design, and Science. Max starts around $100 for 5x or 20x Pro usage. ChatGPT’s public ladder as of writing is Free, Go (about $8 in the US), Plus ($20), and a higher Pro / Max-style rung that vendors keep renaming (Plus remains the everyday $20; the expensive rung has been $100 to $200 depending on multiplier). Gemini often hides inside Google One or Workspace. Grok paid paths live under SuperGrok and/or X Premium. Re-check. Do not memorize this paragraph as a contract.

Rung (typical)	As of writing, ballpark	Buy it when	Skip it when
Free	$0	You are learning the 20-minute session	Never skip it as a first week
Cheap paid (Go-style)	ChatGPT Go ~$8 US	Free caps bite and you only write	You actually need Code / Cowork / a team admin
Everyday paid	Plus / Claude Pro ~$20 monthly	Daily use, extra surfaces, fewer “come back later”	You have not used Free for a week
Heavy / team	Max / high Pro / Team seats	All-day agents, or SSO and central billing	You wanted a nicer thank-you

Claude Code and Cowork on Pro is the kind of “paid buys a surface” that matters. If Priya from Part 2 only has Claude Free, a coding agent may simply be gated. That is a reason to pay one vendor, not four. If you only write emails, Free or Go-style is the honest buy.

Three payment rails

Three payment rails: vendor website, Apple or Google Play, and API console wallet, plus already-bundled plans

Nadia’s $19.99 Apple line is the whole lesson. The iPhone Claude app offered an in-app Pro. Apple billed it. The website already had Pro on a Visa. Two merchants, one product, one person who did not open Settings. Refunds on App Store purchases go through Apple, not Anthropic’s little help form. Work expense tools hate APPLE.COM/BILL because it could be anything.

Rule for the first paid plan: buy it on the website while logged into the account you intend to keep, unless your company forces mobile device management. Write the merchant name on the 10-line team note from Part 6.

The third rail is the API console. Chat subscriptions and token wallets do not share a purse. xAI is explicit that grok.com money is not console.x.ai credits. OpenAI and Anthropic are the same shape. If someone on the team pastes a key into a plugin, you get a surprise usage invoice. That is not “Plus failed.” That is a different product. Keys go in environment variables. Never in a chat.

A 15-minute first setup

Pick one vendor from the chooser (writing: ChatGPT or Claude). Close the other tabs.
Create or log in with the work email if the work is for work. Skip “Sign in with Apple” if finance will need a normal receipt.
Use Free for seven real tasks. If you never hit a cap, do not pay.
If you pay, pay on the website. Screenshot the plan name and the renewal date. Put both in the team note.
Turn off any second subscribe button in the iOS or Android app. Nadia’s $19.99 lived there.

A checklist you can paste into the note:

Setup (one vendor)
Account email: [work address]
Sign-in method: [email+SSO / Google work / not personal Apple]
Plan: Free until [date], then [Plus or Pro] on the WEBSITE
Merchant on the card: [OPENAI / ANTHROPIC / ...]
App Store subscribe: OFF
API keys: none, unless we are actually shipping an app
Owner: [Nadia]
Cancel path: Settings > Billing (web), not the App Store, unless we bought there on purpose

What that checklist does: it names the rail before the charge. If the merchant on the card is Apple, you already know refunds and expense reports will be annoying. Fix it before month two.

Worked example: $59.99, two products, three charges

Line on the Visa	What she thought	What it was
$20.00 OPENAI *CHATGPT	Work Plus	Personal Gmail Plus
$20.00 ANTHROPIC	The Claude plan	Web Pro on a second email
$19.99 APPLE.COM/BILL	A one-time app thing	Duplicate Claude Pro via Apple ID

Fix, in order: cancel the Apple subscription in Apple’s subscription list (the vendor site cannot always see it). Decide one email. Move Plus or Pro onto that email on the website. Expense the one remaining $20 if policy allows. Do not add Gemini paid “to compare” this month. Google may already be in Workspace. Check with IT before a fourth card.

If Nadia only writes, she could drop to Free or ChatGPT Go (~$8 US as of writing) after the 30-day test. If she needs Claude Code, she keeps Claude Pro and lets ChatGPT go. Paid is a surface decision, not a brand loyalty program.

Bundles, trials, and taxes

Trials convert. SuperGrok, ChatGPT, and Claude have all used trials. Put a calendar reminder on day 5. Taxes sit on top of the sticker. Annual looks cheaper and is a bigger miss if you picked the wrong door. Claude Pro annual is $200 up front as of writing. That is a lot of thank-yous to prepay if you still do not know whether you wanted Code.

Workspace, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and X Premium are bundles. If IT already pays, Nadia’s personal Plus may be duplicate capacity. Ask before you buy. This setup series will cover 2FA and recovery in Part 10. Turn on 2FA today anyway. A $20 plan on an unlocked inbox is a cheap door for someone else.

Common mistakes

Paying four vendors before you hit a cap on one.
Buying Pro in the iPhone app when the website already has Pro.
Assuming Plus pays the API bill.
Using a personal Apple ID for a work seat, then asking finance to expense APPLE.COM/BILL.
Skipping Free week because a tweet said paid is required.
Buying Max or a $200 Pro because the $20 plan said “come back later” once.

How to practice this week

Open one account. Screenshot the email and the plan name. If you already have three charges, cancel the App Store duplicate first. Next in this series: browser vs mobile vs desktop (Part 8). The chooser stays at which door. If what you wanted was local vs hosted open models, that is OS2, not a fourth $20.

Quick recap

One email, one vendor, Free first.
Paid ~$20 buys limits and sometimes Code / Cowork. Confirm live.
Website billing. App Store is a different receipt. API is a third wallet.
$19.99 Apple + $20 Anthropic is how you pay twice for one Pro.

Sources

OpenAI: ChatGPT plans (Free, Go, Plus, Pro; US prices as of writing)
Anthropic: Claude pricing (Free, Pro $20 monthly / $17 annual, Max, Team)
Google Gemini and Workspace / Google One plan pages (bundles move)
Grok and xAI plan pages (SuperGrok / X; re-check)
AMS: Which AI product should I use?
Apple: subscriptions and billing (when the merchant is APPLE.COM/BILL)