AI wrapper app (LLM API + usage billing)
Claude Code builds a Next.js app that calls a cheap Claude model through the API. Supabase stores users and usage counts, and Stripe charges for plans or credits. Your main variable cost is tokens, so pick the model carefully.
Who it's for: Builders turning a good prompt or workflow into a paid tool (an AI writer, analyzer, or chatbot for a niche) who can read a bit of code or are willing to learn.
Prices last verified
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Day one 0–10 (you + testers)
$21.10/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coding agent | Claude Pro | $20.00 | Writes the app, API route, usage metering and Stripe webhook. Strong with Next.js + Supabase. Cost note$20/mo monthly or $17/mo billed annually. Claude Code is included in Pro. Heavy daily use may need Max (from $100/mo). | |
| llm api | Pay-as-you-go | $0.23 | Cheapest current Claude model. Good enough for most wrapper features (rewrite, summarize, classify, chat). Cost noteASSUMPTION: ~5 active testers, each making 100 requests/mo of ~2,000 input + 500 output tokens. That's $0.10/MTok input + $0.50/MTok output (prompts ≤100K tokens) ≈ $0.045 per active user. Sonnet 5.5 ($2 in / $10 out per MTok) would be ~$0.90 per user, 20× more. | |
| database auth | Free | $0.00 | Auth plus a usage table to meter requests per user, with row-level security so users only see their own data. Cost note500MB database, 50k monthly active users, 5GB egress, 1GB storage, 2 projects. Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity. | |
| hosting | Hobby | $0.00 | Zero-config Next.js deploys with preview URLs. Cost noteHobby is for personal, non-commercial use only. Move to Pro before you charge money or run ads. | |
| code hosting | Free | $0.00 | Owns your code outside any AI builder. Needed for exporting, Cloudflare/Vercel deploys and Claude Code. Cost noteFree plan: unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/mo. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | Free tier includes LLM analytics, useful for tracking cost per user and prompt quality. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $21.10 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- You're ready to take payment. Vercel Hobby doesn't allow commercial use.
- Testers say the cheap model's quality is wrong for the core task. Try Sonnet on that one route only.
First users ~100
$45.37/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coding agent | Claude Pro | $20.00 | Still your builder. Adds rate limiting and per-user usage caps. Cost note$20/mo monthly or $17/mo billed annually. Claude Code is included in Pro. Heavy daily use may need Max (from $100/mo). | |
| llm api | Pay-as-you-go | $4.50 | Cheapest current Claude model. Good enough for most wrapper features (rewrite, summarize, classify, chat). Cost noteASSUMPTION: 100 active users, each making 100 requests/mo of ~2,000 input + 500 output tokens. That's $0.10/MTok input + $0.50/MTok output (prompts ≤100K tokens) ≈ $0.045 per active user. Sonnet 5.5 ($2 in / $10 out per MTok) would be ~$0.90 per user, 20× more. | |
| database auth | Free | $0.00 | Still fits easily. With 100 active users, the 1-week inactivity pause won't trigger. Cost note500MB database, 50k monthly active users, 5GB egress, 1GB storage, 2 projects. Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity. | |
| hosting | Pro (1 seat) | $20.00 | Required once you're charging. Includes $20 usage credit for streaming API calls. Cost note$20/mo per developer seat. Includes $20 of usage credit, 1TB transfer and 10M CDN requests. Assumes 1 seat and usage within the included credit. | |
| code hosting | Free | $0.00 | Owns your code outside any AI builder. Needed for exporting, Cloudflare/Vercel deploys and Claude Code. Cost noteFree plan: unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/mo. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| Free | $0.00 | Simple API for transactional email (sign-up, password reset, receipts). Good docs that AI agents get right. Cost note3,000 emails/mo, capped at 100/day. | ||
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | LLM analytics + product analytics within free limits. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $45.37 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- Token spend passes ~30% of revenue. Add caching or per-plan caps, or move power users to metered billing.
- You can't risk the database pausing or need backups. Move to Supabase Pro.
Scale ~1,000
$130.87/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coding agent | Claude Pro | $20.00 | Ongoing development. Cost note$20/mo monthly or $17/mo billed annually. Claude Code is included in Pro. Heavy daily use may need Max (from $100/mo). | |
| llm api | Pay-as-you-go | $45.00 | Cheapest current Claude model. Good enough for most wrapper features (rewrite, summarize, classify, chat). Cost noteASSUMPTION: 1,000 active users, each making 100 requests/mo of ~2,000 input + 500 output tokens. That's $0.10/MTok input + $0.50/MTok output (prompts ≤100K tokens) ≈ $0.045 per active user. Sonnet 5.5 ($2 in / $10 out per MTok) would be ~$0.90 per user, 20× more. | |
| database auth | Pro | $25.00 | Daily backups and no pausing. Plenty of headroom for usage logs. Cost note$25/mo includes a $10 compute credit that covers the Micro instance, 100k MAU, 8GB disk, 250GB egress and 100GB storage. A bigger instance adds cost (Small +$15/mo, Medium +$60/mo). | |
| hosting | Pro (1 seat) | $20.00 | Assumes function usage stays within the included $20 credit. Long LLM calls use function time, so watch it. Cost note$20/mo per developer seat. Includes $20 of usage credit, 1TB transfer and 10M CDN requests. Assumes 1 seat and usage within the included credit. | |
| code hosting | Free | $0.00 | Owns your code outside any AI builder. Needed for exporting, Cloudflare/Vercel deploys and Claude Code. Cost noteFree plan: unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/mo. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| Pro (50k emails) | $20.00 | The 100/day cap on Free becomes a real limit once you have hundreds of active users. Cost noteAssumes ~1,000 users × ~10 transactional emails/mo ≈ 10k emails. That's over Free's 3,000/mo and 100/day, and well inside Pro's 50k. | ||
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | Product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one tool, with a generous free tier. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| errors | Developer (free) | $0.00 | Get alerted to crashes before users email you. Cost noteFree for 1 user and 50k errors/mo. Team plan is $26/mo when a second person needs access. | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $130.87 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- LLM requests run for many seconds or in long batches. Move them to a background worker (e.g., Railway Hobby $5/mo including $5 usage).
- Selling globally and VAT becomes a headache. Switch billing to a merchant of record (Polar or Lemon Squeezy).
- Vercel usage passes the $20 credit every month. Compare with Cloudflare Workers Paid ($5 + $0.30/M requests).
Alternatives
Lovable Pro aff. program
$25.00/mo · pricing source ↗
Beginner-friendly. Lovable Cloud includes an AI connection billed through credits, so you skip API keys at first. Watch credit burn as usage grows.
Railway Hobby (background worker) aff. program
$5.00/mo · pricing source ↗
For long-running or queued LLM jobs. $5/mo includes $5 usage; then memory $10/GB-mo and CPU $20/vCPU-mo.
Polar (merchant of record)
$0.00/mo · pricing source ↗
Built for selling digital products and usage-based plans worldwide. 5% + 50¢ on Starter.
All prices are in USD, billed monthly unless noted, and come from each tool's official pricing page as of October 17, 2026. Usage-based costs use the assumptions in each cost note. Some links are affiliate links (marked affiliate: true). StackSpeedrun may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Picks are based on fit, not payout, and every affiliate link must be clearly disclosed on the page where it appears.