The AI Platforms and Models: what to subscribe to, what it costs, and what to buy today
If you have never generated anything with AI, the hardest part is not the prompting. It is figuring out which of the dozens of platforms to pay for before you have made a single frame.
This module cuts the list down to what actually matters right now.
What you learn:
- The two platforms worth considering, and which one fits you. Higgsfield if you make content for your own social media and your own business, Magnific (rebranded from Freepik in April 2026) if you deliver to clients and need a commercial licence and indemnification.
- What a subscription really costs. Claude $20, ChatGPT $20, Higgsfield Plus $49, Magnific Premium+ $45, Midjourney Basic $10, and the trap in the cheaper Higgsfield tiers that do not include Seedance 2.5.
- What one image costs, model by model, at the 2K resolution we actually work at.
- What one video costs. A 30 second Seedance 2.5 clip runs $4.50 at 480p and $13.50 at 1080p, which is about three full HD clips a month on a $49 plan. Draft cheap, pay for full HD once.
- The five models that matter: Seedance 2.5 for video, and Midjourney V8.1, GPT Image 2, Nano Banana Pro / 2 and Seedream 5.0 Pro for image, with what each one is genuinely best at.
- The order I use them in: create the frame, fix and build the sheets, then put it in motion.
- Your starting stack. $79 a month if you are making things for yourself, $75 a month if you are making them for clients. Three subscriptions, not seven.
- Why you should pay monthly and not annually, no matter how good the offer looks.
Prices and models move fast. Everything here was accurate on 9 September 2026, so check before you buy.
Now go and create.