AI Content Cost Per Article: The AI Token Markup Index

The AI content cost per article, versus what AI writing tools charge you for those same words.

The real number is a fraction of a cent. Most AI content tools sell credits, or words per month, and behind every credit is a token bought from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or DeepSeek at a public, published price. This index compares the two numbers.

Last updated: September 2026. Maintained by Draft2Publish-AI. We refresh this page when provider or vendor pricing moves. Yes, we make a BYOK plugin, so read the methodology and check our math.

What changed since the June edition

Three months moved more than we expected, and most of it moved against the buyer.

• Tokens got more expensive, not less. DeepSeek’s cheap tier roughly doubled. The Gemini 3 Flash price we quoted in June no longer exists.
• Jasper stopped publishing word counts entirely. It has left the measurable camp and joined the opacity camp.
• Writesonic doubled its entry price and changed what it sells, from an AI writer to an AI visibility tracker.
• Rank Math split its credits into seven separate counters and moved to euro pricing.
• Elementor removed AI from its Pro plans and moved it behind a separate credit pool.

The direction of travel is consistent. Every pricing change in this index since June has made the underlying token cost harder to see, not easier.

What AI content costs per article, at the token level

A 1,500-word article is roughly 2,000 output tokens. Here is what those tokens cost at published API rates in September 2026:

• DeepSeek-Flash at $0.60 to $1.20 per million output tokens: about $0.0012 to $0.0024.
• Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at $2.50 per million: about $0.005.
• Gemini 3.8 Flash at $3.75 per million: about $0.0075.
• GPT-5.5 at $30.00 per million: about $0.06.

So the AI content cost per article runs from about a tenth of a cent to six cents, depending on the model. Every price above that is workflow, convenience, or markup. This index measures which.

Methodology, so you can check us

1. We take each vendor’s public pricing page and the words or credits included per tier, then work back to the AI content cost per article.
2. We convert words to tokens at 1.33x, then we double the token budget to generously cover prompts, research calls and retries.
3. We price those tokens at the provider’s published API rates.
4. Markup is (price minus API cost) divided by API cost. Every figure is dated.
5. Vendors can dispute any number. Corrections are published in the changelog with credit.

One honest note about model class. We price bulk word plans at the Flash class, not at premium rates, and we want to be upfront about why. If you priced a 400,000-word plan at GPT-5.5 rates it would cost about $32 in tokens, and the markup would look modest. But no vendor serves 400,000 words a month on a $30 per million model, because the economics would destroy them. The Flash class is what actually runs these plans. We show the premium figure anyway, as the ceiling, so you can see the whole range rather than only the number that flatters our argument.

A worked example, step by step

Take GetGenie’s Pro plan: $49 a month for 400,000 AI words.

1. Words to tokens: 400,000 x 1.33 is about 532,000 output tokens.
2. Double it for prompts, research and retries: about 1.06 million tokens of billable work.
3. At Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ($2.50 per million): about $2.66.
4. At Gemini 3.8 Flash ($3.75 per million): about $3.99.
5. At GPT-5.5 ($30 per million), the ceiling nobody actually serves: about $31.92.

You pay $49. The realistic token cost is between $2.66 and $3.99. That is roughly 1,100% to 1,700% over cost, after we doubled the budget and ignored input-token discounts.

The point is not that $49 is unreasonable for software. It is that almost none of the $49 is the AI, and you cannot see how much. Once you know the AI content cost per article, the rest of the bill is a software decision you can actually weigh.

Camp 1: credit resellers, where markup is measurable

These vendors still publish a word count, so the AI content cost per article can be worked out. GetGenie is now the clearest case in the index, and its cheapest plan carries its steepest markup.

Tier	You pay	Words	Token cost (Flash-Lite)	Implied markup
GetGenie Starter	$9.99/mo	20,000	about $0.13	roughly 7,400%
GetGenie Writer	$19/mo	60,000	about $0.40	roughly 4,700%
GetGenie Pro	$49/mo	400,000	about $2.66	roughly 1,700%
GetGenie Agency	$99/mo	1,000,000	about $6.65	roughly 1,400%

Note the shape of that table. The more you buy, the better your rate, which is normal. The uncomfortable part is the entry tier: the cheapest plan, the one aimed at people with the least budget, carries a markup roughly four times steeper than the agency plan. That is not unique to GetGenie. It is how every metered plan works, and it is worth knowing before you pick the small one because it feels safer.

Verified September 2026 against getgenie.ai/pricing and provider API pages. GetGenie also offers a free 2,500-word tier and annual billing at a discount, which lowers the dollar price but not the ratio.

Camp 2: the opacity models, where markup is hidden by design

These tools no longer let you calculate the AI content cost per article at all. The camp grew this quarter.

• Jasper ($69/mo Pro, $59 annual, Business on request): the notable change this edition. Jasper used to publish word counts. It now publishes none at all, so the calculation that was possible in June is impossible in September.
• Writesonic ($79 / $199 / $399): repositioned from AI writer to AI visibility and GEO tracking. The $79 tier includes 15 AI articles a month, roughly $0.15 of Flash-Lite tokens, but the rest of the price now buys prompt tracking and site audits rather than words. A different product, priced differently, and no longer cleanly comparable.
• Rank Math Content AI (EUR 5.99 / 10.99 / 16.99 annual, renewing higher): migrated again, now into seven separate credit counters covering articles, link opportunities, keyword variations, SEO fixes, alt texts and more. The entry tier includes 15 long-form articles, about $0.15 of tokens. The unit changed. The economics did not.
• Jetpack AI ($4.95 first year, then $9.95/mo billed yearly): sold as high capacity with a fair use policy that is not publicly quantified.
• Elementor AI: AI is no longer included in Elementor Pro at all. It moved to a separate plan with 25,000 or 350,000 monthly credits, spending 1 to 40 credits per action across AI, image optimization, accessibility and email, with no rollover and no public credits-to-tokens table.

We do not assign markup numbers where the vendor’s own pricing makes the calculation impossible. That impossibility is the finding.

To be clear about where we stand: a fair convenience fee is a legitimate business. Plenty of people prefer one bill and zero setup. This index measures the size of the markup, not its existence.

Camp 3: the honest column, no token resale

Credit where it is due. These tools charge for software, not for tokens, so the AI content cost per article stays yours at cost.

• AI Engine (Meow Apps): from $79/yr, your own API keys, limits you control.
• AI Puffer (formerly AI Power): free core, BYOK across OpenAI, Gemini, Azure, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, xAI and Ollama. “No hidden credits” is their own line.
• Copy.ai: a genuinely free tier with unlimited words. Paid plans price the platform, not the tokens.
• The official WordPress AI plugin: free, BYOK through the core Connectors screen.
• Draft2Publish: that is us. Free on WordPress.org, BYOK, zero token markup. Paid tiers price the workflow and never the tokens.

Divi AI was listed here in June with a note that we would verify its fine print. We have not been able to, so we have removed it from this edition rather than leave an unverified claim standing. It returns when we can confirm the limits.

Why this matters now

WordPress put API key management into core. The platform itself decided that users should own their AI relationship, which removes the last practical argument for reselling tokens at a markup: that it was too hard to manage your own key. It is not hard any more. It is a settings screen.

The credit resale era had a good run, and it ran on one fact being hard to look up: the AI content cost per article. This page is its scoreboard on the way out.

Common questions

How much does AI content cost per article?

At published September 2026 API rates, a 1,500-word article costs roughly $0.0012 to $0.0024 of output tokens on DeepSeek-Flash, about $0.005 on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, and about $0.06 on GPT-5.5. Even after doubling those budgets for prompts, research and retries, the raw AI cost of an article is cents at most. What you pay beyond that is software.

What is the markup on AI writing tool credits?

It ranges from roughly 1,400% to 7,400% in the clearest measurable cases in this index, depending on tier and model class. Set against the AI content cost per article, the credit is the expensive part. The cheapest plans consistently carry the steepest markups.

Is BYOK cheaper than an AI content subscription?

For the AI usage itself, almost always. With your own API key you pay the provider’s published rate, and that is the AI content cost per article with no intermediary. A subscription can still be worth it for the workflow around the AI. The honest comparison is software value against software price, with tokens at cost either way. If you’re weighing building that workflow yourself, here’s what an AI autoblogging workflow with quality gates takes, DIY or plugin.

Why can’t I calculate what some tools’ credits cost?

Because several vendors now price in units that do not map to tokens: feature uses, undisclosed request limits, or credit pools shared across unrelated features. When the unit cannot be converted, the markup cannot be computed. We list those tools separately rather than guessing.

Do I need a separate subscription for an AI writing plugin on WordPress?

No. Several WordPress plugins, including ours, connect straight to your own provider account. You pay the provider for what you use and the plugin for the software, so the AI content cost per article and the software fee stay two separate numbers you can see.

What does Draft2Publish cost?

Free on WordPress.org, then $9.99, $39.99 and $99.99 a month for the paid tiers. You bring your own API key at every tier, so the AI spend is yours at cost and we never mark it up. Draft2Publish is a four-phase, twenty-plus step publishing workflow: it finds timely topics, verifies sources, writes grounded articles, applies on-page SEO, generates images and publishes to WordPress.

Changelog

• September 2026: second edition. All provider rates re-verified. GetGenie expanded to four tiers. Jasper moved from Camp 1 to Camp 2 after removing published word counts. Writesonic repriced and repositioned. Rank Math moved to euro pricing and seven credit counters. Elementor AI removed from Pro plans. AI Engine corrected to $79/yr. Divi AI removed pending verification.
• June 2026: first edition. 8 vendors examined.

Disputes

Are you a vendor who has spotted an error? Email [email protected]. Corrections are published here with credit and a date.