Ask an agency "how much for an app?" and you'll hear five to six figures. Here's what it costs to build one yourself with AI — itemized from projects I've actually shipped.
This is the cost chapter of the Building Apps with AI map.
Fixed costs — what you pay monthly
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AI coding tool subscription | $20–$200/mo | The only meaningful expense. A $20 plan is enough to start |
| Hosting (Vercel) | $0 | Free tier covers personal projects |
| Database (Neon/Supabase) | $0 | Free tier; upgrade only when traffic justifies it |
The headline: aside from one AI subscription, your fixed costs are effectively zero. A website runs on free infrastructure until real traffic shows up.
One-time / annual costs
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | $10–20/yr | for a .com |
| Apple Developer account | $99/yr | only if you ship an iOS app |
| Google Play registration | $25 once | only for Android |
So what's the total?
From my own projects:
- Website / web app only: AI subscription + domain = $30–50 for the first month
- Shipping an iOS app too: add Apple's $99/yr
- An app quoted at $20,000 by an agency costs single-digit percent of that to build yourself. The difference is your time — that's the real price.
The hidden cost: time
The honest part. For a first-timer, roughly:
- Landing page: one weekend day
- Simple web app: 1–3 weeks of evenings
- iOS app through review: a month or more (review round-trips included)
The second project takes less than half as long, because you have a process. Mine is written down as a 10-step playbook in the free kit.
Where the money actually leaks
In my experience, beginners don't waste money on tools. They waste it here:
- Building without validating — spending three months on a product nobody searches for. The most expensive mistake available.
- Paying too early — buying team plans at a stage where free tiers are plenty.
- Accepting quotes unchallenged — the premium attached to "AI features" in agency quotes is usually negotiable.
Next up in this cluster: Claude Code vs Cursor vs Codex.