Monthly AI Budget of 50,000 Yen: What to Use and How

ChatGPT Pro costs $200 per month (approximately 30,000 yen), while Claude Max ranges from $100 (about 15,000 yen) to $200. There are also free plans available, as well as pay-per-use APIs.

With more options available, many small and medium enterprise (SME) owners find themselves unsure about which service to choose.

To conclude, most operations can be adequately handled with a $20 (approximately 3,000 yen) plan. Only when there is a clear need for specific tasks should one consider plans costing over $100 per month. Let’s define that boundary more concretely.

AI Billing Map for 2025—Sorting the Options

First, let’s clarify the pricing structures of major AI services.

Free Plan (0 yen)

• ChatGPT Free: Access to GPT-4o, but with usage limits—about several dozen times a day.
• Claude Free: Access to the Sonnet model, also with usage limits.
• Gemini Free: Available with a Google account.

Plum (Approximately 3,000 yen per month)

• ChatGPT Plus: $20 per month. Supports GPT-4o, image generation, and file uploads.
• Claude Pro: $20 per month. Supports Sonnet/Opus models and long texts.

Bamboo (Approximately 15,000 yen per month)

• Claude Max 5x: $100 per month. Five times the usage of Pro.
• ChatGPT Pro: $200 per month. Top-tier features like o1 pro mode.

Pine (Approximately 30,000 yen and up)

• Claude Max 20x: $200 per month. Twenty times the usage of Pro.
• ChatGPT Team: $25 per person per month. Includes team management features.

Tasks Suitable for the Plum Plan vs. Those Requiring Bamboo or Pine Plans

This is the crux of the matter. The difference between 3,000 yen and 15,000 yen per month amounts to 144,000 yen annually. If five people use it, that totals 720,000 yen. Whether this difference is worth paying depends on the nature of the tasks.

Tasks Adequately Handled by the 3,000 Yen (Plum) Plan

1. Drafting Emails and Documents
Responses to customer emails, internal reports, and meeting minutes. These interactions are typically brief, making performance differences less noticeable. The 3,000 yen plan is more than sufficient.

2. Drafting Social Media Posts and Blog Articles
Generating text of about 500 to 1,000 words. From brainstorming ideas to creating drafts. While the free plan is usable, the Plum plan is better for those who want to avoid worrying about usage limits.

3. Simple Data Organization and Analysis
Compiling Excel data, instructing on graph creation, and conducting basic trend analysis. Tasks that can be completed by uploading files and saying, “Summarize this.”

4. Translation and Summarization
Translating emails and documents in English, summarizing long texts. The free plan can achieve quite a high level of accuracy for these tasks.

Tasks Requiring the 15,000 Yen or More (Bamboo or Pine) Plans

1. Large-Scale Code Generation and Review
For those who engage in programming regularly. The Codex feature of ChatGPT Pro can generate or modify hundreds of lines of code at once. There are cases where engineers’ productivity can increase two to threefold, making the 15,000 yen monthly cost negligible compared to labor costs.

2. Analysis and Generation of Long Documents
Reviewing contracts, creating manuals, and analyzing materials exceeding 100 pages. The difference in context windows (the amount of text that can be processed at once) becomes significant. Higher-tier plans can maintain longer contexts.

3. Heavy Usage with Multiple Interactions Daily
The Plum plan has effective usage limits. If you engage in 30 to 50 interactions daily, you may hit that limit and be unable to use the service. In cases where the entire sales team is using it, higher-tier or Team plans should be considered.

4. Tasks Requiring High-Precision Inference
The o1 pro mode of ChatGPT Pro shows clear performance differences in complex logical reasoning or mathematical problems. However, very few SMEs genuinely require this.

Optimal Allocation of a 50,000 Yen Monthly Budget—Specific Examples

Assuming a monthly AI budget of 50,000 yen, let’s consider optimal allocations.

Pattern A: A Company of 5 People (All Using It Daily)

• ChatGPT Plus × 5 people = $100 (approximately 15,000 yen)
• Claude Pro × 1 person (CEO or planning staff) = $20 (approximately 3,000 yen)
• Remaining: Approximately 32,000 yen → For API usage or other tools
• Total: Approximately 50,000 yen

ChatGPT and Claude excel in different areas. ChatGPT is strong in code generation and general tasks, while Claude excels in long text comprehension and generating polished writing. Creating an environment where both can be used allows for task-specific differentiation.

Pattern B: A Company of 2 People (Owner + Administrative Staff)

• ChatGPT Plus × 2 people = $40 (approximately 6,000 yen)
• Claude Pro × 1 person = $20 (approximately 3,000 yen)
• Remaining: Approximately 41,000 yen → For image generation AI (like Midjourney) or specialized tools
• Total: Approximately 50,000 yen

For a small team, basic plans are sufficient. The remaining budget is better allocated to specialized AI tools tailored to the company’s operations (like accounting AI or meeting minutes AI).

Pattern C: A Company with Engineers

• ChatGPT Pro × 1 person (Engineer) = $200 (approximately 30,000 yen)
• ChatGPT Plus × 2 people = $40 (approximately 6,000 yen)
• Remaining: Approximately 14,000 yen → For Claude Pro or other tools
• Total: Approximately 50,000 yen

Investing 30,000 yen in improving engineer productivity can yield several times the return. This is not an area to skimp on.

Don’t Overlook Areas Where “Free Is Enough”

Surprisingly overlooked is the capability of free plans.

As of 2025, the free plan for ChatGPT is more powerful than the paid plan from two years ago. Simple Q&A, translation, summarization, and brainstorming can all be effectively handled for free.

Before distributing paid plans to all employees, try using the free plan for a week. Only those who feel it’s insufficient should be upgraded to a paid plan. This alone can prevent unnecessary charges amounting to several tens of thousands of yen each month.

The Biggest Waste Is “Contracting but Not Using”

The most common mistake in AI billing for SMEs is “I contracted for everyone, but half of the employees only use it three times a month.”

3,000 yen × 10 people × 12 months = 360,000 yen. If five of them only use it three times a month, then 180,000 yen is wasted.

The solution is simple:
1. First, let everyone use the free plan.
2. After two weeks, check the usage frequency.
3. Only those who use it five times a week or more should be upgraded to a paid plan.
4. Review usage every three months.

So, What Should You Do?

The correct answer for AI billing is not to “buy the expensive plan” but to “identify where AI can be effective in your operations and invest only there.”

Most SMEs can start with the 3,000 yen plan multiplied by the number of necessary users. Only consider higher-tier plans for operations that genuinely require more usage.

With a budget of 50,000 yen, you can accomplish quite a lot. However, it’s essential to focus that 50,000 yen not on “just covering everyone” but on “concentrating on effective areas.” This is the optimal solution for AI billing in SMEs.

Start by creating one free plan account next week. That’s where everything begins.