Key Points
- Americans now pay an average of $66 a month for roughly four premium AI subscriptions, with ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot leading adoption.
- Nearly two-thirds use AI daily, and 14 percent pay for eight or more services, qualifying them as superusers.
- High costs are driving heavy churn, but most consumers want AI subscriptions bundled with services like Netflix, Prime Video or Disney Plus.
American consumers has around four premium artificial intelligence (AI) subscriptions and pays more than $60 for the privilege, according to a new consumer survey released by Bango this week.
The findings were detailed in a new research report called “The Rise of the AI Subscriber,” which shines a light on what has been an overlooked trend: How American consumers are incorporating more premium AI tools into their personal and professional lives.
AI is on the mind of just about everyone these days, from analysts on Wall Street to marketers on Madison Avenue. Executives are figuring out how generative and contextual AI products to cut costs while simultaneously grow their businesses, and ordinary workers are using off-the-shelf products to assist with their workflow.
The typical American consumer uses subscription-based AI products mainly to perform creative, skilled tasks like writing and editing (67 percent affirmed they use AI products this way), image and design (47 percent) and video editing (44 percent). Research and productivity also ranked high on the list, with more than one-third of consumers affirming their use of AI in those ways.
When it comes to the programs people are willing to pay for, it probably isn’t much of a surprise that ChatGPT tops the list: More than 70 percent of Americans shell out at least $20 per month for the premium version of ChatGPT, which unlocks features like higher message limits, faster responses and a larger allotment of generated image files. Google’s Gemini is in a somewhat-distant second, with 51 percent of consumers paying for it, while Microsoft’s Copilot ranked third at 34 percent.
Specialist programs like Canva Magic (18 percent) and Midjourney (7 percent) were also listed, but ranked far below ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, likely on account of their limited use beyond certain specialized fields. (Canva Magic and Midjourney are largely used to create images.)
On average, American consumers use around five AI products in the professional and personal lives, and they pay for around four of them, according to Bango’s consumer data. Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed said they use AI on a daily basis, and some could be classified as superusers — 14 percent of Americans pay for eight or more services, Bango said.
The costs associated with premium AI tools start to add up over time, with the average American consumer reporting a monthly bill of $66 to maintain a subscription to those tools — and nearly one out of four Americans report paying more than $100 per month on AI subscriptions, the report affirmed.
Consumers are already feeling the pain, with more than half of Americans finding AI services to have complex pricing, and the same number feel they can’t afford all the tools they want. For this reason, churn is unusually high in the AI subscription economy, with 53 percent saying they cancel and restart AI tools as needed.
That said, AI tools are stickier with some Americans than others: Nearly two-thirds of consumers said they’d be willing to cancel a streaming every one of their streaming video services if it meant they could keep their AI tools. While that might seem like a contradiction when compared to their willingness to stop and start AI services, it also lends credence to the idea that the types of bundles that work in the streaming video space — which have been shown to save consumers money and lower churn rates — might also work with premium AI subscriptions.
More than three quarters of Americans are hopeful that their premium AI tools might be sold this way — through a bundle, with related AI products or with others, like streaming video and music, that they’re already paying for. Seventy-two percent of Americans surveyed said they want a premium AI tool to come bundled with Netflix, while 60 percent said the same for Prime Video and 54 percent affirmed the same for Disney Plus.
Exactly half of those surveyed by Bango said a YouTube bundle with an AI tool would be great — and that makes sense, since Google has an AI tool that would fit nicely with a YouTube bundle.
Moving forward, AI developers have a lot to think about: Consumers value their tools, but they’re being financially squeezed by rising costs across the board. AI tools are must-haves today, but when the dollars get harder to come by, they move into “nice to have” territory — but bundling an AI tool with another service could increase retention among consumers in a way that also lowers their costs.
“Each day, AI becomes more indispensable in people’s lives in a way no other subscription is,” Paul Larbey, the CEO of Bango, said in a statement. “For now, AI tools are priced as premium products, but that will change as they become integrated with other experiences – shopping, entertainment, communication, finances. AI will have a role to play in how we consume subscription-based services, too. Bango research has continuously highlighted the headache of managing increasing numbers of subscriptions, but as we delegate more responsibility to AI, we expect it’ll simplify that process, too.”
The survey was conducted with 2,000 Americans who affirmed having at least one AI-based subscription, with responses collected and evaluated in October. Bango partnered with independent research agency 3Gem on the survey and the report. To read the full report from Bango, click or tap here.
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