Calculate the average AI infrastructure cost incurred per active user.
Cost per user is a core unit-economics metric for AI products: it divides total monthly cost — infrastructure plus third-party API spend — by the number of active users to determine how much each user costs to serve. Comparing this figure against your revenue per user (e.g. subscription price) tells you whether your AI feature is profitable at scale.
cost_per_user = (infrastructure_cost + api_costs) / active_users
Define active users consistently with your product's usage metrics (e.g. monthly active users) so the cost figure aligns with your revenue-per-user calculations.
This calculator focuses on infrastructure and API costs; you can fold labor costs into the infrastructure cost input if you want an all-in figure.
Common levers include caching repeated responses, using smaller/cheaper models for simple requests, batching API calls, and negotiating volume discounts with providers.