recursive.eco runs on dollars, not tokens or credits — you top up a balance and spend it in plain dollars. Creating, editing, reading, casting, browsing, importing and GitHub sync are free. You only pay for AI usage (chat, images, audio), metered per use. Every rate below is shown as provider cost → our markup → what you pay, so there are no surprises.
Provider costs last verified against vendor pricing: August 30, 2026. Vendors change prices over time; we re-check periodically and update this page.
No packages — top up any amount you like.
Top up any amount from $20 to $1,000. Your funds don't expire, and you only pay for AI usage.
Once you've added money, your balance is always available. We reserve the right to introduce an expiry policy in the future if unclaimed balances become a legal or financial liability — but any such policy would never expire funds in less than 12 months, and we'd notify you first.
New accounts start with $1 free to try things out — no card needed. The $20 minimum keeps tiny top-ups (where a flat card-dispute fee would dwarf the purchase) off the table.
Per 1,000 tokens (input + output). 10× markup over provider cost.
| Model | You pay (in / out) | Provider cost | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5Deep, thoughtful responses. The Claude model this app runs. | $0.03 / $0.15 | $0.0030 / $0.01 | 10× |
| Claude Opus 5.5The newest Opus — deep reasoning, a little cheaper than Opus 5. | $0.04 / $0.20 | $0.0040 / $0.02 | 10× |
| Claude Opus 5The most capable Claude — deepest reasoning, priciest per use. | $0.05 / $0.25 | $0.0050 / $0.03 | 10× |
| Claude Fable 5Anthropic's most capable model — above Opus. Premium price per use. | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.01 / $0.05 | 10× |
| Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle's strongest reasoning model. | $0.02 / $0.12 | $0.0020 / $0.01 | 10× |
| Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle's newest fast model — much stronger than 2.5 Flash, mid-tier price. | $0.01 / $0.07 | $0.0015 / $0.0075 | 10× |
| Gemini FlashFast and affordable. Good for most conversations. | $0.0015 / $0.0060 | $0.0001 / $0.0006 | 10× |
| Gemini ProStronger reasoning and tool use. ~8x cost of Flash. | $0.01 / $0.10 | $0.0013 / $0.01 | 10× |
| Claude Opus 4.8(retired) Superseded by Claude Opus 5. | $0.05 / $0.25 | $0.0050 / $0.03 | 10× |
| Claude Sonnet(retired) Superseded by Claude Sonnet 5. | $0.03 / $0.15 | $0.0030 / $0.01 | 10× |
| Claude Opus(retired) Opus is no longer offered in chat — Sonnet 5 runs everywhere. | $0.05 / $0.25 | $0.0050 / $0.03 | 10× |
For intuition: a Claude Sonnet reply (~1.5k in + 1k out) ≈ $0.20. A Gemini Flash reply ≈ under a cent.
Per image, generated with Google Imagen 4 (OpenAI gpt-image-1 fallback). 3× markup.
| Quality | You pay | ~Provider cost | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.12 | ~$0.04 | 3× |
| HD | $0.51 | ~$0.17 | 3× |
Square size shown; portrait / landscape are slightly more. Provider cost is approximate — Imagen 4's per-image cost ≈ the gpt-image-1 reference, so the 3× holds whichever model runs.
Read-aloud is billed at 3× the actual voice provider's rate; transcription at 10×.
| Voice / feature | You pay | Provider cost | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read-aloud — Google Neural2 (default) / WaveNet | $0.05 / 1k chars | $0.02 | 3× |
| Read-aloud — Google Studio (premium voice) | $0.48 / 1k chars | $0.16 | 3× |
| Read-aloud — Gemini TTS | $0.05 / 1k chars | $0.02 | 3× |
| Read-aloud — OpenAI (fallback only) | $0.04 / 1k chars | $0.01 | 3× |
| Voice transcription (Whisper) | $0.06 / min | $0.0060 | 10× |
Images and uploads you store on recursive.eco.
2 GB free, per account
Generated and uploaded images count toward your allowance. Beyond 2 GB, storage is billed monthly from your balance at $0.04 / GB / month (our cost ×3). If your balance runs out, you can't upload or save new files until you top up or free space.
We reserve the right to remove stored files for accounts with an unsettled balance. You can review and delete your files any time on your files page.
Creating, editing and reading grammars · casting readings · browsing Explore · importing from GitHub/YouTube · GitHub backup & sync · setting images from a URL you already host.
Markups cover provider + infrastructure cost so heavier use is self-funding. Prices render directly from our billing constants and update with them.