· 2 min read
Day 4 | What does a personal site cost a year? Starting from a US$550 budget
Last time I explained why the backend stays on Supabase. Since that post was already about cost, today I'm adding up what the whole site costs for a year.
The short answer: about US$550 a year, or US$45.83 a month on average.
Where the money goes
| Item | How it adds up | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase Pro | US$25 × 12 months | US$300 |
| Domain | A cheap one, about US$10 a year | ~US$10 |
| AI tools (pick one) | US$20 × 12 months | US$240 |
| Total | US$300 + US$10 + US$240 | ~US$550 |
I'm on Supabase Pro, which starts at US$25 a month, so US$300 a year. That's the base plan only. Extra projects, bigger instances and overages aren't in there.
For the domain I picked a cheaper one. It's a little over US$10 a year, so the table rounds it to US$10.
Cloudflare I'm treating as free for now. As I said on Day 1, a personal site is really unlikely to hit 200k events.
AI tools: most people only need one
Then the most important line: AI tools. I pay for both Claude Max x20 and GPT Pro (bought the lot ><), but I don't think most people need that. One plan is enough, and both cost US$20 a month:
- Claude Pro: US$20/month, includes Claude Code
- ChatGPT Plus: US$20/month, includes Codex (the US$20 tier is called Plus, not Pro)
Subscribe to both and AI comes to US$480 a year, which puts the whole site at US$790.
The site itself is cheap
Take AI out and Supabase plus the domain is about US$310 a year. AI is more of a development tool. If you already subscribe, or use it for other things too, how much of it you count toward the site is your call.
Tax, overages, API fees and my own time aren't counted. But turning every monthly fee into a yearly one at least tells me roughly how much to set aside each year to keep this site going.
Prices are the official monthly rates as of October 6, 2026, all in US dollars.