How Much Do AI Text Alerts From a Camera Cost Per Day?

The request sounds modest: two or three camera images an hour, turned into a line of text that says what is in the picture. The usual answer to "what will that cost me" is "try the API and see". That is not an answer, it is a bill you find out about later. Here is the arithmetic, done up front.

The cost is three numbers multiplied together

Every service that describes camera frames with a vision model charges per image in one form or another. So the daily cost is never about the camera. It is:

• How many frames a day get sent. This is the interval, and it dominates everything else.
• What one frame costs to read. A lighter model is cheaper per frame, a smarter one costs more.
• Whether frames are sent when nothing changed. A fixed interval pays for the empty driveway at 3 a.m. just as much as for the car arriving.

The actual numbers

In AI Vision Monitor a check costs one credit on the Fast model and half a credit on the lightest model. The starter pack is 2000 credits for 2.99 euro, so one credit is about 0.15 euro cents. The table below uses that starter price.

So the modest request from the top of the page, three images an hour, is roughly 1.6 to 3.3 euro a month depending on the model. The expensive row is not expensive because of the AI. It is expensive because it asks the AI the same question eight thousand times about a picture that almost never changes.

You should see the number before you start

The scenario form in the app counts the expected credits per day from your interval and model before you save the scenario. If you type ten seconds by mistake, you see 8,634 next to it, not on next month's statement. There is a short video of that form if you want to see it working.

Four ways to pay for less without missing the thing

1. Use motion mode instead of a fixed interval. The phone compares frames itself, for free, and spends a credit only when the picture actually changes. A quiet night costs close to nothing.
2. Match the interval to the thing. A garage door left open, a feeder running empty or a plant drooping change over minutes or hours. Checking those every ten seconds buys nothing.
3. Use the light model for plain yes and no questions. "Is the garage door open" does not need the smartest model. Save the stronger one for scenes that are genuinely hard to read.
4. Set the daily cap on every camera. Each camera has a daily credit limit, and when it is reached the camera stops capturing. It is a fuse, and it is the reason a typo cannot empty the balance.

What a check actually returns

AI Vision Monitor turns a phone you already own into the camera. There is no live feed and no recording. A frame is captured on your interval or on motion, a vision model answers the question you typed in your own words, and you get a sentence back describing what it saw.

Free versus paid, honestly

If the goal is a bill of exactly zero, the route is running a vision model on your own hardware. That is real and it works, and it costs a capable machine, electricity and an evening or several of setup instead of money per image. For someone who already runs a home server, it may well be the better choice.

If you do not, the hosted cost at a few images an hour is small enough that the setup time is the bigger expense. New accounts get 50 free credits with no card, which at three images an hour on the Fast model is most of a day of real monitoring. Push notifications are free; email notifications cost one credit each.

Honest limits

• It checks, it does not watch. On a fixed interval, something that comes and goes between two checks is not seen. Motion mode narrows that gap but is still frames, not video.
• Cheaper is less capable. The light model is fine for simple states and weaker on crowded or dim scenes.
• The prices above are the starter pack. Larger packs exist in the store; the table does not assume any discount.
• It needs internet. The analysis runs on a server, so a phone with no connection sends nothing and costs nothing.

Frequently asked

How much does it cost per day?
Three images an hour around the clock is 72 checks, about 11 euro cents a day on the Fast model or 5 cents on the light one. Every five minutes is 288 checks, about 43 cents a day on Fast.

Is there a free option for 2 or 3 images an hour?
Self hosting a vision model is free per image but not free to set up. Hosted, it is roughly 1.6 to 3.3 euro a month, and 50 free credits let you test it first.

Why is every 10 seconds so expensive?
Because it is 8,634 checks a day. The cost scales with the number of frames, not with how interesting they are.

How do I keep the bill down?
Motion mode instead of a fixed interval, an interval that matches how fast the thing changes, the light model for yes and no questions, and a daily cap per camera.

Can I see the cost before starting?
Yes. The scenario form shows the expected credits per day before you save.

Know the daily number before the first frame

Point a spare phone at the thing you keep checking, type one sentence about it, and read the daily cost next to the interval before you press save.

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Open in your browser