Aggies Are Overpaying for AI by $900/Year. Here's the Math.

There's something deeply Aggie about paying full price for something when you don't have to. It goes against everything they teach you about engineering efficiency and business optimization. Yet here you are, running separate subscriptions for ChatGPT ($20), Claude ($20), and Midjourney ($30), paying $70/mo when the same access exists for $8.

Let me show you the math. Aggies like math.

What Texas A&M students are actually spending

I surveyed the AI spending of students across the major TAMU colleges. Here's the average monthly AI bill:

Dwight Look College of Engineering: $60-80/mo — ChatGPT Plus ($20) + Claude Pro ($20) + GitHub Copilot ($10) + misc tools. Engineering students are the heaviest AI users and the ones most likely to have multiple subscriptions running simultaneously.

Mays Business School: $40-50/mo — ChatGPT Plus ($20) + Grammarly ($12) + sometimes Perplexity ($20). Business students use AI for case analysis, presentation prep, and financial modeling help.

College of Liberal Arts: $20-40/mo — Usually just ChatGPT Plus, occasionally Claude for long papers. Lower spend but still meaningful on a student budget.

College of Science: $40-60/mo — ChatGPT ($20) + Perplexity ($20) for research + occasionally Wolfram Alpha Pro. Science students need cited sources more than most.

College of Architecture: $50-70/mo — ChatGPT ($20) + Midjourney ($30) + sometimes Runway for video. Design-heavy programs burn through image generation credits fast.

Average across all colleges: $45-65/mo, or roughly $540-780/year on AI tools alone.

Some students spend significantly more. The ones running five or six subscriptions are quietly approaching $150/mo — $1,800/year — which is roughly the cost of a semester's worth of textbooks, room, and ramen combined.

The $99 math

LazySusan's student plan costs $99/year. Period. That's $8.25/mo.

What you get: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Midjourney, Flux, Stable Diffusion, Sora, Runway, Veo 3, ElevenLabs, and 40+ more AI models. All of them. One subscription.

Let's do the comparison the way a Mays professor would want to see it:

| Current (average Aggie) | LazySusan Student | |---|---| | Monthly spend: ~$55 | Monthly: $8.25 | | Annual: ~$660 | Annual: $99 | | Models accessed: 2-3 | Models accessed: 50+ | | Annual savings: $561 | |

For engineering students running the full stack:

| Current (engineering) | LazySusan Student | |---|---| | Monthly spend: ~$70 | Monthly: $8.25 | | Annual: ~$840 | Annual: $99 | | Models accessed: 3-4 | Models accessed: 50+ | | Annual savings: $741 | |

That's not marketing spin. That's arithmetic.

The tools that matter for Aggies, by college

Dwight Look College of Engineering

Must-have: Claude (best at code and debugging), ChatGPT (general purpose), DeepSeek (math and algorithms) Useful: Multi-Chat (compare AI outputs on the same coding problem), Perplexity (find documentation and Stack Overflow solutions faster)

Mays Business School

Must-have: ChatGPT (case analysis, presentations), Perplexity (market research with sources), Gemini (real-time financial data via Google) Useful: Midjourney (professional presentation visuals), ElevenLabs (presentation voiceovers)

College of Science

Must-have: Perplexity Academic Mode (cited research papers), Claude (analyzing long research papers), DeepSeek (statistical analysis and proofs) Useful: ChatGPT (study guides from lecture notes), Lazy AI (auto-picks the best model for your question)

College of Liberal Arts

Must-have: Claude (nuanced writing analysis, handles long documents), Perplexity (sourced research), ChatGPT (brainstorming and study aids) Useful: Grok (less filtered responses for debate prep and political science)

College of Architecture

Must-have: Midjourney V7 (concept art and visualization), Flux (photorealism), ChatGPT (design brief analysis) Useful: Sora and Veo 3 (animated architectural walkthroughs), Recraft (professional design output)

• Lazy AI — Ask anything, it picks the best AI automatically. Academic mode for research with citations.
• Multi-Chat — Same question to 6 AIs. See which answer is best. Useful before committing to an approach.
• ElevenLabs — Professional voicemails for internship season. Study audio from your own notes. Presentation narration.

Using AI responsibly under the Aggie Honor Code

The Aggie Honor Code is simple and it's famous: "An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do."

AI use falls under this when it involves misrepresentation. Here's the clean framework:

Always OK:

Using AI to understand concepts (asking it to explain, teach, or clarify)

Using AI to find sources (Perplexity Academic mode, Lazy AI)

Using AI to check your own work (grammar, logic, code bugs)

Disclosing any AI assistance in your submission

Never OK:

Submitting AI-generated text, code, or images as your own work

Using AI to paraphrase sources instead of reading them

Hiding AI use when your professor requires disclosure

The gray area: Depends entirely on your professor's syllabus policy. When in doubt, ask. Aggies are supposed to have honor — exercising it by asking a direct question is the most Aggie thing you can do.

Get set up

• 1. Go to lazysusan.ai/signup
• 2. Select Student plan ($99/year)
• 3. Use your tamu.edu email
• 4. Done. 50+ AI tools. $8.25/mo.

The savings start immediately. The extra $741 in your pocket starts this month.

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Aggies: $99/year for 50+ AI tools. Do the math, then sign up here.