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The price of software is going to zero

22 Apr, 2026

The price of software is going to zero. AI assisted programming makes it much faster and cheaper to build software. On the scale of the software market this means that most of what is currently consumer paid software will become free software. Prior to AI only large hyperscalers could afford to offer truly free software. Gmail has been free since its inception. Fastmail charges $60/year for a comparable service.

Many SAAS companies have offered ‘free’ tiers over the years. Resend offers 3000 emails a month for free. Mailchimp and ConvertKit offer free tiers for smaller businesses. The goal of these free tiers was to draw in users who might later upgrade to a paid plan. Essentially, the free plan is advertising for the paid plan.

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The price of software is going to zero

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