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Access Tiers

Compare what is available at free, paid, and API tiers across a set of AI tools. The tool makes the access gap visible — you can see exactly what disappears at each boundary, and ask who that exclusion affects.

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Live preview · launch for the interactive version

§ A · What it makes visible

what the screen literally shows
Fig. 01

The capability matrix

Capabilities in rows, tiers in columns: each cell is a specific feature marked present, limited, or absent. The matrix turns a pricing question into a question about which tasks are actually possible — and for whom.

Fig. 02

What is lost at each boundary

Moving down a tier doesn’t just remove features — it changes what questions are askable, what tasks are completable, and what evidence you can gather. The tool names what is lost, not just what is missing.

Fig. 03

Who is excluded

Access tiers are not neutral. They sort users by willingness or ability to pay. This tool makes the exclusion visible as a design choice, not a natural consequence of cost.

§ B · How to investigate it

run it like an experiment, not a toy

Test the same task at different tiers. Name what changes and who that change affects.

01 · Pick a task

Something you actually want to do

Choose a real task you’d use this tool for. Then test whether it’s possible — fully, partially, or not at all — at each tier.

task: “generate a 2-minute video from a script”
02 · Name what is lost

Specifically, not generally

Don’t say “fewer features.” Name the specific capability that disappears and what task that capability would enable.

“API access: lost the ability to run automated comparisons”
03 · Name who can’t proceed

Not just the price barrier

Who stops here? Not just “people who can’t pay” but the specific context: individual educators, students, small NGOs, researchers in certain regions.

“K–12 teachers using a personal card”
04 · Compare across tools

Is the gap consistent?

Run the same task comparison on two different tools. Is the access gap in the same place, or do different tools exclude different users at different tiers?

Tool A: free/paid gap · Tool B: paid/API gap

§ C · Debrief questions

after the investigation
What task becomes impossible at the free tier, and for whom does that matter most?
Is the capability gap proportional to the price gap, or is it larger?
Which tier would your students, or the students you’re thinking about, realistically land on?
If you had to redesign one tier boundary, which would you move and why?