Every AI interview assistant's pricing page is designed to confuse you. Some sell credits. Some sell minutes. Some sell monthly subscriptions with unused overflow. Some advertise a "yearly rate" that's actually an upfront lump sum. This guide cuts through the noise by calculating the real dollar cost of each tool across three common usage patterns.
Method: the three candidate profiles
We modeled three realistic job-search scenarios, based on data from hiring platforms:
- Light candidate: 4 interviews over 1 month (~120 minutes of live AI use). Casual job seekers, side-exploration.
- Active candidate: 12 interviews over 2 months (~480 minutes). Typical senior engineer switching jobs.
- Intense candidate: 25 interviews over 4 months (~1,000 minutes). Career pivoters, aggressive job searches.
We then calculated what each major tool costs across these profiles.
Light candidate: 4 interviews / 120 min
| Tool | Required plan | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| GirGit AI | Pay-per-use at ₹5/min | ₹360 (~$4.33) |
| Parakeet AI | 1 × Basic (3 credits), need +1 credit | ~$39 (3 credits used + overage) |
| Cluely | 1 month Pro | $20 |
| LockedIn AI Quarterly | 1 month of quarterly plan | $49.99 |
| Sensei AI Monthly | 1 month | $89 |
| LockedIn AI Monthly | 1 month | $69.99 |
| Final Round AI Monthly | 1 month | $149 |
Winner: GirGit AI by 4.6× over the next cheapest option. For a light job search, pay-per-use wins by a mile. Every subscription-based tool has you paying for ~80% idle time.
Active candidate: 12 interviews / 480 min
| Tool | Required plan | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| GirGit AI | Pay-per-use at ₹5/min | ₹1,440 (~$17.30) |
| Cluely | 2 months Pro | $40 |
| Parakeet AI | 2 × Plus (8 credits used of 16) | $118 |
| LockedIn AI Quarterly | 2 months of quarterly | $99.98 |
| Sensei AI Annual (rate) | 2 months at annual rate | $48 |
| LockedIn AI Monthly | 2 months | $139.98 |
| Final Round AI Yearly (prorated) | 2 months of $500/yr | $83.34 |
| Final Round AI Monthly | 2 months | $298 |
Winner: GirGit AI by 2.8× over Cluely (cheapest subscription). Even against the aggressively-priced Cluely, pay-per-use wins — and you're also avoiding Cluely's breach history.
Intense candidate: 25 interviews / 1,000 min
| Tool | Required plan | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| GirGit AI | Pay-per-use at ₹5/min | ₹3,000 (~$36) |
| Cluely | 4 months Pro | $80 |
| Sensei AI Annual | 4 months at annual rate | $96 |
| LockedIn AI Quarterly | 4 months of quarterly | $199.96 |
| Final Round AI Yearly | Full $500 upfront | $500 |
| LockedIn AI Monthly | 4 months | $279.96 |
| Final Round AI Monthly | 4 months | $596 |
Winner: GirGit AI by 2.2× over Cluely. Even for intense users, pay-per-use still wins. The crossover point where a subscription becomes genuinely cheaper than GirGit AI is somewhere past ~2,500 minutes (~60 interviews), and by that point you're probably switching careers, not just job-searching.
Why subscriptions lose at almost every usage level
Subscriptions assume you'll use the tool every day. Interview tools are the opposite — used in short bursts over 2–8 weeks, then silent for months. The math breaks:
- Idle time is paid time. If you subscribe for a month and only interview twice, you paid for 28 unused days.
- Cancellation friction. Monthly subscriptions auto-renew; forgetting once = another full month wasted.
- Commitment risk. "Yearly" plans lock you in before you know if you'll even pass your first round.
- Overflow you can't use. LockedIn gives you 400 minutes/month. If you use 80, the other 320 don't roll over.
Pay-per-use fixes all four. You pay exactly for what you consumed, nothing rolls over because nothing needs to, and you can stop at any moment.
The full breakdown
| Tool | Light ($) | Active ($) | Intense ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GirGit AI | $4.33 | $17.30 | $36 |
| Cluely | $20 | $40 | $80 |
| LockedIn AI Quarterly | $49.99 | $99.98 | $199.96 |
| Sensei AI Annual | $24 | $48 | $96 |
| Parakeet AI | $39 | $118 | ~$250+ |
| Final Round AI Yearly | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| Final Round AI Monthly | $149 | $298 | $596 |
GirGit AI is the cheapest option in every single scenario, often by a factor of 2–15×.
What you give up by going cheapest
To be transparent: GirGit AI trades a few things for the pricing advantage. Language support is narrower than Parakeet's 59 languages. Mac support is newer than Windows. There's no standalone "mock interview" mode like Final Round AI's (though you can use the live copilot against recorded questions to similar effect).
None of these matter for 90% of candidates — who speak English or Hindi, use Windows, and want a live copilot for real interviews, not a mock-interview subscription.
The honest recommendation
If you're optimizing for cost — and you should be, because AI interview assistants are commodity tools now — GirGit AI wins cleanly. The pricing is simpler, the math is always in your favor, and the 10-minute free trial lets you verify quality before spending anything.
The cheapest tool is the one you only pay for when you use it. Subscriptions charge you for the tool; pay-per-use charges you for the work. The difference is most of your money.