Why "Bring Your Own Key" Saves You Money

At LifeGlyph, we don't believe in marking up AI costs. Instead, we let you connect directly to the providers—Google Gemini and Google Maps. Because their free tiers are so generous for individual users, your "bill" is likely to be exactly $0.00.

💰 Monthly Cost Estimate

Scenario: A casual traveler creating ~20 memories per month

Service	Free Tier Limit (2025)	Your Usage (20 entries)	Est. Cost
Gemini AI Photo & Text Analysis	Generous Free Tier / Cheap Output	~100k tokens	$0.00 - $0.01
Google Maps Geocoding Address Lookup	5,000 requests/mo	20 requests	$0.00
Google Maps Display Map Loading	10,000 loads/mo	~20-50 loads	$0.00
TOTAL MONTHLY COST			~$0.00

⚡ Active User Estimate

Scenario: An active enthusiast creating ~100 memories per month

Service	Free Tier Limit (2025)	Your Usage (100 entries)	Est. Cost
Gemini AI Photo & Text Analysis	Generous Free Tier / Cheap Output	~500k tokens	$0.00*
Google Maps Geocoding Address Lookup	5,000 requests/mo	100 requests	$0.00
Google Maps Display Map Loading	10,000 loads/mo	~200-300 loads	$0.00
TOTAL MONTHLY COST			~$0.00 - $0.10

* Costs remain $0.00 if staying within generous daily free limits (e.g. 1500 calls/day for Flash). Even on pay-as-you-go, 500k tokens is typically less than 15 cents.

Why Gemini?

Google's Flash model is incredibly fast and cost-effective.
Current pricing is ~$0.30 per 1 million output tokens. Generating a blog post uses only a tiny fraction of that.

Why Google Maps?

As of March 2025, individual quotas are separated by product.
You get thousands of free map loads before paying a cent. Personal use rarely hits these caps.

Note: Pricing information is based on public rates as of early 2025. While we strive to keep this accurate, Google may adjust their API pricing. However, for personal, low-volume use, these services historically remain effectively free.