Use case · Founders & team leads

See what your team spends on AI tools as its own number

For founders and team leads whose AI tools arrived one expense claim at a time: chat and coding assistants, writing and design tools, and API accounts with variable bills. Renlyst lets you mark these subscriptions as AI and shows their estimated monthly cost apart from the rest of your software.

In development. Renlyst has not launched yet. This page describes how the first release is designed to work; details may change before launch.

Who it is for

Founders, CTOs and team leads — and the finance manager who has to explain the new line in the budget.

The problem

  • New AI tools are adopted by individual teams, often on separate plans for the same product.
  • Usage-based bills change every month and are hard to compare with fixed plans.
  • Nobody owns the decision to keep, merge or drop a tool.
  • AI spend disappears inside the general software total.

How Renlyst helps

  1. Mark AI subscriptions yourself

    Set the AI category on any subscription. You decide what counts as AI; Renlyst does not guess.

  2. Record fixed plans and usage estimates

    Seat plans work as usual. For usage-based tools you enter a monthly estimate, which is labeled as estimated. Tools without an estimate are counted separately, not as zero.

  3. See the AI monthly estimate

    The dashboard shows AI tools as their own figure. The AI view lists vendors, subscriptions, cost in your base currency, price type, renewal status and how complete the data is.

  4. Apply the same controls as other software

    Owners, renewal deadlines, excess-seat prompts and duplicate candidates — such as the same product bought twice — work for AI tools too.

Example: five AI subscriptions

Example AI subscriptions with the price as entered and the estimated monthly equivalent in US dollars
SubscriptionPrice as enteredMonthly
Chat assistant10 seats × $25 per month$250
Coding assistant6 seats × $19 per month$114
Writing tool$240 per year$20
Model API account$180 monthly estimate$180 est.
Second API accountUsage, no estimate yetnot included
AI monthly estimate Partial$564

4 of 5 AI subscriptions included; 1 has an unknown monthly cost.

Example figures for illustration.

What you get

  • An AI monthly estimate next to your total software run-rate.
  • Every AI tool with an owner, a renewal date and a price type.
  • Usage-based tools shown as estimates, with unknown costs counted rather than hidden.
  • A change of category is recorded in the history.

Features used

What Renlyst does not do (yet)

We would rather you know the limits now than discover them after launch.

  • No AI usage metering. Renlyst does not read tokens, API usage or provider invoices; usage costs are your estimates.
  • No connections to AI providers. Nothing is pulled from AI vendors’ billing systems.
  • No automatic classification. The AI category is what you set.
  • No AI assistant inside Renlyst. Opportunities come from transparent rules, not from a model.
  • Founders, CFOs, finance managers

    Run-rate visibility for finance

    One estimated monthly figure and an annualized run-rate for all recorded subscriptions, across currencies, with gaps labeled.

  • Operations, IT and office managers

    Cancellation deadline control

    The last day to give notice for every renewal, reminders to the person responsible, and a record of each decision and outcome.

  • Finance leads and department leads

    Seat right-sizing

    Seats purchased compared with seats needed, an estimated yearly effect, and only confirmed savings counted as realized.

  • Finance managers and founders

    Budget review and export

    Current run-rate by vendor, category and department, upcoming renewals and the savings register, exported as CSV files.

  • Founders, CFOs, finance managers

    Run-rate visibility for finance

    One estimated monthly figure and an annualized run-rate for all recorded subscriptions, across currencies, with gaps labeled.

  • Operations, IT and office managers

    Cancellation deadline control

    The last day to give notice for every renewal, reminders to the person responsible, and a record of each decision and outcome.

  • Finance leads and department leads

    Seat right-sizing

    Seats purchased compared with seats needed, an estimated yearly effect, and only confirmed savings counted as realized.

  • Finance managers and founders

    Budget review and export

    Current run-rate by vendor, category and department, upcoming renewals and the savings register, exported as CSV files.

See all use cases, every Renlyst feature, the planned launch pricing or the frequently asked questions.

Give AI tools the same scrutiny as the rest of your software

Join the early access list to hear when Renlyst opens.