Image generation
Hero shots, product visuals, mood boards, art direction explorations.
Built by humans who got tired of the fog
AI generation pricing got weird. So we made it less weird.
FCKexpensive.ai was built by FGX Studios, a South African digital agency that has spent more than two decades helping brands create, launch, sell, test, optimise and grow online.
We use AI every day for real client work. We got annoyed first. Then we built the platform we wanted to use.
How we use AI
AI did not replace the creative process. It added new tools, new workflows, new costs and a lot of new confusion.
Like every modern digital agency, we use AI for the everyday creative grind - every box below is a real workflow our team runs week in, week out.
Video concepts
Storyboards, motion tests, ad cutdowns, social-first edits.
Audio & voice tests
Voiceover passes, sonic identity, jingle drafts, narration trials.
Creative mock-ups
Fast visual proofs to put a real picture in front of stakeholders.
Campaign exploration
Variant generation, headline angles, audience-specific creative.
Pitch work
Concept decks that show the idea, not just describe it.
Content production
Always-on social, blog visuals, ad assets, lifecycle creative.
Idea development
From scribble to render fast enough to keep momentum going.
The hidden cost stack
Every "simple" generation hides a stack of cost levers.
1
Model selected
Different models cost wildly different credits - and most platforms make you guess.
2
Quality, resolution & length
Higher quality, larger output and longer video all push the meter up.
3
Variations, speed & rerenders
Each variant, each retry, each "make it faster" tap quietly burns more credits.
4
Upscales, exports & platform maths
Then comes the upscale, the export setting and the platform's own private credit formula.
We wrote about it before we built the fix
The myth that AI makes creative work "cheaper, faster and easier".
We were already living the problem. So before we built the platform, we wrote about it.
The article
On the FGX blog we explained how AI still needs human direction, taste, editing, retries, quality control and platform knowledge. It also called out the hidden economy of credits, upscales, subscriptions and rerenders that often makes "cheap AI" far more expensive than expected.
The lived reality
Our team was using AI tools every day - testing models, comparing outputs, trying to quote work properly, and checking credit usage across platforms that all seemed to have their own private pricing language. The problem wasn't only the price. It was the fog.
Things we refused to ship
No smoke. No mystery bundles. No corporate asterisks.
✕
No smoke
If we can't explain how a price works in one sentence, it doesn't ship.
✕
No mystery bundles
You should know exactly what a credit gets you before you spend it.
✕
No tiny asterisks in corporate suits
The terms below the headline should match the headline above them.
✕
No "unlimited" that quietly becomes limited
"Unlimited" is the most expensive word in AI pricing. We don't use it.
What makes FCKexpensive.ai different
We are not pretending AI generation is free. We are showing you the logic instead of hiding it behind mystery maths.
Every model has a cost. Every generation uses compute. Every render, upscale, variation and export comes from somewhere. Here is the whole approach, said out loud.
We buy from the source
Credits are bought directly from the source platforms.
One place to access them
Multiple AI tools, one tidy interface. No five-tab tax.
Small, honest markup
A small markup covers hosting, payment fees and platform running costs. That's it.
You can see the meter
The cost shows up before you click generate, not after the credits are gone.
Pricing in plain English
No five pricing pages to decode before making one image.
That is the whole point
No BS. Just clear pricing for image, video and audio generation.
Built for the people who actually have to budget creative work
If you need to quote a client, test concepts, compare models or explore AI audio - you need clear pricing.
You cannot plan properly when every platform hides the real cost behind "credits" that mean something different every time you click. That is how budgets vanish, teams overspend, and credit card bills start looking like they joined a cult.
Digital agencies
Quote work properly without praying the render gods stay merciful.
Social media teams
Always-on creative without an always-on billing surprise.
Designers
Iterate on visual ideas without burning the project margin in retries.
Content creators
Test, compare and ship without playing credit roulette.
Video editors
Length, resolution and rerender costs visible upfront.
Brand teams
Mock up ideas in real visuals, not vague descriptions.
Performance marketers
Generate variations for testing without losing the unit economics.
Freelancers
One clear bill, not seven subscriptions you forgot you signed up for.
Small businesses & campaign managers
Real cost control on every campaign, every render, every export.
A low entry price means nothing if…
The trapdoors most platforms leave wide open.
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The useful model costs more
The headline price is for the model nobody actually wants to use.
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The good resolution costs more
The good output is locked behind the upgrade tier.
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The faster render costs more
Speed becomes a paywall rather than a setting.
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The export costs more
Getting the file out costs almost as much as making it.
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Subscription credits disappear
"Unused" credits vanish at the wrong time of the month.
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Credit value changes by model
One credit means five different things depending on what you click.
We are not the villains. We are the people who got annoyed first.
Big AI companies are building powerful tools. Many are brilliant. The pricing around them just got needlessly murky.
What we wanted
Something clearer for ourselves. Tools we use every day, with pricing we could explain to a client without flinching. Then we realised other agencies, creators and small teams probably wanted the same thing.
Why we built it
Not because the world needed another AI platform with shiny buttons. Because the world needed one that says: here is what you get, here is what it costs, here is how your credits work. No BS.
A working tool, not AI hype
Built by people who use these systems in real client work.
FCKexpensive.ai comes from that same place. We know AI can help teams move faster. We also know it can get expensive when pricing is unclear. So we built the platform we wanted to use - and then we opened it up.
Got a question or a thought? Email hello@fgx.co.za.
Welcome to FCKexpensive.ai. No mystery bundles. No credit goblins. No BS.
Use it to create. Use it to test. Use it to compare models. Use it to stop overpaying for mystery credit bundles. We built this for the agencies, the creators, the small teams, the freelancers - the people trying to make good work without funding another fat cat's bonus yacht.