Comparison · Updated September 2026
PolyCog vs Poe — points vs your own keys
Poe is the best-known way to reach many AI models from one app, and it is a good product. The differences are what a message costs, who sets that price, and what happens after the models answer.
The short version
Poe sells points: a subscription buys a monthly allowance, every bot has its own points rate, and the exchange rate between points and the real API is Poe's to set. PolyCog is BYOK: you pay OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek and xAI directly at their list prices, and PolyCog charges a flat $10 a month or $250 once for the interface. Poe wins on breadth — hundreds of bots, image and video models, native apps, a free tier — and on zero setup. PolyCog wins when you want several frontier models to answer the same question, argue about it, and be synthesized into one answer, at a cost you can verify line by line.
What you're actually buying
Both apps put the same frontier models in front of you. The difference is the unit you pay in — and who sets its price.
Poe
Free tier · plans from $4.17/mo (annual) to $208.33/mo
You→ Points, priced by Poe→ AI providers
Every bot has its own points rate per message, set by Poe. Your plan is a monthly points allowance; when it's gone, you wait or upgrade. The exchange rate between points and the real API is not yours to see or negotiate.
PolyCog
BYOK · free tier, $10/mo, or $250 lifetime — for the interface only
You→ AI providers, directly
Your keys, your provider accounts, provider list prices per token. PolyCog shows an estimate per session and lets you cap the month. The bill is in your own dashboard, line by line.
Poe's plans, as listed
From poe.com/subscription_plans, September 2026. Annual billing shown as Poe shows it; monthly billing is about 17% more ($4.99 · $19.99 · $49.99 · $99.99 · $249.99).
| Points | Annual price | Per month | What that buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 / day | $49.99 | $4.17 | Light use of the cheaper bots; frontier bots burn a day's points fast |
| 660,000 / mo | $199.99 | $16.67 | The mainstream plan — comparable in price to one consumer subscription |
| 1.65 million / mo | $499.99 | $41.67 | Regular frontier-model use |
| 3.3 million / mo | $999.99 | $83.33 | Heavy use |
| 8.25 million / mo | $2,499.99 | $208.33 | Power use |
- $4.17
- $16.67
- $41.67
- $83.33
- $208.33
Fifty times the price between the first rung and the last; what a message costs in points is the bot's rate that month. PolyCog's interface is $10 a month or $250 once, and the AI usage is whatever the providers charge — which is why the two are not drawn on the same bars.
Every plan unlocks more of the best models — Poe names GPT-5.5, Claude Opus 4.7, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Nano Banana Pro and Veo 3.1 on the plans page — plus each bot's maximum context and chat history. What no plan changes is that a message's cost in points is whatever the bot's rate says that month.
Feature comparison
Checked September 2026. Poe is a large, fast-moving product; where a row says "varies", check the bot's own page.
| PolyCog | Poe | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | BYOKInterface is free, $10/mo or $250 once; AI usage billed by the providers | Points subscriptionFree tier plus five paid tiers; points are the unit, not dollars |
| What a message costs | Provider list price per tokenSame number you'd see in the provider's own console | Varies by botEach bot publishes a points rate; heavier models and longer chats cost more points |
| Model access verifiable | YesCalls appear in your provider dashboards | Official bots are labelledPoe names the underlying model on official bots; the spend itself is only visible as points |
| Multi-model workflow | Debate + synthesisParallel answers, difference scan, debate rounds, one synthesized answer | Multiple bots in a threadYou read the answers one after another and reconcile them yourself |
| Model breadth | 5 providersOpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, xAI — text models only | Very broadOfficial and community bots, image and video models, user-built bots |
| Image / video generation | NoText-focused by design | YesImage and video bots are part of the plans |
| Apps | Web appWorks in any browser, phone included; no native app | Web + native appsiOS, Android and desktop apps |
| Free tier | YesFree BYOK tier (4 models, 3 debate rounds, 20 saved sessions) plus a no-key sample mode | YesDaily points for lighter bots |
| If the company disappears | Keys still workYour provider accounts are yours | Points gone |
Where Poe beats us
A comparison you can trust has to cut both ways.
Breadth
Poe has hundreds of bots, image and video generation, and a whole ecosystem of user-built bots. PolyCog covers five providers' current text models and stops there.
Light use is cheaper
A free tier and a $4.17-a-month plan cost less than any API account minimum if you only ask a few questions a week. BYOK pays off with regular use, not occasional use.
Zero setup, native apps
Sign in and go, on the phone app or the desktop app. BYOK means creating keys at each provider you want — ten minutes, once, but a real step.
One bill
Poe is one subscription. BYOK is one PolyCog plan plus a usage account at each provider you use — simpler to audit, more accounts to keep.
Common questions
Is Poe worth it?
For light, varied use, yes — the free tier and the $4.99 Starter plan are hard to beat, and Poe has models and image/video bots that PolyCog does not. It becomes expensive when you lean on frontier models every day, because the higher plans exist precisely to sell more points.
Are Poe's bots the real models?
The official bots are — they carry the provider's name and an OFFICIAL badge, and Poe names the underlying model (for example claude-opus-4-7 behind Claude-Opus-4.7). The difference between Poe and BYOK is not authenticity; it is who sets the price and the limits, and whether you can see the bill.
How many messages do 660,000 points buy?
It depends on the bot. Each bot on Poe lists its own points rate, heavier models cost far more points per message than light ones, and long conversations cost more because the history is re-sent. Poe shows the rate on every bot's page; there is no single answer, which is part of the point of this comparison.
Can I use my own API keys on Poe?
Not as a subscriber — Poe's plans are points bought from Poe. Bring-your-own-key is the whole model at PolyCog: the keys are yours, the bills are yours, and PolyCog only ever sells the interface.
Can Poe run several models on one prompt?
You can bring more than one bot into a Poe thread and read their answers one after another. PolyCog's workflow is different in kind: the models answer in parallel, a difference scan flags where they disagree, they debate for as many rounds as you want, and a flagship model writes one synthesis with the disagreements resolved or named.
Can I try PolyCog without API keys?
Yes. Sample mode runs on our shared keys with fast models (three prompts a day, no signup) so you can see the format before creating keys.
See the difference in one prompt
Run the same question through several frontier models, watch them debate, and read the synthesis. Free sample mode, no signup, no keys needed.
Free tier forever · $10/mo · $250 lifetime · your API keys, your bill