Mental Load Monthly Cost Calculator

Change the numbers below to understand how much the platform may cost each month and how much subscription money may remain after running costs.

Saved calculations are stored on the server and can be opened from any device using the shared access code.

Important: “Users” and “families” are not the same. One family can have up to six people. Use the selector below to tell the calculator what your number means.

Shared saved calculations

Locked

Open the shared saved listEnter the same access code on your iPhone, computer, or any other device.

Enter the shared access code to view saved calculations.

1. Enter your expected usage

The suggested values are planning estimates. You can change every value.

Customers and subscription

Expected active countPeople actively using and paying for the service.

This count meansSelect individual people if 6,000 includes family members.

Average people in one familyThe platform allows a maximum of six.

Monthly price per family ($)One subscription is charged to each family.

Normal text messages and picture messages

Families can send a normal text, a screenshot or a photograph to the shared Mental Load number.

Items sent by each family per month

How many are pictures or screenshots (%)

People receiving the daily text schedule

Average length of daily schedule

Other SMS replies per family per monthConfirmations, questions and clarification messages.

WhatsApp questions and automatic messages

A family may ask “What is Hunter doing Thursday?” on WhatsApp. The system reads the question, checks the schedule and replies on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp questions per family per monthEach question normally creates two messages: one received and one reply.

People receiving a daily WhatsApp scheduleKeep at zero if daily schedules are sent only by SMS.

Simple WhatsApp rule: Twilio charges for every WhatsApp message sent or received. Meta may also charge for an automatic message sent when the family has not messaged the system within the last 24 hours.

What should be included?

Use one shared Twilio number for all families Include StackDot maintenance and support ($300/month)

Advanced prices and server costs

These values are based on current public prices and can be updated if a provider changes its rate.

Automatically use the recommended Railway and Supabase cost for the selected number of families

Twilio outgoing SMS per part ($)

Twilio incoming SMS ($)

Twilio incoming picture message ($)

Twilio phone number per month ($)

Twilio WhatsApp per message ($)

Meta automatic-message allowance ($)Planning allowance for utility template messages outside 24 hours.

AI cost for a text or question ($)

AI cost for a picture or screenshot ($)

Railway Pro usage budget ($/month)Pro has a $20 minimum. The final bill follows actual CPU, memory and internet usage.

Supabase Pro + Medium total ($/month)$25 Pro + $60 Medium compute − $10 monthly compute credit.

Postmark Basic email ($/month)

Better Stack Responder ($/month)Approximate annual-billing price for one on-call responder.

Cloudflare Free + domain allowance ($/month)Cloudflare security/CDN is Free; this is a monthly allowance for yearly domain renewal.

US messaging registration allowance ($/month)

Stripe percentage fee (%)

Stripe fixed fee for each family payment ($)

2. Easy monthly estimate

Subscription money received$0

Estimated monthly running cost$0

Money remaining after these running costs$0

Running cost for one family$0

Minimum monthly price to cover these costs$0

Where the money goes	Monthly estimate

Technology being used

RailwayRuns the backend server and automatic daily schedule jobs.

SupabaseStores families, members, schedules, settings and uploaded pictures.

TwilioReceives and sends SMS, picture messages and WhatsApp messages.

Claude AIReads messages and pictures and understands schedule questions.

StripeCollects the monthly family subscription.

CloudflareProtects the website and manages the domain and secure connection.

PostmarkSends system emails such as login links and billing notices.

Better StackAlerts the support team if the application stops working.

Recommended starting subscriptions and server size

The recommendation changes automatically with the number of paying families. It is a safe starting configuration, not a promise that no upgrade will ever be required.

Before a wider US launch: run a load test using the real message pattern, especially the morning schedule burst. Increase or reduce CPU, memory and database size using actual monitoring data.