How to build an AI stack under $300 a month.

A useful small-business AI stack does not need ten paid subscriptions. A lean budget stack usually covers one core assistant, one workflow layer, and one supporting tool tied to your main bottleneck.

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Spend on the layer that removes the most friction

For some teams that is a core assistant. For others it is automation, note capture, or booking. The biggest mistake is splitting a small budget across too many overlapping tools.

Good under-$300 stack pattern

One assistant: ChatGPT or Claude
One workflow layer: Notion AI, Zapier, or Otter
One growth layer: Canva, Calendly, or Tidio depending the bottleneck

Use one automation first

If you only automate one flow, make it a process that happens every day: lead intake, booking, post-meeting follow-up, or turning a brief into content. That is how a small stack starts paying for itself.