Building a website with AI: what it really costs and how to do it

The query "a neural network to create a website for free" usually means one thing: a person wants a business-card page or a landing page without paying for a site builder. The honest answer is that not everything will be free. Hosting a static page is often free, but the model's work is paid per token. The good news is that a business-card site costs cents, not tens of dollars. Below is a step-by-step build with an agent and a cost estimate using prices as of October 18, 2026.

What is free and what is not

Let us go through the cost items in order:

• Model work. Paid, per token. There is no free access to strong models through a gateway, and promising it would be dishonest. The minimum balance top-up on Zukko is $1.
• Static site hosting. For a set of HTML, CSS and images many services have free plans. Terms change, so check them on the service's own site.
• A domain. Usually paid, with the price set by the registrar. Without a domain the site opens at the hosting address.
• Your time. The agent writes code fast, but you still have to provide the texts, photos and contact details.

If you need a form handled on a server, a database or payment on the site, costs grow. A business card with a few blocks needs none of that.

What you will need

• A project folder and an editor where you can open an HTML file.
• A coding agent. We use Claude Code here: it reads and edits files in the folder by itself. Installation is covered in Claude Code from scratch↗, and connecting through the gateway is in the documentation↗.
• A fetch_... key from the dashboard↗ and a positive balance. Payment from Russia: SBP (the payment page adds an 8.5% fee on top), a MasterCard, or cryptocurrency.

Step 1. Connect the agent

In a terminal, inside an empty project folder:

mkdir my-site && cd my-site
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.zukko.pro
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=fetch_your_key
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-sonnet-5-5
claude

The address has no /v1: Claude Code adds the path itself. The key must be passed through the ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN variable. For regular work, put these variables in your shell profile or config as shown in the documentation.

Step 2. Write a brief, not "make it pretty"

The main beginner mistake is a request like "make a website for a hair salon". The agent will fill the gaps with guesses and you will have to redo the work. Give facts and constraints:

Build a one-page business-card site for a shoe repair craftsman in Kazan.
Files: index.html, style.css, no frameworks and no external scripts.
Blocks: header with a phone number, services and prices (a 6-row table), reviews (3),
how to find us, a "Call" button (a tel: link).
Colors: navy and white. System font. Responsive layout for phones.
Write the copy yourself, but leave all prices and the phone as placeholders like [PRICE], [PHONE].

Placeholders matter: the model must not invent your phone number and price list. Fill them in yourself later, or ask the agent to insert real data from a list you write in the chat.

Step 3. Check and refine

Open index.html in a browser. For a local address, it is convenient to run this from the project folder:

python3 -m http.server 8000

and open http://localhost:8000. Check three things on a phone (or in the browser's mobile view): is the text readable without zooming, does the call button work, does the table spill past the screen edge. Phrase changes narrowly: "increase the padding in the services table and make the heading bolder", not "improve the design". Short iterations are cheaper and more predictable than big rewrites.

A good habit is a project rules file: text language, a ban on external libraries, the color scheme. How to write it is explained in the article on CLAUDE.md↗. Then you do not need to repeat the constraints in every request.

Step 4. Publishing

A finished folder with index.html and style.css can be uploaded to any static hosting service. Each service has its own buttons and steps, so follow the instructions of the one you choose. Before publishing, read the text once more: the [PRICE] and [PHONE] placeholders must not stay on the page. A quick check is a file search: grep -n "\[" index.html.

Token cost

Assumptions for the example (not measurements, just an estimate for a one-screen site): a session of 20 agent steps, an average of 30,000 input tokens per step, 600,000 input and 40,000 output tokens in total. claude-sonnet-5-5 prices as of October 18, 2026: input 0.4, output 2 dollars per 1M tokens.

Without cache (for example, if the client uses the OpenAI format):

600,000 × 0.4 / 1,000,000 + 40,000 × 2 / 1,000,000 = 0.24 + 0.08 = $0.32.

With prompt caching in the Anthropic format, as in Claude Code. Suppose of the 600,000 input tokens, 50,000 are fresh, 500,000 are read from cache and 50,000 are written to cache. Cache prices: read 0.05, write 0.5:

50,000 × 0.4 / 1M + 500,000 × 0.05 / 1M + 50,000 × 0.5 / 1M + 40,000 × 2 / 1M = 0.02 + 0.025 + 0.025 + 0.08 = $0.15.

Five such sessions for a site with several rounds of edits come to between $0.75 and $1.60. With deepseek-v4.1-flash (0.013 / 0.038) and no cache: 600,000 × 0.013 / 1M + 40,000 × 0.038 / 1M = 0.0078 + 0.00152 ≈ $0.0093. The price is lower, but results on agent tasks differ between models, so compare them on your own task before switching. The current price list is at GET https://api.zukko.pro/v1/models.

A working order that saves money: a clear brief first, then narrow edits instead of long dialogues where the history keeps growing. More on agent sessions: what an hour of agent work really costs↗.

FAQ

Can I build a site with a neural network completely for free?

Not completely: the model's work is paid per token. But by the estimate above a business-card site costs on the order of a dollar or two in tokens, and several services offer free hosting for static pages. Check the terms with those services.

Do I need to know programming?

Basic understanding helps: opening a file, starting a local server, checking the result. You do not have to write code yourself, but you will have to verify what came out.

What if the agent keeps redoing everything and spends a lot?

Stop the session, phrase the change more precisely and limit the scope: name the file and the block. A key limit in the dashboard (daily and monthly, in dollars) protects your balance from surprises.

Will this work for an online store?

A store needs a cart, payment and a product database. That is server-side work and will be noticeably more expensive and complex than a business card. Start with a simple site and grow gradually.