In Ukraine, a four-year bachelor’s degree costs about as much as four years of a $100-a-month AI subscription. For an eighteen-year-old that is now a single budget — and an awkward question about where to spend it.
I ran a slightly provocative bit of math. For many 18–20-year-olds this is not an abstract comparison but a real choice: spend four years paying for an education — or spend four years paying for AI and building something the whole time.
In short. A Computer Science contract at Kyiv Polytechnic (KPI) is UAH 219,600 for the bachelor’s, about $5,300. A $100-a-month AI subscription over the same four years is $4,800. In the US the cheapest university option is $47,800, so AI does not compete with a degree for the budget there: you can have both. In Ukraine it does compete. A university gives you a foundation AI does not guarantee on its own; daily practice gives you results a diploma does not guarantee. Together is strongest. If you have to pick one, the answer is no longer obvious.
What a Ukrainian university costs, and what AI costs
In Ukraine a four-year contract and a four-year AI subscription are nearly equal: the gap is a few hundred dollars. I used KPI, one of the country’s main technical universities, as the reference point.
| Over 4 years | UAH | USD (≈ 41.5 UAH/$) |
|---|---|---|
| KPI, Computer Science, tuition contract | 219,600 | ≈ $5,300 |
| KPI, Software Engineering | 259,600 | ≈ $6,250 |
| AI subscription, $100 a month | — | $4,800 |
KPI prices are for the 2025/2026 academic year: UAH 54,900 and 64,900 a year (RBC-Ukraine, citing KPI). A master’s adds another year or year and a half, so the full cycle costs more — but the order of magnitude holds.
What counts for more: a diploma or four years of practice
One person studies for four years and hopes the diploma will later convert into results. Another spends the same four years building something every day with AI agents:
writing code;
designing systems;
building products;
launching websites;
automating businesses;
making things even outside software.
And this is where an uncomfortable thought comes in: I am not at all sure the first one will be better placed four years later.
You can spend four years attending lectures and passing exams and learn almost nothing you can actually apply. Or you can spend the same four years designing, testing, shipping, getting things wrong and moving on — every day.
What AI will not give you instead of a university
None of this means a university is unnecessary. Quite the opposite: it gives you what AI on its own does not guarantee — mathematics, the fundamental sciences, systems thinking, a foundation.
An AI agent speeds up someone who understands what they are building. Without a foundation it is easy to build the wrong thing very quickly — and not notice. But a foundation alone does not guarantee results either: knowledge that never gets put to work has faded by graduation.
Why the US does not face this choice
In the US an AI subscription barely competes with a university for the budget: $4,800 over four years is a tenth of the cheapest option.
| Over 4 years | Per year | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Public university, in-state | $11,950 | $47,800 |
| Public university, out-of-state | $31,880 | $127,520 |
| Private nonprofit | $45,000 | $180,000 |
| AI subscription, $100 a month | $1,200 | $4,800 |
These are average published tuition and fees for 2025/2026, excluding housing and financial aid, per College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2025.
So there you can simply take university + AI + practice from day one. And that combination is most likely to produce the most interesting results.
Which works better over the next four to five years
In Ukraine’s circumstances the question is no longer obvious. The two extremes look like this:
Get a classic education, but barely use AI agents.
Go all in on AI, build constantly, but without a solid grounding in the fundamental sciences.
Both have a weak spot, and each has its own. The best option is to combine the foundation with the practice. And if you have to choose, what decides it is neither the diploma nor the subscription, but whether you build something every day.
Which would you choose?