Cost and quotes
What AI costs a small business
and how to read the quote you were sent
I do not publish a rate card, because two offices of the same size can need completely different builds. What I can explain is how a quote is put together.
It depends on the unit you are being charged in, and nobody tells you that first. AI work is quoted in several different units, and two quotes in different units cannot be compared until you convert them both into the same scope.
There are no figures on this page, including mine. A number with no scope attached is worse than no number, because it sets an expectation the work then has to be squeezed into. What follows is the unit, what moves the price inside each unit, what a quote should list before you sign it, and how to put two quotes that look nothing alike onto one sheet of paper.
The unit comes before the number
Time, a whole project, a monthly fee for every person, or a fee for every message handled. Until you know which one a quote is written in, the number on it means very little.
Scope is the whole argument
Most differences between two quotes are not price differences. One of them included cleaning up your records and training your staff, and the other did not.
Owning and renting are different shapes
A build you own is paid for once. A subscription is paid for every month and grows every time you hire. Neither is automatically cheaper, and it depends on how long you keep it.
My quote follows the audit
I look at how work actually moves through your office first, then quote the build. A quote written before that is a guess dressed as a number. What the audit looks at.
Ask what is not included
Care afterwards, the machine itself, changes once people start using it, and the tidying of records the system has to read. Any of those can be inside a quote or outside it.
The units AI work is quoted in
This is the field as it stands. Every unit here is in use in India today, and each one is honest for some kinds of work and misleading for others.
I charge for advice by the time it takes, and I quote a build for the whole job. There is no monthly software subscription on anything I build, because the software runs on a machine you own.
| Unit | What it means | When it is fair | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| By the hour or the day | You are buying somebody's time | Advice, a review, a workshop, sitting with your team | Nobody can tell you what the finished thing will cost |
| For the whole project | One figure for an agreed scope | A build where the scope is written down and signed | Anything outside the written scope becomes a new quote |
| A monthly fee for every person | Software rented by headcount | Tools your whole company genuinely opens every day | It grows every time you hire, and it never stops |
| A fee for every message or request | You pay by the volume handled | Work with a predictable, countable volume | Your bill rises exactly when business is good |
| Per machine, bought once | Hardware you own and keep | Anything that has to keep running inside your office | It needs somebody to look after it |
What actually moves the number
Two offices with the same headcount can be quoted very differently, and it is almost never about the headcount.
The second item below is the one that surprises owners. A system can only read records that exist. If quotations live in a folder of photographs and attendance is on a register, the tidying up is real work, and it belongs in the quote rather than in a surprise.
- How many systems have to be connected, and whether a program can talk to them at all
- How much of your record keeping is on paper or in somebody's head today
- Whether a machine you already own can do the job, or one has to be bought
- How many people have to be trained, and in how many locations
- Whether the work needs a model trained on your own material, or only the reading of your documents
- How much of the first version you want changed once people have used it
What a quote should list before you sign it
If any of these is missing, ask for it in writing. Not because anybody is being dishonest, but because the argument afterwards is always about one of them.
- Exactly what is being built, named one system at a time
- What is connected to what, and which accounts it needs access to
- Who owns the machine, the code and the data at the end
- What the handover includes, and who is trained
- Whether there is any recurring fee at all, and what stops if it stops
- What happens to the system if the working relationship ends
- The schedule, and what the first working version includes
How to compare two quotes that look nothing alike
Put them side by side and rewrite both in your own words, one line for each thing being delivered. Most of the difference disappears at that point, because you will find that one quote includes work the other left out, and the other carries a recurring fee the first does not have.
- Convert both to the same scope, and cross off anything only one of them delivers
- Separate the one-off part from the part that repeats, and never mix them in one number
- Ask both what you would pay in the second year with no new work
- Ask both who owns the code and the data, and get the answer in writing
- Ask both what is specifically excluded
- Compare the questions each of them asked you before quoting, which tells you who understood the work
Owning it against renting it
A subscription is a small number that never stops and grows with your headcount. A build you own is a larger number that stops. Which one works out lower depends entirely on how many people you have and how long you keep the system, so the honest way to compare them is to work out both shapes for your own business.
I will do that arithmetic with you using your own numbers before you decide, including the case where the answer is that you should keep paying for the subscription. The longer argument is here.
The costs that are in neither quote
Some of the real cost of an AI project never appears on anybody's invoice. It is worth naming before you budget.
None of the costs below is large on its own. Together they are the reason a project that was quoted accurately can still feel more expensive than expected.
- Your own time in the audit, and your team's time answering questions
- Cleaning up records that have to be readable before anything can read them
- The electricity and the space a machine in your office takes up
- Somebody in your team who becomes the person who knows how it works
- The second round of changes, after people have used the first version
How I price it, and why there is no rate card
Advice is charged for the time it takes. A build is quoted for the whole job after the audit, because the audit is what tells either of us what the job is. The quote names the machine, the systems being built, what is connected to what, the handover and the schedule.
Care afterwards is quoted separately and can be stopped without the system stopping, because the system runs on your hardware and your accounts. You can also stop after the audit and take the map and the build list to somebody else. What sits in the room.
Built, not described
Questions people ask
How much does AI automation cost in India?
There is no figure that would be honest without a scope. Advice is charged by the time it takes, and a build is quoted for the whole job after an audit. What moves it is how many systems connect, how much of your record keeping is on paper, and whether a machine has to be bought.
What does it cost to build an AI agent?
It depends on how many systems the Agent has to touch and how clean those records are. An Agent that answers from one folder is a small job. One that reads your records, writes into them and messages people is a bigger one. The quote follows the audit.
Do you charge an hourly rate?
For advice, a review or a workshop, yes, because you are buying time. Builds are quoted for the whole job instead, so you know what the finished thing costs rather than watching a meter run. The audit comes before the build quote.
Is there a monthly fee?
There is no monthly software subscription for the systems I build. The software runs on a machine you own. If you want me to look after it afterwards, that is quoted separately and you can stop it without the system stopping.
Why will you not publish a price list?
Because two offices of the same size can need completely different builds, so a published number would be either meaningless or a ceiling the work gets squeezed into. I would rather look at your work first and give you one number you can rely on.
Is building cheaper than paying for software every month?
It is a different shape. You pay once for a build instead of monthly for every person, so the sum depends on your headcount and how long you keep it. I will work out both shapes with your own numbers, including the case where the subscription wins.
What is usually left out of a lower quote?
Cleaning up the records the system has to read, training the people who will use it, the machine itself, and the round of changes after the first version is used. Ask each quote what it excludes, and compare those two answers rather than the two numbers.
Next step