What a custom AI agent costs

We quote one fixed price per custom build, after a scope call, tied to a written scope document. What follows is the floor, the range a typical build lands in, and the things that move it.

By Saravanan Periyasamy. Last updated .

Products

  • Sella. Your next ad campaign, decided for you. For Shopify and D2C stores. Free brief, then $49 a month See Sella pricing

How much does a custom AI agent cost?

A custom AI agent build starts at $12,000 and typically lands between $15,000 and $60,000, quoted as one fixed price in writing before any build work begins. Where it lands depends mostly on how many systems the agent touches and how much of the workflow is edge cases. A discovery engagement, for workflows that cannot be scoped yet, costs $2,500.

What you are buyingPrice
Minimum build$12,000
Typical build$15,000-$60,000
Scoping discovery, if needed$2,500

We do not quote below $12,000, which is what a month of delivery costs. Even a build that ships in three weeks takes a month of the schedule once scoping, the written quote and handover are counted, so the month is the smallest unit we can commit to rather than a figure we arrived at by marking something up. If your budget is below it we would rather tell you here than on a call, and what usually fits at that level is a smaller intervention than an agent.

What Moves The Number

Why two agents that sound alike quote differently

Every quote comes out of the scope call, and these are the five things we are actually measuring while we are on it.

The workflow

How many systems it touches
One integration against a documented API is a different build from four, and a system with no API at all is different again. This is usually the single largest input, and it is the thing most often understated on a first call.
Whether the decision logic is written down
If your team can already describe how the judgment gets made, we build against that. If it lives in one person's head, someone has to get it out first, and that work is real whether we do it or you do.
How much of the workflow is edge case
The happy path is rarely the expensive part. A workflow where 10% of cases are exceptions costs less than one where 40% are, because each exception is its own decision to specify and test.

The stakes

What a wrong answer costs
An agent that drafts a reply needs less scaffolding than one whose output a regulator may read. Audit trails, evaluation harnesses, human checkpoints and shadow-mode calibration are engineering, and regulated work carries more of all four.
How much of it must be right on day one
A build that can ship narrow and widen with real usage costs less than one that has to handle the full surface at go-live. Where the workflow allows it, we will propose the narrower version.

Everything up to a working agent in your systems

The quoted figure covers scoping, the written scope document, the build, weekly working reviews you can run real inputs through, integration into the tools you already use, and thirty days of hypercare tuning after go-live. It is one number, agreed before any code is written, and we are held to it.

Two things sit outside it. A scope change large enough to need more engineering gets a short written add-on quote before we proceed, never a silent absorption or a refusal. And ongoing tuning after the hypercare window is billed separately, only if you want it.

If the workflow is not scopeable yet

Some workflows cannot be quoted because nobody has written down how the decisions get made. Where that is the case we will propose a separately priced discovery engagement at $2,500 to document it, and you are free to take that document to anyone. We will not quote a fixed price against something nobody can describe.

Before you ask for a quote

Why don't you bill hourly?
Because an hourly engagement pays us for the time it takes rather than for finishing, and that quietly rewards us for the project lasting longer. A fixed price puts the estimation risk on us, which is where it belongs, and gives you a number you can plan against. The full argument is on the about page.
It looks expensive. Compared with what?
Compare it with what the task costs today: the hours your team spends on it each month, what those hours cost, over a year. We work that figure out with you on the scope call. If a build would not pay for itself, we will say so there rather than quote it.
What if the build takes longer than you estimated?
That is our problem, not yours. If the build takes longer because our estimate was wrong, we absorb the extra time. The price you agreed is the price.
Can you give me a rough number before the scope call?
Usually yes, and it will be a wide one. Describe the workflow, the systems it touches and roughly how often the awkward cases come up, and we will tell you which part of the range you are in and whether it is worth a call. What we will not do is turn that into a firm number before we understand the workflow, because a firm number we cannot stand behind is worse than no number.
Do you charge for the scope call?
No. The call and the written quote that follows it are free and carry no obligation. The separately priced discovery engagement is a different thing, and we only propose it when the workflow genuinely cannot be specified yet.
Is there a payment schedule?
Engagements are split across an agreement to start and a payment on delivery, with the split written into the scope document. Longer builds add a midpoint. Nothing is billed against time.

Think your workflow is above the floor?

Describe what it does today and we'll tell you which part of the range it lands in, or that it doesn't need us. Either answer costs you a call and nothing else.

Book a scope call