Price your AI automation work without leaving money on the table
Project floor, value-based range, monthly retainer — all in one quote. Stop guessing, start sending real proposals.
Honest estimate. Double it if you're new to the integration.
What it costs you (or your team) per hour — not what you charge.
60–70% is standard for productized services.
$ saved + $ won + hours back × their hourly cost, in year 1.
Recommended project price
$14,063
Effective rate $234/hr
Monthly retainer
$1,750
8h/mo + $250 passthrough
Conservative
$8,000
Realistic
$14,000
Aggressive
$20,000
Value-based range = 10–25% of year-1 client value. Anchor higher when ROI is provable.
Never quote below this number — that's the floor that keeps margin intact.
Solid quote. Value-based mid pulls above your floor — you're capturing real value without overreaching.
Complexity is doing the work. Make sure the multiplier matches the actual integration / procurement reality, not optimism.
- Internal cost = hours × internal hourly
- Project floor = (internal cost ÷ (1 − margin %)) × complexity
- Value-based range = client annual value × 10% to 25%
- Recommended = max(project floor, value-based mid)
- Retainer = (retainer hours × internal hourly) ÷ (1 − margin %) + monthly API cost
Common questions
Project price vs value-based — which should I quote?▾
Quote value-based whenever you can prove the dollar outcome ($ saved, $ won, hours back × hourly cost). Use project-floor pricing as the safety net so you never go below cost.
What's a defensible value-based percentage?▾
10–25% of the first-year value created. 10% for commoditized work, 25% for novel automations with clear, attributable ROI. Below 10% you're underselling, above 25% you'll need to justify hard.
How do I price a retainer?▾
Estimate ongoing maintenance hours × internal cost, divide by (1 − target margin), then add monthly API/software passthrough. Most healthy retainers land between $2k–$8k for SMB AI automation.
What is the complexity multiplier doing?▾
It accounts for unpredictable scope. Simple = boilerplate (1.0). Moderate = integration risk (1.25). Complex = custom logic + edge cases (1.5). Enterprise = procurement, SLAs, security review (2.0).