The service
By far the main item, and the only one that is really negotiable. It is what the simulator costs: days of work multiplied by a day rate.
For companies
How much does an AI project cost?
A first AI project in an SME costs between €500 and €12,500 excl. VAT to set up, depending on what you automate, the number of tools to connect and what happens if the result is wrong. On top of that come €0 to €400 excl. VAT a month in licences and usage, a recurring cost that is not added to the previous one. Both limits come from the simulator’s scale below, at the reference day rate of €500 excl. VAT: four questions, and you have your order of magnitude, with the calculation in front of you. Nothing to create, no address to give to see the result.
Where do these figures come from?
BENCHMARK
What day rate does this simulator apply?
€500 excl. VAT per day, the “experienced profile” tier of our market grid. It is a benchmark, not a measurement: we publish no rate that a provider has not given us themselves, and almost all profiles in the directory therefore do not show one. The grid, its three tiers and the limits of the exercise are on the day-rate barometer.
The actual rate of an engagement is negotiated privately and can differ widely from this benchmark, in both directions.
The second amount rests on a different basis, and this needs to be said clearly: €100 excl. VAT per day is the rate given by our 4 team members, the only members of the directory to have given a rate. They are our own consultants: their profiles say so, and we do not claim that they represent the market. It is the only one of the two amounts that someone has actually stated; the first remains our market benchmark.
ASSUMPTION
How many days of work should you plan for?
From 1 to 25 days of work depending on the project: 1 to 3 days to automate a repetitive task, 7 to 14 for an agent connected to business tools, surcharges included. To be frank, this workload is set by us, not measured on projects. We do not yet have enough priced offers in the directory to draw an honest statistic from them, and publishing an average built on four quotes would be worse than presenting it as an assumption.
What you get is therefore an order of magnitude to frame a conversation, not a quote. A provider who quotes you double may be perfectly right: they have seen your data, we have not. The day profiles carry priced offers, this scale will be aligned with them and the page will say so.
From €0 to €400 excl. VAT a month depending on the project — nothing for an audit or a training course, which leave no system running, up to €400 for an agent connected to your tools and heavily used. These ranges are orders of magnitude observed on the public prices of model providers, not a reading of your future invoices. They vary by a factor of ten depending on the length of your documents and the model chosen — it is a point to have priced precisely before signing, and a good provider knows how to do it.
What makes up the budget of an AI project?
Three items, and three only: the service — the days of work, the main item and the only one that is really negotiable —, licences and usage paid to the model provider every month, and what comes after, fixes and changes. The first two are not added together: one is paid once, the other every month.
Licences and usage
What you pay the model provider, per request or by subscription. A few tens of euros a month for a first project, more as soon as volume rises. This item is recurring: never add it to the set-up cost.
What comes after
Fixes, unforeseen cases, changes to your tools. Budget for maintenance from the first year: an automation that nobody monitors ends up running empty for months.
What makes the bill for an AI project overrun?
Four causes, in this order: a scope that grows along the way — the first, by far —, data in disarray that has to be put right before starting, a flawed process automated as it is, and nobody to make decisions on the company side. The first three show up at the scoping stage; the fourth is the only one for which you are entirely responsible.
It is the first cause, by far. “While we are at it” doubles a budget without anyone having decided it. A narrow first project, delivered in a few weeks, costs less than a global project and teaches you more.
If your documents are scattered across five places, in four formats, with duplicates, the work of putting them in order comes before the project and is billed. An honest provider tells you so before quoting, not halfway through.
Automating a task that is done badly will do it badly, faster. The simplification beforehand appears on no quote and often accounts for the first days of the engagement.
A project with no contact person who makes decisions drags on, and the days go by in meetings. It is the only source of overrun for which you are entirely responsible.
An order of magnitude does not replace a quote
Describe the project once: we identify the providers whose skills genuinely match it, and you receive their priced proposals.