AI vs human cost calculator
Pick a process, set the volume and your team's hourly cost. We model the running cost of both over 24 months, including the setup cost and the share of work that still needs a person.
- ~1 min
- Free · no sign-up
- Runs in your browser
How to use · 4 steps
- 01Pick the processChoose the preset closest to your work. It fills in realistic starting figures you can change.
- 02Set your volume and costMove the sliders to your tasks per month, minutes per task and your team's loaded hourly cost.
- 03Be honest about AI coverageSet how much the AI handles end-to-end. The rest still costs people time — the tool counts it.
- 04Read the breakevenThe chart shows both costs over 24 months. The marker is the month AI becomes cheaper.
Pays back in month 4 and frees roughly 173 hours of team time every month.
- People
- AI system
Hover or tap the chart to read any month. The AI line starts at the setup cost.
No black box.Every step, in plain words.
Results are estimates for planning, based on the figures you enter. They aren't financial advice or a quote.
- 01
Human cost per month = tasks per month × minutes per task ÷ 60 × loaded hourly cost.
- 02
AI cost per month = tasks × AI cost per task + the share of tasks still handled by people + a monthly maintenance allowance.
- 03
The AI line starts at the one-off setup cost. Breakeven is the first month its cumulative cost drops below the human line.
- 04
Preset figures are planning estimates for a typical small or mid-sized team — replace them with your own numbers wherever you have them.
Good to know.
They're planning estimates based on the kinds of systems we scope, not benchmarks from a study. Every figure is editable — the result is only as good as the numbers you put in.
Well-built systems escalate the cases they're unsure about. The 'handled by AI' share models that: the rest still costs human time, and the calculator counts it.
Salary plus the overheads that come with a person — employer taxes, benefits, equipment, software and management time. A common rule of thumb is 1.2–1.4× the base hourly wage.
Keep going.
Automation ROI
Enter a task's frequency, handling time and error cost to see the hours and money you'd recover in a year — and when the build pays for itself.
Build budget & runway
Plan the team, infrastructure and AI usage for a software build and see your monthly burn, how long the budget lasts, and whether it covers the plan.
Manual hours audit
Log the hours your team spends on eight common kinds of manual work and get a ranked list of what to automate first.
Tell us the job thatkeeps coming back.
We'll tell you whether it's worth automating, and what it would take. A founder or senior engineer replies within one working day.