AI product cost estimator Price your AI product. Get it built at $0.
$0 is when you pay, not what you pay. The build is split into checkpoints with acceptance criteria agreed before work starts, and each checkpoint is invoiced only after you have seen it and accepted it.
Start from a package, then open any layer to pick the exact stack: agents, voice, a private LLM, the database, the cloud. The build cost, timeline and monthly running cost move as you choose.
- 20+enterprise clients on AccioMatrix, built solo
- 2.5¢a minute for voice AI, measured in production
- $50K+what a US agency quotes for the same MVP
Start with a package
Every package is built at $0 to start: you pay per checkpoint, only after you accept it. Pick the closest one, then tune any layer below.
Production architecture, tests on the risky paths, monitoring, and a handover your team can run.
Tune every layer
Open any layer to choose features and stack. Stack picks are included; features move the price.
Your plan
How you pay for it, what it costs to run once it is live, and what the same scope costs elsewhere.
Build at $0. Pay across 4 checkpoints.
Each checkpoint has acceptance criteria written down before work starts, and is invoiced only after you have seen it and accepted it.
- 0Before work startsScope and acceptance criteria$0
A call, then a written plan: every checkpoint with acceptance criteria you agree to before work starts.
- 1By week 1Architecture and first flow$2,400 to $4,500
Data model, service boundaries and one real flow working end to end.
- 2By week 4Core product$3,600 to $7,000
The main flows on production architecture, with a demo at the end of every week.
- 3By week 6AI on your real data$3,600 to $7,000
Models, agents or voice working on real inputs, with evals and guardrails in place.
- 4By week 7Launch and handover$2,400 to $4,500
Deployed on your accounts and documented, with 30 days of defect correction included.
List prices, before any startup credits. Move the sliders to your own numbers.
A few AI requests per user each working day.
- Hosting and databaseVercel + managed services, sized for 1,000 monthly users$45 to $120
- Model usageClaude Sonnet 5, 60 requests per user a month$360 to $900
- Email, monitoring, analyticsFree tiers cover most products at launch$0 to $150
At this usage the API would cost $360 to $900 a month, less than 1 x A100 80GB running around the clock ($1,150 to $1,350). Go private for data that cannot leave your network, not to save money.
How a private deployment worksWhat you would be quoted
Published market prices for a production MVP, scaled to the size of your configuration.
- US agency$51K to $152KUsually 40 to 50% of it before a line is written
- Offshore agency$21K to $61K
- Freelancer marketplace$5K to $26KContinuity risk sits with you
- Two in-house engineers$26KUS median wage for 5 weeks, before benefits, recruiting and the months hiring takes
- Axionry$12K to $23K$0 to start. Each checkpoint invoiced after you accept it
How we calculate this
Build prices are anchored to our published pricing: a working demo from $1,000, a launch-ready MVP from $12,000, an AI-first MVP from $22,000, an AI feature inside an existing product from $10,000, a voice agent from $12,000 and an AI data analyst from $6,000. Each package reproduces its published starting price at the low end of its range, and every option you add is priced on the same scale.
A demo is priced at 12% of the launch-ready build, and enterprise-grade at 130%. Security, compliance and private model work cost the same at every depth. Timelines assume one senior engineer for the first six weeks and a second one after that, plus a week of assessment when a private model or your own database is involved.
Running costs use list prices. Model rates come from LiveKit's inference rate card (checked 27 Aug 2026) and Anthropic's Claude pricing (checked 23 Sep 2026). Usage assumes 2,500 input and 500 output tokens a request, 3,000 more input tokens when answers draw on your documents or database, and agents multiplying tokens by 2.5 to 10. The range runs from 60% to 150% of that. GPUs run from RunPod's on-demand price to the median across 84 providers on GetDeploying, for 730 hours a month. Hosting starts from Vercel Pro ($20) and Supabase Pro (from $25) and grows with users. Voice at 2.5¢ a minute is our measured production cost; managed platforms are at their published rates.
Market prices come from our research on what an MVP costs in 2026: US agencies $50,000 to $150,000, offshore agencies $20,000 to $60,000 and freelancers $5,000 to $25,000 for a production MVP with sign in, billing and one AI feature, scaled in proportion to your scope. In-house uses the BLS median wage for software developers, $135,980 in May 2025. An estimate is not a quote: your price is fixed in writing before work starts.
Everything in this estimate
- Product surface
- Web appFocused, up to 8 screensProven UI kit, in your brandNext.jsshadcn/ui + Tailwind
- Backend and APIs
- Node.js + TypeScriptModular monolithREST + OpenAPI
- Data and databases
- PostgreSQL
- AI features
- Chat assistant or copilotClaude Sonnet 5Direct SDK calls
- Private LLM
- Vendor API
- Cloud and DevOps
- Vercel + managed servicesStartup cloud credits
- SaaS essentials
- Email and social loginSubscriptionsAdmin panelProduct analyticsEmail notifications
Send me this estimate
I reply within a day with a checkpoint plan for this exact scope, and I will tell you if part of it is not worth building yet.
How much does it cost to build an AI product in 2026?
From about $1,000 for a demo you can click through in days, to $12,000 for a launch-ready MVP with one AI feature, to $22,000 and up for an AI-first product with agents and RAG at the core. A US agency quotes $50,000 to $150,000 for a production MVP.
The spread is scope, not quality. Every package here is a real starting point from our published pricing, and the estimator above shows exactly what moves each one. For the market side of the same question, read how much an MVP costs in 2026.
| Package | Estimate | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Demo in days Web app with sign in, One AI feature, Live on a real URL | $1,000 to $1,900 | 3 to 6 working days |
| Launch-ready MVP Sign in, billing, admin, analytics, One AI feature, Deployed on your accounts | $12,000 to $22,500 | 3 to 7 weeks |
| AI-first product Chat and answers from your data, A tool-using agent over MCP, Evals and tracing | $22,000 to $43,500 | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Voice AI agent Inbound calls, 24 hours a day, Warm transfer to a person, Recordings, transcripts, QA | $12,000 to $23,500 | 3 to 7 weeks |
| AI data analyst Read-only replica, no writes, Semantic layer for one domain, Validated SQL, cited numbers | $6,000 to $13,000 | 3 to 5 weeks |
| Private AI platform Open-weights model on vLLM, SSO, audit log, admin, LLM security review | $32,500 to $65,500 | 9 to 14 weeks |
| AI in your product Built in your codebase, An assistant grounded in your data, Evals and guardrails | $10,000 to $21,000 | 3 to 6 weeks |
- Demo in daysWeb app with sign in, One AI feature, Live on a real URL$1,000 to $1,9003 to 6 working days
- Launch-ready MVPSign in, billing, admin, analytics, One AI feature, Deployed on your accounts$12,000 to $22,5003 to 7 weeks
- AI-first productChat and answers from your data, A tool-using agent over MCP, Evals and tracing$22,000 to $43,5006 to 10 weeks
- Voice AI agentInbound calls, 24 hours a day, Warm transfer to a person, Recordings, transcripts, QA$12,000 to $23,5003 to 7 weeks
- AI data analystRead-only replica, no writes, Semantic layer for one domain, Validated SQL, cited numbers$6,000 to $13,0003 to 5 weeks
- Private AI platformOpen-weights model on vLLM, SSO, audit log, admin, LLM security review$32,500 to $65,5009 to 14 weeks
- AI in your productBuilt in your codebase, An assistant grounded in your data, Evals and guardrails$10,000 to $21,0003 to 6 weeks
Six things decide what an AI product costs
Surfaces
Every platform is its own build. A web app is the cheapest place to start; a mobile or desktop app on top roughly doubles the front end.
How much the AI does
One well-scoped AI feature costs a few thousand dollars. An agent that plans, calls tools and recovers from its own mistakes costs several times that, and most of it goes into evaluation and guardrails.
Integrations
Every system the product reads from or writes to adds work. Slack is small. Salesforce, NetSuite or an EHR over FHIR are among the largest lines in any estimate.
Compliance
SOC 2, HIPAA and data residency are built into the product, not added before an audit. They cost the same whether v1 is a demo or an enterprise launch.
Where the model runs
A vendor API costs nothing to set up. A private model in your cloud or on your own hardware is a project of its own, plus a monthly GPU bill.
How finished v1 is
A demo costs about an eighth of a launch-ready build and takes days. Enterprise-grade adds load testing, high availability and documentation for a larger team.
What "orchestrated agents with an MCP harness" means in practice
Do you need a private LLM?
Usually not. Self-hosting makes sense in three situations: data that legally or contractually cannot leave your network, inference that already costs five figures a month, or a model version you need pinned for years. Outside those, an API is cheaper and simpler, and we will tell you so.
When it does make sense, it is a project of its own: vLLM serving tuned to your GPU, a private network path with no public exposure, and a validation gate between the model and your users. Read how a private LLM deployment works.
- Small, 8B to 14B1 x L4 24GB$360 to $640a month
- Medium, 27B to 32B1 x A100 80GB$1,150 to $1,350a month
- Large, 70B class2 x H100 80GB$4,200 to $4,900a month
- Frontier open weights8 x H100 80GB$16,900 to $19,500a month
730 hours a month, from RunPod on-demand to the median across 84 providers on GetDeploying, checked 23 September 2026. Running only in working hours cuts that by about 70%.
Get your AI product built at $0.
That is not a discount. It is when you pay. The work is split into checkpoints with acceptance criteria written down before anything starts, and each checkpoint is invoiced only after you have seen it and accepted it. No deposit.
- $0 to start
- You hold every dollar until a checkpoint is delivered and you accept it. No approval, no invoice.
- Fixed cost, unlimited features
- Or hire the team outright: one fixed monthly cost, unlimited feature development, any stack.
- The engineer takes your call
- The person on your first call is the one who architects and writes it. No account managers, no bench time.
A US agency quotes $50,000 to $150,000 for the same build and asks for 40 to 50% of it before a line is written. Account managers, project managers, sales commission and bench time. None of it appears in your product.
Related services, tools and reading
Common
questions.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask on a 20-minute call.
How much does it cost to build an AI app?+
With Axionry, a clickable demo starts around $1,000, a launch-ready MVP with sign in, billing, admin and one AI feature starts around $12,000, and an AI-first product with an agent and RAG at its core starts around $22,000. US agencies quote $50,000 to $150,000 for a production MVP. What moves the price is scope: surfaces, AI depth, integrations and compliance.
How much does an MVP cost in 2026?+
A demo you can click through costs from about $1,000 and takes 3 to 6 working days. A launch-ready MVP runs $12,000 to $22,500 over 3 to 7 weeks. For the same production MVP, US agencies quote $50,000 to $150,000, offshore agencies $20,000 to $60,000 and freelancers $5,000 to $25,000.
How long does it take to build an AI product?+
A demo takes 3 to 6 working days. A launch-ready MVP takes 3 to 7 weeks, an AI-first product 6 to 10 weeks, and a private AI platform 9 to 14 weeks, including a week of assessment. Timelines assume one senior engineer for the first six weeks and a second one after that.
What does an AI app cost to run each month?+
At launch, hosting and a database start around $45 a month at list price: Vercel Pro at $20 and Supabase Pro from $25. Model usage is usually the line that grows fastest. A thousand users on Claude Sonnet 5, each making a few AI requests a working day, runs a few hundred dollars a month, and a small model like GPT-5.6 Luna cuts that roughly tenfold. A private model on one A100 80GB costs about $1,150 to $1,350 a month around the clock.
Do I need a private LLM?+
Usually not. Self-hosting makes sense when data legally or contractually cannot leave your network, when inference already costs five figures a month, or when you need a model version pinned for years. Otherwise an API is cheaper and simpler, and we will say so.
Should a voice agent use a custom stack or a managed platform?+
Below about 20,600 minutes a month, a managed platform like Retell or Vapi is usually the right call. Above it, a custom LiveKit stack at 2.5¢ a minute, against 11 to 12¢ on the managed platforms, pays for its build quickly.
Do I pay anything upfront?+
No. The build is split into checkpoints with acceptance criteria agreed before work starts, and each checkpoint is invoiced only after you have seen it and accepted it. Your first payment follows the first piece of work you have accepted.
Is this estimate a quote?+
No. It is a range built from our published prices. Your price is fixed in writing after a 20-minute call, before any work starts.
Can I choose my own stack?+
Yes. Frameworks, databases and models are included because the choice rarely changes the build price. Scope is what moves it. If a choice will cost you later, we will say so on the call.
Turn this estimate into a fixed price.
Twenty minutes, straight to the engineer. No sales rep, no deck.