How Much Does AI Software Development Cost?

What drives the cost

Most of the cost is engineering around the model, not the model itself.

• Scope — how many workflows, users and screens
• Integrations — each connected system (CRM, ERP, email, telephony) adds work
• Data — cleaning, structuring and securing documents or records
• Reliability — evaluation, guardrails, approvals and monitoring
• Deployment — hosting, private models or data-residency requirements
• Support — improvements and maintenance after launch

Indicative ranges by project type

These are broad, indicative ranges seen for focused scopes built by experienced offshore teams. They are not a quote — your estimate depends on the drivers above.

• AI proof of concept for one workflow: roughly $2,500–$10,000
• Production AI chatbot or RAG knowledge assistant: roughly $5,000–$25,000
• AI agent with several business-system integrations: roughly $10,000–$40,000+
• AI-powered SaaS MVP: roughly $15,000–$60,000+

Running costs

After launch you pay for model usage (priced per volume of text or audio processed), hosting, monitoring and support. Usage costs scale with volume, so we estimate them from your expected traffic and design to keep them predictable — for example with caching and smaller models for simple steps.

How to keep the first phase affordable

Start with one workflow, prove value with real users and expand. A narrow pilot with clear success measures is cheaper and less risky than a broad platform built on assumptions.

Frequently asked questions