AI development cost has two parts: a one-time build fee and a monthly running cost. For most small-business jobs the running cost is small, because API tokens are cheap. Reading 1,000 short requests a month on a small model costs about US$0.30 (about ₹27) in tokens. Your build fee depends on the work, so we give a fixed quote after a free consultation.
This guide shows the token maths with official price pages, dated 14 November 2026, so you can estimate the running cost yourself. If you want a quote for your own process, see our AI integration services.
The two parts of AI development cost
| Cost | When you pay | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Build fee | Once, before launch | What you automate, how many systems it must connect to, how messy your data is, and how much testing is needed |
| Running cost | Every month | Token use (the AI provider), hosting, any paid tools it connects to, and the time your staff spend checking results |
| Upkeep | As needed | Prompt changes, new document types, model changes and fixes |
The build fee is a project cost. We give a fixed quote after a free consultation, after we understand the process, the systems and the volume.
What a token is
AI models read and write in tokens, which are small pieces of text. A rough rule: one token is a few characters, so a page of English text is a few hundred tokens. Text in Hindi and other Indian languages can need more tokens for the same meaning, so test with your own samples. You pay for tokens going in (your instruction plus the data) and tokens coming out (the answer). Output tokens cost more.
Official token prices (checked 14 Nov 2026)
These are list prices per 1 million tokens, in US dollars, checked on the providers’ own pages on 14 November 2026. Prices change, so check the pages before you budget.
| Model | Input per 1M tokens | Output per 1M tokens | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 (prompts up to 100,000 tokens; longer prompts cost more) | US$0.10 | US$0.50 | Anthropic pricing |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | US$2 | US$10 | Anthropic pricing |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | US$4 | US$20 | Anthropic pricing |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | US$0.10 | US$0.40 | Google Gemini API pricing |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | US$0.30 | US$2.50 | Google Gemini API pricing |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | US$1.50 | US$9.00 | Google Gemini API pricing |
Both providers also offer batch processing at 50% off, for work that can wait. Anthropic bills cached input at a lower rate, too. OpenAI publishes its own token prices on its API pricing page; check it if you want to compare a third provider.
Worked example: what the tokens cost per month
Two made-up workloads show the scale. We convert at ₹90 per US$1 to keep the numbers round. Use the current rate for your own budget.
- Workload A (small): 1,000 requests a month. Each has 1,500 input tokens and 300 output tokens. Think of reading a short email and filing it.
- Workload B (busy): 20,000 requests a month. Each has 3,000 input tokens and 500 output tokens. Think of a team that sorts or summarises every incoming message.
| Model | Workload A per month | Workload B per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | US$0.27 (₹24) | US$10 (₹900) |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | US$0.30 (₹27) | US$11 (₹990) |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | US$1.20 (₹108) | US$43 (₹3,870) |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | US$6 (₹540) | US$220 (₹19,800) |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | US$12 (₹1,080) | US$440 (₹39,600) |
The sum is: (input tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × input price) + (output tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × output price), times the number of requests. For Workload A on Haiku 5.5: 1.5 million input tokens × US$0.10 = US$0.15, plus 0.3 million output tokens × US$0.50 = US$0.15, so US$0.30.
What this shows: for a small business, token cost is rarely the big number. The model you pick moves it by 40 times or more. A small model is often enough for sorting, extracting and drafting. A larger model earns its price on hard reasoning, long documents or tasks where one mistake is costly.
Want these numbers for your own task and volume? Tell us what you want to automate, and we will estimate the monthly running cost alongside the build quote.
Costs people forget
- Long prompts. If you send a 10-page policy with every request, you pay for it each time. Caching and shorter prompts help.
- Retries and checks. A second pass to check the first can double the tokens.
- Documents and images. Files count as tokens too. Test with your real files.
- Hosting and tools. A small server, a database, or a paid tool the automation connects to.
- Human review. Someone must check the flagged cases. Their time can cost more than the tokens.
- Free tiers. Google’s pricing page says free-tier content is used to improve its products, while paid-tier content is not. Use a paid tier for business data.
How to keep the running cost low
- Start with the smallest model that passes your test, then move up only if it fails.
- Use batch processing for work that can wait until the morning.
- Keep the instruction short and send only the data the model needs.
- Cap the length of the answer.
- Send only unclear cases to a bigger model or a person.
- Set a monthly spending limit and an alert on the provider account.
What decides your build fee
We cannot quote from a headline, because two projects with the same name can be very different. These are the questions we ask:
- What do you want to automate, and what does a person do today?
- Which systems must it read from or write to (sheets, email, accounting, your own software)?
- How many items a day, and how many are unusual?
- What must a person always approve?
- How will you know it is right (a test set of your own examples)?
- Who looks after it after launch?
If you want us to build the whole workflow, see our AI automation services. If you are still deciding what to automate first, start with our guide to AI automation for small business. For a view of how this fits custom software pricing, see custom software development cost in India.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build an AI automation for a small business?
It depends on the process, the systems it connects to and the testing needed. We give a fixed quote after a free consultation.
What will I pay each month to run it?
Mostly API tokens, plus hosting and any paid tools it uses. Use the worked example above with your own volume. For a small workload on a small model it can be well under ₹1,000 a month in tokens.
Is a free AI plan enough for a business?
Free tiers can be used for testing. For business data, use a paid tier. Google’s pricing page states that free-tier content is used to improve its products.
Do I need the most powerful model?
Often not. Test a small model on 50 real examples first. Upgrade only if the results are not good enough.
Do prices change?
Yes. Providers update prices and models. We design the automation so the model can be swapped.
Can you add AI to our existing software?
Yes. We connect AI to existing systems. Tell us what you use, and we will explain what is possible.
Tell us what you want to automate
Describe the task, the files and the volume. We will reply after a free consultation with a fixed quote and an estimate of the monthly running cost. Tell us what you want to automate.
