Pricing - AI automation

What AI Automation Actually Costs in 2026

At our published rates, a single workflow automation costs 1,500 to 4,000 euros. A production AI agent runs 4,000 to 12,000 euros to build. A RAG knowledge system lands between 6,000 and 20,000 euros, and a full platform starts around 10,000 and passes 40,000. Then the second bill arrives. Running costs sit anywhere from 200 to 5,000 euros a month, and that number decides whether the project survives year two.

Those bands come from real projects. Digiton runs production agents and automations across 8 countries, and the spread between quotes is wide for a reason. Two chatbot briefs that sound identical on a call can end up 3x apart in price once someone counts the integrations.

Market-wide, the ranges stretch further. A hardened single-task agent goes for 8,000 to 15,000 euros. Multi-step agents run 15,000 to 35,000. Complex multi-agent systems reach 60,000 to 250,000 euros or more. For a first agent, budget 5,000 to 20,000 euros for the build plus a few hundred a month to run it.

What actually moves the price

Six drivers explain most of the spread.

Model choice is the quiet one. Pick the wrong model for a high-volume task and monthly spend moves by 5x to 20x. Good monitoring pulls it back down, cutting running costs 30 to 60 percent without hurting output quality. Maintenance is the line everyone forgets. Plan 10 to 20 percent of the build cost per year, every year, or watch the agent rot.

The full agency price list

This is the pricing we publish for Portugal in 2026. It maps cleanly to most EU markets.

We price per outcome after a free audit. Fixed scope, tied to a result. Hourly billing rewards slow work, so we dropped it.

Two rows in that table need context. The agent operations retainer starts at 1,500 euros a month and scales with the number of agents and workflows under management, because the maintenance line further up is real work and somebody has to watch the dashboards. AEO, at 1,000 to 3,000 euros a month, moves with content volume and how contested the target queries are. Fractional CTO work, 2,500 to 6,000 euros, depends on days per month and scope.

Monthly running costs: the second bill

The build is a one-time hit. Running costs compound. Here is what each system class consumes per month once it is live.

That money covers model API usage, hosting, monitoring, and maintenance. Payback follows the same gradient. Single-workflow agents pay for themselves in three to six months. Multi-agent platforms take nine to eighteen months. The bigger the system, the longer the wait.

Build or subscribe

Timelines set the frame. A simple single-task agent ships in one to three weeks. Mid-complexity builds with integrations take four to ten weeks. Complex systems run three months or more. Every one of those weeks is money.

Our own product Parci makes the comparison concrete. Parci prices at 29, 149, and 499 euros a month across three tiers, so the top tier costs 5,988 euros a year, while a comparable custom platform starts at 60,000 euros to build and then burns 3,000 to 10,000 euros a month after launch. Parci generates a full report covering 308 Portuguese municipalities in 47 seconds. Rebuilding that for one firm makes no financial sense. None.

The rule is short. Subscribe when a vertical product already solves the problem. Build when the workflow is genuinely yours and no product covers it. At 5,988 euros a year against a 60,000 euro build, the subscription wins every case where the product actually fits.

A worked ROI example

Our ROI guide uses one formula: ROI = (net benefit - total cost) / total cost x 100.

Run it on a custom agent at the bottom of our band. The build costs 4,000 euros. Running it costs 300 euros a month. Year one totals 7,600 euros. To hit 100 percent ROI inside twelve months, the agent needs to return 15,200 euros. That is about 1,267 euros a month.

Payback works the same way. Our published band for a well-scoped automation is 3 to 9 months. By month nine this project has consumed 6,700 euros, the 4,000 build plus nine months at 300. To break even inside the band, the agent must return roughly 745 euros a month. Price the saved hours at loaded cost, meaning salary plus overhead, usually 1.25 to 1.4x base pay. If the arithmetic cannot clear 745 euros a month, the project fails the band before it starts.

Measurement is the part most buyers skip. Capture a baseline for at least two to four weeks before you deploy, then track the same metrics for 60 to 90 days after go-live so the comparison runs against recorded data instead of somebody's memory of how slow things used to be. Recalculate quarterly. A small business should require payback under 12 months, full stop.

When not to automate

Five situations where the honest answer is no.

The process will not sit still. A baseline needs two to four weeks of stable data. If the workflow changes every month, there is nothing to measure against and no way to prove the agent earned its keep.

The volume is too low. An agent that must return 745 euros a month to break even by month nine has no path there on a task that barely occupies anyone. Low volume kills ROI faster than any technical failure.

Payback lands past 12 months. Our small-business guideline is firm. Under 12 months or do not sign. A platform with a nine-to-eighteen-month payback is a bet for companies that can carry the wait.

A product already covers it. Paying 60,000 euros to rebuild something sold at 149 euros a month is a decision nobody defends in year two. Check the vertical tools first.

Nobody owns maintenance. The recurring bill runs 10 to 20 percent of the build cost per year. No owner, no budget, no build.

The cheapest next step costs almost nothing. An AI readiness audit runs 0 to 500 euros and is often free. It tells you which side of these numbers your workflow lands on before you spend a single euro on the build. Our own deployments across 8 countries started the same way, with a scoped audit and a payback number on paper.

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