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AlgoEdge
Automated PNL reporting platform for Tradetron Creators — real-time MTM tracking, drawdown alerts, and Telegram summaries
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United States
How Much Does AI Automation Cost?
What US businesses actually pay to automate a process, what makes the number move, and how to work out whether it pays for itself before you commit.
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The short answer
How Much Does AI Automation Cost?
Automating one business process typically runs $2,000–$15,000 from a US automation agency, $15,000–$80,000 from an enterprise consultancy, and $500–$3,000 from a no-code freelancer who will hit a ceiling quickly. What moves the number is how many systems have to talk to each other, whether any step needs real judgement rather than a rule, and whether your existing software has a usable API. Our prices are $499 for one process end to end, $1,499 for a whole department and $3,499 for company-wide builds with custom software behind them.
Figures last reviewed
What the US market charges
Who you hire changes the number more than what you buy
The same brief costs wildly different amounts depending on who builds it. Here's the honest spread.
| Who you hire | Typical cost | What that actually means |
|---|---|---|
| No-code freelancer (Zapier/Make) | $500 – $3,000 | Fine for a simple two-app trigger. Hits a hard ceiling on judgement steps, volume pricing and anything needing a database. |
| US automation agency | $5,000 – $25,000 | The common range for one department's processes. You're paying US engineering salaries plus account management. |
| Enterprise consultancy | $40,000 – $250,000+ | Discovery phases, change-management workstreams, multiple stakeholders. Priced for companies with a transformation budget. |
| In-house hire | $95,000 – $160,000 / year | An automation engineer's US salary before benefits. Makes sense past a certain volume, rarely below it. |
| Mana Studio | $499 – $3,499+ | Priced after a free audit. Same senior engineers, without US overhead. |
US agency figures below are typical market ranges for comparable scope — what businesses tell us they were quoted, and what US agencies publish on their own pricing pages. They are not quotes from any named firm, and your own quotes may fall outside them. Our prices are published and confirmed in writing before any work starts.
What drives the price
The things that actually move the number
If two quotes are far apart, the difference is almost always hiding in one of these rows.
| What drives it | Costs less | Costs more |
|---|---|---|
| Number of systems involved | Two or three tools that all have modern APIs | Six systems including legacy software with no API |
| Judgement in the process | Rules you can write down completely | Steps needing a model to read, classify or decide |
| Data quality going in | Structured records in consistent formats | Scanned PDFs, free-text email, inconsistent supplier formats |
| Volume and reliability needs | Dozens of runs a day, an hour's delay is fine | Thousands an hour, with real-time and failover requirements |
| Compliance requirements | Internal admin work, no regulated data | HIPAA, SOC 2 or financial data with full audit trails |
| How well the process is understood | Someone can walk us through it in one call | Every person does it differently and nobody has written it down |
What each budget buys
What you actually get at each level
Our published tiers, and what's genuinely inside each one.
$499
One process automated end to end, connecting up to 3 tools, with an AI step for classification or extraction, failure alerts, and 30 days of tuning. Live in about 2 weeks.
Best for Proving the idea on the process your team complains about most.
$1,499
Up to 5 connected workflows covering a whole department, unlimited tool connections, custom AI steps trained on your documents, a savings dashboard, approval gates and 60 days of tuning.
Best for Finance, operations or customer onboarding, done properly.
$3,499
Unlimited workflows across departments, custom backend where no tool fits, two-way CRM or ERP sync, role-based access, audit logging and a staged rollout.
Best for Teams past what off-the-shelf automation tools can carry.
Our pricing
AI Automation — what we charge
Every price here is published.
Starter
Starter Automation
One high-volume process automated end to end — the one your team complains about most.
$499one-time
- Free process audit before we quote
- 1 workflow, start to finish
- Connects up to 3 of your existing tools
- AI step for classification or extraction
- Failure alerts to email or Slack
- Live in 2 weeks
- 30 days of tuning after launch
Most Popular
Business Automation
A whole department's manual work removed — usually finance, ops or customer onboarding.
$1,499one-time
- Up to 5 connected workflows
- Unlimited tool connections
- Custom AI steps trained on your documents
- A dashboard showing what ran and what saved
- Human approval gates where you want them
- Live in 3–5 weeks
- 60 days of tuning after launch
- Team training session included
Advanced
Custom Automation Suite
Company-wide automation with custom software behind it, for teams past what off-the-shelf tools can do.
$3,499from
- Unlimited workflows across departments
- Custom backend where no tool fits
- Two-way sync with your CRM or ERP
- Role-based access and full audit logging
- Staged rollout, department by department
- Timeline quoted after the audit
- 90 days of support, then optional retainer
Pay byWire / ACH transferCredit card (Stripe)PayPalZelleWise— invoiced in USD
Our Work
Real websites and apps we've shipped
Every one of these is live right now — click through and judge the work yourself.
Car Service
JustFix Automotive
Designed and built a fast, user-friendly website for JustFix Automotive, a trusted mechanic workshop in Sunshine North, VIC. We executed a comprehensive on-page and technical SEO strategy optimizing site speed, local schema, and service-page architecture—to boost search rankings, capture high-intent local traffic, and drive online service bookings.
NEXT JSHOSTINGTAILWINDMONGODB
Logistics website
Dwaraka Packers & Movers – Sirisilla
After the successful launch of the first website, the client partnered with Mana Studio again to develop a dedicated website for their Sirisilla branch.
Next.jsReact.jsJavaScript (ES6+)HTML5
logistics website
Dwaraka Packers and Movers
A modern, SEO-optimized website designed and developed by Mana Studio for a professional packers and movers company. From UI/UX design to full-stack development, we built a fast, mobile-friendly, and conversion-focused website that helps generate leads, build customer trust, and strengthen the brand's online presence.
Next.js React.js JavaScript (ES6+) HTML5 CSS3
Automotive PWA
Sri Laxmi Carz
Pre-owned car dealership platform for a trusted dealer in Warangal — live inventory browsing, certified listings, and an installable PWA with offline access and instant new-arrival notifications
Next.jsPWASEOPush Notifications
Job Portal
Sarkari Job Samachar
Comprehensive job portal for government job seekers with real-time updates and notifications
Next.jsAppwriteSEOContent Management
Why us
What you're actually buying
Not just the deliverable — the way the project runs.
Fixed scope, not an hourly meter
One number agreed before we start, quoted in USD against a written scope. No hourly billing, no change-order for work that was always in scope.
We work your hours
Daily overlap with US Eastern, Central and Pacific. Calls at 9am your time, not 9am ours.
Fluent English, direct access
You talk to the people building it — no account manager relay, no translation gap.
NDA signed before you share anything
Send yours or use ours, signed same-day at no cost. Your idea, code and data stay yours.
Prices in writing
A dated proposal with scope, milestones and the final number. No hourly meter.
You own everything, always
Code, designs, hosting, domains and logins handed over in full. Nothing is locked to us.
FAQ
AI Automation Cost — your questions answered
How do I work out if automation is worth it for us?+
Take the hours the process consumes each week, multiply by the loaded hourly cost of whoever does it, and annualise. A process eating 8 hours a week at $30/hour is roughly $12,500 a year. Against our $499 build fee plus running costs, that pays back in weeks. If your number doesn't clear the build cost inside a year, the honest answer is don't automate it yet — and we'll tell you that on the call.
Why is there such a huge spread between quotes?+
Because 'automation' covers everything from a Zapier trigger to a custom platform. The other reason is discovery: some quotes assume your process is already documented and some include mapping it. Get every quote to state how many workflows, how many systems, whether AI steps are included, what happens with exceptions, and whether discovery is in the price.
What ongoing costs should I budget for?+
Three things: AI model usage that scales with volume ($20–$300/month for most SMB builds), any automation platform subscription, and occasional maintenance when a third-party API changes. Our build fee is one-time and we bill third-party costs to your own accounts with no markup, so you can see exactly what you're paying for.
Is it cheaper to hire someone in-house?+
Past a certain volume, yes — an automation engineer at $95k–$160k makes sense if you have a continuous pipeline of work for them. Below that you're paying a full salary for occasional projects. Most SMBs are better off buying the builds they need and owning the output, which is why we hand over every workflow and account.
Can we start small?+
Yes, and we'd recommend it. Start with one process at $499, watch it run for a month, then decide. Any vendor pushing you into a company-wide programme before you've seen one thing work is managing their revenue, not your risk.
What if the automation breaks?+
Every workflow we build has failure alerting, so you find out from the system rather than from a customer. Anything the automation isn't confident about is routed to a person instead of guessed at. Your build includes 30–90 days of tuning depending on tier, and after that fixes are quoted individually — there's no mandatory retainer.
Do we need to change our software?+
Almost never, and we'd usually advise against it. We build on what you already pay for. Migrations are expensive and disruptive, and the software is rarely the actual problem — the manual handoffs between systems usually are.
Free consultation
Want a real number for your project?
Free 30-minute call, a quote in 24 hours, and an honest answer about whether we're the right fit.
Prefer to talk now? +91 86885 48048 — we call US numbers back same day.