Free Tool
AI Service Pricing Calculator
An AI service has two costs the quote usually forgets: the tool subscription and the usage underneath it. This calculator prices the service with both included — before you quote it.
Planning estimate, not financial advice. All figures on this page are estimates or scenarios for planning purposes only, built from the numbers you enter. They are not financial, tax or legal advice, and no earnings are promised. Read the full financial disclaimer.
What this tool does
Enter the setup hours and your hourly value, the monthly tool subscription the service runs on, the usage cost per client per month, the number of clients sharing the subscription and the margin you want. The calculator returns the setup fee, the monthly fee per client and the margin on each — the three numbers a quote actually needs.
The subscription is split across the clients who share it, because a 20.00 monthly subscription split across one client is a 20.00 cost and split across ten is a 2.00 cost. A service priced for one client and sold to ten is overpriced; a service priced for ten and sold to one loses money. The client count is part of the price.
Try it
Waiting. Fill in the setup, the subscription and the client count, then press Calculate.
How it works
The setup fee is setup hours times the value of your hour. The monthly cost per client is the subscription divided by the clients sharing it, plus the usage cost per client. The monthly fee is that cost divided by one minus the margin — so a 30% margin on a 7.00 cost is a 10.00 fee, not a 9.10 fee, because the margin is a share of the fee, not a markup on the cost.
The margin per client is the fee minus the cost, and the total margin is that figure times the client count. If the client count falls, the subscription share per client rises and the fee must rise with it — re-run the calculator when a client leaves.
Assumptions and limitations
The calculator prices your costs. It cannot price the market.
- Usage is assumed constant per client. If one client uses ten times the others, the average hides it — price heavy users separately, or cap usage in the service terms.
- The subscription is assumed to be one tool. If the service runs on two or three subscriptions, add them together and enter the total — the split works the same way.
- Margin is a share of the fee, not a markup on the cost. A 30% margin means 30% of what the client pays is yours; a 30% markup would be smaller. Quote the fee, not the markup.
- No tax, no payment fees and no support time are included. Add them to the usage cost if they are real — the fee must cover the whole service, not just the tool.
Worked example
Example (illustrative inputs, not a real quote). 12 setup hours at 40, a 20.00 subscription shared by 5 clients, 3.00 usage per client, 30% margin:
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Setup fee | 480.00 |
| Monthly cost per client | 7.00 |
| Monthly fee per client | 10.00 |
| Margin per client | 3.00 |
Frequently asked questions
Why divide the subscription across clients?
Because the subscription is a fixed cost and the clients share it. Splitting it across five clients makes the service cheaper to sell — and honest: a client should not pay the whole subscription when four others use the same tool.
Is a margin the same as a markup?
No. A 30% margin means 30% of the fee is yours; a 30% markup adds 30% to the cost. On a 7.00 cost, a 30% margin gives a 10.00 fee and a 30% markup gives 9.10 — the margin is the bigger number, and it is the one that matters.
What happens to the fee when a client leaves?
It must rise. The subscription share per client goes up as the client count falls — a 20.00 subscription split across 5 is 4.00 each, and across 4 it is 5.00. Re-run the calculator whenever the client count changes.
Should the setup fee be charged at all?
Yes — setup is real work, and giving it away trains the client to expect free work. A setup fee also filters for clients who are serious: a client who will not pay for setup is a client who will not pay for the service.