Advice and training
Start here if you do not yet know what to build, or whether to build anything. Both end in something you keep.
AI agents and automation
The ladder most agencies quote in pieces. Each rung is a fixed price against a written scope, with the running cost stated before go-live.
Software and websites
Bespoke software priced by what it is, not by how long we say it will take. Code and accounts in your name from day one.
What every engagement includes
What we do not sell, and why
Day rates
A day rate pays a supplier for being slow and penalises them for being fast, and it moves the estimating risk onto you. The measured UK contract median for an AI consultant is £575 a day; consultancies quote £900 to £1,600. Neither tells you what the work costs. A fixed price does.
Minimum engagements
Larger firms will not look at a project under £25,000 to £100,000. Most of the businesses we work with have a first problem worth £4,000 to £15,000, and that is where we start.
Retainers you cannot leave
Support is a separate, clearly priced monthly line agreed at go-live. Because you own the accounts and hold the runbook, you can stop paying it and keep the system.
Hidden running costs
Every quote for anything that uses AI states what it will cost per month at your volume, including messages, minutes and platform fees, because that is where budgets fail.
What moves a quote within its range
Six things decide where a project lands inside the bands above. If a quote from anyone, including us, cannot explain its number in these terms, the number is not real yet.
How many types of user
One user type is simple. Three, each seeing different data with different permissions, is more than three times the work.
How many systems it has to talk to
Integration is usually the largest single line and the one most often underestimated. It starts first because it is the long pole.
How messy the inputs are
Clean fields cost less than scanned PDFs, voicemails and free-text forms. The messy tenth example teaches more than the ten clean ones.
Whether it runs unattended
Background work that must not fail quietly needs retries, alerting and a person-in-the-loop design. A button somebody presses does not.
Whether it needs to be a real app
Native iOS and Android, submitted to the stores, is its own small project and is scoped as one.
How much is already written down
Undocumented processes are discovered during the build, and discovery is the expensive way to find requirements. An audit is the cheap way.
Against the market
Published UK ranges gathered in September 2026 from the firms that put prices on their websites. The full surveys, with every source dated, are in the two cost guides linked below.
| Freelancer | Boutique consultancy | Enterprise consultancy | Augustova | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price model | Day rate, £400 to £800 quoted; £575 measured | Day rate £900 to £1,600, or fixed pilots | Day rate £2,000 to £5,000; retainers | Fixed price, every time |
| Audit | Rare | £1,500 to £5,000 | £12,000 to £35,000 as a "workshop" | £2,500 to £6,000, credited |
| First implementation | Varies | £12,000 to £40,000 | £25,000 to £85,000 | £4,000 to £15,000 |
| Custom system | Varies | £40,000 to £90,000 | £120,000 upward | £8,000 to £25,000 |
| Minimum project | None | Often £10,000 to £25,000 | £100,000 | None |
| Who owns the code | Usually you, at the end | Check the contract | You, on final payment | You, from day one |
Common questions about our prices
Want a number for your project?
Describe what happens today and roughly when you need it changed. A founder replies personally, usually within one working day, with a fixed price and a written scope, or an honest reason not to build it.