UK AI Price Index

What the price usually includes

A readiness audit should cover interviews with the people doing the work, a look at the data you hold, an opportunity list ranked by return and a written recommendation, including what each idea would cost to run each month. A proof of concept is one use case built on your own data, usually in two to four weeks.

What it usually does not

Production work the demo never showed: integration with your systems, monitoring and support. Winder puts year-one operations at 15 to 25 per cent of the build cost, and Insightful advises a contingency of 25 to 40 per cent above the quoted fee.

Red flags

• A day rate with no stated number of days or cap: the total depends on days nobody has written down.
• No list of what is excluded. A firm without one has not scoped the work.
• No running-cost figure for the finished system.
• An enterprise minimum, often £100,000, applied to an SME-sized problem.

Ask before you sign

1. How many days does this assume, and what happens if it takes longer?
2. What will this cost to run each month once it is live, and who pays for the model?
3. What do I own at the end: the roadmap, the code, the accounts, the prompts?

What the price usually includes

A first workflow is one process connected to the tools you already use, live in one to three weeks, with a few weeks of support. A departmental system is several connected automations across one function, with AI making judgement calls and routing work, over four to ten weeks.

What it usually does not

Running costs, which few quotes mention: model usage of about £5 to £100 a month for a small business, SMS at 4p to 5p a message, AI voice at 15p to 20p a minute, and platform fees that climb with volume.

Red flags

• A quote with a build price but no monthly running cost at your volume.
• No spending ceiling, or no evidence it has been tested.
• Accounts, prompts and workflows held by the agency rather than you.
• A retainer with no written list of what it covers.

Ask before you sign

1. Which rung of the ladder is this quote on, and what would the next rung up cost?
2. What will it cost to run each month at my volume, including messages, minutes and platform fees?
3. Who owns the accounts and the prompts at the end, and what breaks if I cancel the retainer?

What the price usually includes

A good session is aimed at one audience, uses your own documents and workflows, spends about a third of the time on checking output, cost and what must never be shared, and ends with something the team keeps: a prompt library, a one-page data policy and a note of what still needs support.

What it usually does not

Staff time, which for twelve people on a half day is about £920 at the ONS median wage; travel outside the provider’s base on some packages; and VAT, which one provider does not state.

Red flags

• A recorded course sold as a workshop.
• Generic examples instead of your own work.
• One session promised to serve developers, managers and leadership at once.
• A certificate offered as the main outcome.

Ask before you sign

1. Is the price per session or per person, and what is the delegate cap?
2. Will the curriculum be written before the day from a short skills assessment?
3. What will the team keep afterwards, and is there a follow-up session?

What the price usually includes

Answering around the clock, taking messages and, from the middle tiers up, booking into a shared calendar. The better products transfer to a person.

What it usually does not

Screening callers against your criteria, booking into systems other than a calendar, calling people back, and enforcing your own consent and recording rules. Those need a different product or a bespoke build.

Red flags

• Per-minute billing when your callers talk at length; per-call billing means a long call costs no more.
• No transfer to a person when a caller says it is an emergency.
• No data processing agreement, or no answer on where calls are processed.
• It does not tell callers it is an AI.

Ask before you sign

1. Does the call end in a booked appointment, or in a message for someone to act on?
2. Is it billed per call or per minute, and how many calls can it take at once?
3. Are calls recorded, for how long, and will you sign a data processing agreement?

What the price usually includes

A written scope with an explicit exclusions list, and at handover documentation, credentials, a runbook and a recorded walkthrough as the minimum.

What it usually does not

Hosting at about £30 to £200 a month, and maintenance, which the published sources put at 15 to 25 per cent of the build cost a year.

Red flags

• A time-and-materials quote with no cap, so you carry any overrun.
• Code, repository or hosting accounts held by the supplier until final payment or handover.
• A quote that, divided by £525, implies far more days than the scope suggests.

Ask before you sign

1. How many days does this assume, and at what rate?
2. What happens if it takes longer than you thought?
3. Who owns the code, the repository and the hosting accounts, and from when?

What the price usually includes

On the business plans, your content is not used to train models by default, and you get admin controls and single sign-on.

What it usually does not

VAT: 20 per cent is added unless the business enters a VAT number for the reverse charge. Copilot also needs a Microsoft 365 base licence, and Enterprise plans are often priced by quote only.

Red flags

• Staff putting client data into personal consumer plans, which may train on it unless each person opts out.
• Paying for an individual Max plan because one person hits limits, when one Premium seat in a Team workspace costs the same.

Ask before you sign

1. Does this plan train on our content by default?
2. What is the minimum number of seats, and which currency are we billed in?
3. Is VAT charged, or reverse-charged against our VAT number?

What the price usually includes

A set allowance of runs, credits or tasks each month. n8n’s Community edition is free to self-host, at the cost of a small server and someone to maintain it.

What it usually does not

Messages and minutes, which are billed separately by the carrier: Twilio charges about 4.1p per outbound UK text, and states that prices may change without notice and carrier fees may apply.

Red flags

• Zapier costs that climb steeply past about 1,000 tasks a month.
• Make credits bought on top of a plan expire monthly.
• A platform account held by the agency that built the workflow.

Ask before you sign

1. How many runs a month, and how many steps per run, at our volume?
2. Which account is the platform billed to, and who can see it?
3. What is the monthly ceiling if volume doubles?

What the price usually includes

Only the model’s work. These are list prices before caching and batch discounts.

What it usually does not

Everything around the model: the automation platform, texts, call minutes, email and hosting, each billed separately.

Red flags

• A supplier who defaults every step to the largest model has not done the routing work.
• No spending ceiling, or no evidence it has been tested.

Ask before you sign

1. Which model runs which step, and why?
2. What does the running-cost model look like at our volume, line by line?
3. What is the spending ceiling, and how was it tested?