AI Automation Agency Pricing: What Projects Really Cost

Published September 2026ยทUpdated September 2026

The ranges

Across the agencies in our rankings, a scoped project runs $5k-$60k and retainers cluster between $3k and $12k per month.

The width of that range is not noise. It tracks a small number of factors that are worth asking about before you accept a quote at either end of it.

What drives the number

The quotes we see vary mainly on:

  • How many systems the workflow touches, and whether any of them lack a native connector
  • Whether the build needs custom code or LLM calls, rather than assembling existing integrations
  • Error handling, retries and monitoring, which rarely show up in a first quote but show up in the invoice
  • Whether the agency is scoping your process or reusing a template built for someone else

Quotes to be suspicious of

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