Free Tool
Build vs Buy
AI Agent Calculator
Should you build a custom AI agent or buy an off-the-shelf tool? See real Year 1 costs, monthly burn, and when building pays off.
🎯 Use Case
📊 Scale
5,000
5
Standard integration — typical team needs
⚙️ Configuration
$100/hr
Auto
Auto: uses estimate for selected use case
Build Year 1
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Buy Year 1
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You Save
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Break-Even
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Cost Breakdown
🔨Build It Yourself
Year 1 Total$0
$0/mo ongoing
🛒Buy a Tool
Year 1 Total$0
$0/mo ongoing
📊 Cumulative Cost Comparison
💡 Recommended Tools for This Use Case
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Cost estimates based on real vendor pricing, February 2026. Build costs from industry research (Azilen, Cleveroad, Insighto AI).
Buy pricing: Intercom ($29/seat + $0.99/res), Copilot ($19/user), Clay ($149/mo), Vapi ($0.05/min+), Otter ($17/user), and others from official pages.
LLM API rates: OpenAI GPT-4.1 ($2/$8 per 1M tok), GPT-4o ($2.50/$10), DeepSeek V3 ($0.15/$0.60), Claude Sonnet ($3/$15), Opus ($15/$75).
Maintenance = 15–24% of build cost annually (industry standard). Infra = $50–$2,500/mo based on scale.
Your actual costs will vary — use this as a starting point for decision-making.
Buy pricing: Intercom ($29/seat + $0.99/res), Copilot ($19/user), Clay ($149/mo), Vapi ($0.05/min+), Otter ($17/user), and others from official pages.
LLM API rates: OpenAI GPT-4.1 ($2/$8 per 1M tok), GPT-4o ($2.50/$10), DeepSeek V3 ($0.15/$0.60), Claude Sonnet ($3/$15), Opus ($15/$75).
Maintenance = 15–24% of build cost annually (industry standard). Infra = $50–$2,500/mo based on scale.
Your actual costs will vary — use this as a starting point for decision-making.
