AI Team Cost Calculator
What an AI team costs to hire, augment or outsource over 6 to 36 months, from a template or your own mix of roles.
- Free
- No signup
- Salaries from BLS, May 2025
AI Team Cost Calculator
Build your AI team
Choose a template or build your own. A template replaces the roles below.
BLS Computer and Information Research Scientists, median. Paying outside the US? Type your own salary.
BLS Data Scientists, median. Paying outside the US? Type your own salary.
BLS Database Architects, median. Paying outside the US? Type your own salary.
What drives the result
Three inputs move the totals more than the rest.
How long you need the team
Hiring costs land in the first month and spread out over time. Compare the 24- and 36-month views before you decide on a long-term team.
The rates you compare
BLS salaries plus benefits against a monthly augmentation price and your agency’s hourly rate. A real quote beats any example figure.
Overhead and people leaving
Management time and replacing leavers only apply to full-time hires. Check the coordination and manager answers: together they add 10% to 35%.
Questions
AI team cost questions
Where do the salaries come from?
From BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025. AI engineers use Computer and Information Research Scientists, MLOps engineers use Software Developers and AI product managers use Computer and Information Systems Managers, because BLS has no codes for those titles. Seniority picks the percentile once: junior 25th, mid-level median, senior 75th, lead 90th.
What does full-time hiring include?
Salaries, benefits and payroll tax at 45.9% of wages (BLS), one cost per hire per person ($5,475 on average, SHRM), management and coordination time from your answers, and replacing people who leave at the BLS quit rate for the information industry.
Why does the urgency question from other calculators not appear?
Because it did not change any number. Here every input you see moves the result or the advice, and the page says which.
Where do the staff augmentation and outsourcing prices come from?
Augmentation uses HorizonLux’s own planning price per engineer per month, marked “est.” until confirmed. Outsourcing uses an agency hourly rate you enter; $70 an hour is only an example.
What if our salaries differ from the US figures?
Type your own salary on any role. Everything else, including benefits and management overhead, is worked out from the salary you enter.
Can we start with one model and switch later?
Yes. Augmenting the first months and hiring the roles you keep is one way to start without waiting for recruitment. The “Over time” chart shows if and when full-time hiring catches up.
Related tools
An AI team without a recruiting round
Start with engineers who already build AI systems
Bring the team you just priced. We will go through the numbers with you and tell you which roles we can cover.