How Much Does It Cost to Add AI to Your App?
The build and running costs of AI features, from model usage fees to evaluation, and how to keep both under control.
Adding AI to a product has two kinds of cost: building the feature and running it. Many teams estimate the first and are surprised by the second. Here is how to think about both.
Build costs
Building an AI feature involves more than connecting to a model. The work typically includes:
- Designing the user experience, including what happens when the AI is wrong
- Preparing and connecting your data, for example indexing documents for retrieval
- Writing and testing prompts and instructions
- Building an evaluation set to measure quality
- Adding guardrails, logging, and privacy controls
- Integrating with the rest of your product
A narrow, well-defined feature such as summarising support tickets is far cheaper to build than an open-ended assistant expected to handle anything.
Running costs
Most AI features call a hosted model and pay per use, typically based on the amount of text processed. Costs scale with how many users use the feature, how often, and how much text each request involves. Retrieval systems add search and storage costs.
How to estimate running costs
- Estimate the number of requests per user per month.
- Estimate the average length of input and output.
- Multiply by the model provider's published rates.
- Add a margin for growth and experimentation.
Ways to control costs
- Use smaller, cheaper models for simple tasks and larger ones only where needed.
- Send only relevant context, not entire documents.
- Cache results for repeated questions.
- Set usage limits per user or per plan.
- Monitor costs from day one with alerts.
The cheapest AI request is the one you do not need to make.
Measure value, not just cost
An AI feature that saves each support agent an hour a day can justify significant running costs. Track the business outcome alongside spending so decisions are based on return, not just price.
Getting an estimate
MOKRIN can review your use case in a free consultation and provide a written estimate covering both the build and expected monthly running costs, with options to start small and scale with demand.
