Search “custom AI cost” and you land on labs quoting $15,000 to $80,000 for a production build, sometimes $25,000 to $150,000 and up. Those are real quotes in that market. They are not ours.
We publish prices. Focused builds start at $2,500. A written plan and a number come back in one business day. A call is not required.
What people are usually quoted
Most “custom AI” pages do not put a number on the wall. They put a range, then a calendar link.
What shows up in search right now:
- Production builds quoted at $15,000–$80,000
- “Transformation” work quoted at $25,000–$150,000+
- Smaller studio work quoted at $3,000–$25,000, still without a public menu
None of that tells you what you keep if you stop paying, or what a focused first system actually costs. It tells you the vendor wants a discovery call.
What a focused build actually costs here
USA Pro AI is a custom-software studio, not a SaaS product. You own the code, the configuration, and the data. Prices below are the ones on the pricing page.
| What | Price |
|---|---|
| Smallest focused build | from $2,500 |
| AI phone answering, stand-up | $3,500 |
| AI phone answering, keep it sharp | $500 / month |
| Capture, qualify, follow up | $4,500 |
| AI website and assistant | $6,500 |
| Automation sprint (one week, scoped day one, working software at week’s end) | $7,500 |
| Ongoing support and tuning | $2,500 / month |
| Advisory, as needed | $185 / hour |
This site is a production system of the same class we sell: advisor, scoring, scheduling, staff dashboard. Details on /proof.
After the build
Ongoing cost is not the same as the package price. Separate build, run, and optional retainers.
Build
One-time published packages. Focused builds from $2,500. AI phone answering stand-up $3,500. Capture, qualify, follow up $4,500. AI website and assistant $6,500. Automation sprint $7,500. Advisory $185 / hour when you need a scoped hour, not a retainer.
Run
API and model usage is pass-through. You pay OpenAI, Anthropic, and the other providers — or we bill usage through at cost. We do not sit as a marked-up platform fee on top of those meters.
Optional
AI phone keep-it-sharp is $500 / month after stand-up. Ongoing support and tuning is $2,500 / month. Neither is required to keep the build. Cancel a retainer and you still have the code, configuration, and data.
What is not included
The package price is the build. It is not every bill you will ever see.
Not in the number:
- Usage billed by the model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, and the rest). You pay them, or we pass the cost through. We do not own those models.
- Software you already subscribe to. Email, payroll, CRM, bookkeeping stay where they are unless the job is to replace a specific screen.
- Ongoing support, unless you take the $2,500 / month retainer or the $500 / month phone tune.
- Hardware, office internet, or phone service.
If a third-party API is required, it stays under that vendor’s terms. What you own, and what you do not.
When SaaS is cheaper
Buy the product when the product already does the job.
Payroll, email, CRM, accounting, a generic help desk: those should stay SaaS. Custom is the wrong spend if you are paying us to rebuild a tool that already exists and already fits.
Custom is the right spend when nothing off the shelf runs the path you actually run, and you do not want the system to die when a subscription ends.
If we think you should buy software instead of a build, the written plan will say that. We would rather lose the job than sell you a worse version of a product you can subscribe to this afternoon.
Phone answering is the same cancel test: rent a monthly AI receptionist seat, or own the workflow. Comparison: owned AI receptionist vs SaaS. Before you hire any studio: questions to ask before hiring a custom AI company.
Get a number without a call
Describe the leak. We send a written build plan and a number inside one business day. You do not have to get on a call to see a price. How that works end to end: custom AI quote without a sales call.