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Price benchmarks across the market

Published prices for AI automation range from under $500 to millions; small-business projects cluster at $3K to $35K, retainers under $2,500 a month, and most productized offers at $5K to $10K one-time.

All prices are as published or reported in October 2026, in USD unless marked CAD. Nearly all are sellers' own claims, and several pages contradict themselves; where that matters, it is noted.

Agency projects

SegmentPublished figuresSource type
Canada, small businessProjects $3,000 to $35,000 CAD; hourly $100 to $175; retainers $500 to $2,500 a monthAgency pages
Canada, boutique practitioners$2,500 to $35,000, one to six weeks; typical small-business project $5,000 to $15,000 over two to four weeksChatGPT.ca blog
US agency floorLeftClick: engagements typically start at $5K, most projects $10K to $50K; Goodspeed: $5,000 for four automationsAgency pages
Zapier and n8n partner directoriesFlow Digital $100 to $10,000; GetUWired $251 to $200,000Directory listings
Law-firm AI consulting, Canada and USA solo consultant: $2,500 assessment, rollout $4,500 to $7,500; Atwell Group (Toronto): CAD $6,300 audit, pilot sprints from CAD $23,500; a Toronto legal-AI firm: sprint $15K to $25K, build $75K to $150KSeller pages
Contracts at the top of the agency segmentMorningside AI: $60K to $250K+ reported by a third-party reviewThird-party review

Retainers and training

  • Prompt Advisers: $2,500 SMB training package, $8,000 a month retainer, enterprise work $15K to $50K+ (self-reported).
  • n8n Lab: $800 to $6,000 a month across three tiers.
  • Prairie AI (Saskatchewan): from $1,500 CAD a month.
  • True North Agentics: Managed Reliability $1,000 to $1,500 CAD a month (wholesale and suggested retail).
  • Fractional AI officer: $10,000 to $40,000 a month in one mid-market guide (AI Savvy); Frogslayer lists $5,000 to $10,000 a month.

Productized small-business offers

Tally made for this research: sixteen sellers of productized AI-automation offers, counted by their published price points. Each listed price counted once, a range at its lower bound; free items, usage fees and hourly rates were left out. The counts are ours.

BandOne-time or setupRecurring (per month)
Under $1,0007
Under $50012
$1,000 to $3,0005
$3,000 to $5,0008
$5,000 to $10,00015
Above $10,0008
$500 to $1,5006
Above $1,5009

One-time prices cluster at $5,000 to $10,000; recurring prices most often sit under $500 a month. Examples: Ascero AI lists a $500 audit, a $1,500 setup plus $750 a month receptionist, and a $50,000 plus $5,000 a month department package. A law-firm call-intake seller lists setup of $3,000 to $5,000 and $300 to $1,000+ a month. One seller lists a managed AI employee at $2,000 build plus $500 a month. At the low end, several sellers list assistants at $99 to $399 a month, and one at $449.

Mid-market and enterprise

For larger companies the same services cost more:

  • Mid-market consultancies cite diagnostics of $10,000 to $25,000, implementation sprints of $75,000 to $250,000 and managed operations of $5,000 to $25,000 a month (ClearForge, a seller's guide); a first production system at $90,000 to $300,000.
  • A Canadian guide puts tier-one digital agencies at $75,000 to $250,000 for eight to sixteen weeks.
  • Readiness assessments: $5,000 to $15,000 for mid-market, $2,000 to $8,000 for small business, $15,000 to $50,000+ for enterprise (seller guides).
  • Embedded engineers: $10,000 to $50,000 a month depending on scope in one listing; about $25,000 a month per senior builder at another provider.
  • OpenAI's consulting work was reported earlier to cost at least $10 million per client; the current Deployment Company does not publish prices.

Software seats and per-unit pricing

ProductPrice
MyCase$50 to $150 per user per month
Docketwise$80 to $140 per user per month (Pro includes AI)
Clio$39 to $149 per user per month, annual billing (third-party reports)
Applied Epic$150 to $200+ per user per month (third-party cite)
Jump$100 per advisor per month
BrokerPlus$199 a month CAD
VistoCAD $199, $449 and $999 a month by tier
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business$18 per user per month (annual)
Smith.aiStarter $300 for 30 calls; Basic $810 for 90 calls; Pro $2,100 for 300 calls
Ruby$250 for 50 minutes; $395 for 100; $720 for 200; $1,725 for 500
ListedKit$14.99 per transaction

What small firms already pay

ServicePublished range
Managed IT$85 to $175 per user per month for most 10-to-50-user firms (ETN Tech); $150 to $400 per user (VC3)
Virtual receptionist (human)CAD $99 to $249 a month at one Canadian provider; US plans from $250 a month
Virtual assistant$36 to $39 an hour (US) ; CAD $33 to $36 an hour (Canada); offshore from $8 an hour
Bookkeeping, Canada$300 to $2,000 a month in most 2026 guides
Marketing agency retainers$1,500 to $10,000 a month (HawkSEM); average about $1,500 to $15,000+ (Dojo Business)
Legal assistant, ManitobaMedian wage $26.00 an hour (Job Bank). At 2,080 hours with 13.1% employer on-costs, this calculates to about $61,000 a year

The $61,000 figure is a calculation from the published wage and an on-cost estimate, not a quoted price.

Reading across the data

  • Published prices sit well below the mid-market sprint bands quoted by larger consultancies. Sellers with 10-to-200-person professional-services clients list entry points of $2,500 to $25,000 and builds of $4,500 to $75,000.
  • Pay-for-outcome pricing exists in software (Lawmatics, Tidio, Yuma) and in a few agencies, usually with terms unpublished.
  • Some sellers' pages contradict each other: ChatGPT.ca's pricing page lists a retainer from $2,000 a month in its FAQ and a contact-for-quote entry in its tier table.

Companies mentioned

Sources

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