How much does AI automation actually cost?
The most-asked question on our intro calls, answered with real numbers — including the costs nobody puts on the pricing page.
Pricing pages for AI automation are either suspiciously vague ("contact us") or suspiciously cheap ($29/month for a tool that automates nothing by itself). Here's the honest landscape, including what we charge and when we're not the cheap option.
The three ways to pay
- DIY no-code tools ($20–$200/month + your evenings). Zapier, Make or n8n plus AI API credits. Cheap in cash, expensive in time: you're the builder, the debugger and the person who notices when it silently stops working. Right choice if you enjoy this and your workflows are simple.
- Freelance build ($1,000–$10,000 one-off). A contractor wires it up and hands it over. The build is often good; the problem is month four, when an API changes and the person who understood it has moved on. Budget for maintenance or expect decay.
- Agency subscription ($400–$3,000+/month). Build, hosting, monitoring and fixes in one recurring price. Oryro is $490/month for one workflow, $1,290 for up to five. You're paying for the workflow to keep working, not just to exist.
The costs nobody lists
Whichever route you choose, budget for: model/API usage (usually $5–$100/month per workflow at small-business volume — included in our plans), maintenance (the invisible one that kills DIY setups), and your review time in the first weeks while trust builds. None of these are large; all of them surprise people who were promised "set and forget."
The payback math, honestly
Take one task: hours per month × loaded hourly cost. A 5-hour-a-week task done by someone costing $30/hour is $650/month of labour. Against a $490 plan, that's break-even in month one and profit every month after — before counting speed benefits like faster lead response, which often dwarf the labour saving. If the math doesn't clear comfortably, don't automate that task yet; pick a better first one.