A list price answers only part of the question
Business AI costs include licences, introduction, usage and operations. A small chat deployment has a different cost profile from a shared knowledge base with several connected systems.
Compare the same basis: active users, mailboxes, source volume, expected tasks and deployment requirements. A cheaper seat price does not necessarily mean lower total cost.
Separate licences from usage
Check whether billing is per person, mailbox or organisation and whether minimum commitments apply. Annual commitments and monthly plans are different. Include required base subscriptions and additional modules.
Usage may be measured in credits, tokens, requests or allowances. Ask about limits and overage costs. A credit does not represent an equivalent service across vendors.
Include introduction work
Source preparation, permission review, setup, specialist testing and training are often needed before rollout. When a vendor does not charge separately, that work may still fall to your team.
Track external fees and internal hours separately. Assign a content owner and someone responsible for technical questions.
Calculate self-hosting fully
Include hardware or existing capacity, energy, backups, updates and technical support. Local model inference may require additional resources. An existing machine is not automatically cost-free.
External AI endpoints may create separate usage charges. Clarify incident ownership and the support service actually agreed.
Use a transparent twelve-month calculation
Twelve-month cost = one-off external setup + internal introduction hours × hourly cost + twelve × monthly licence, usage and operating costs + annual maintenance and review hours × hourly cost. Do not count included services twice.
An invented example, unrelated to any vendor: €1,000 setup + 12 × (€250 licence + €50 usage + 2 maintenance hours × €60) = €6,040 in year one. This simplified example excludes additional internal introduction work and own infrastructure. These are neither chifty prices nor market estimates.
chifty’s current cost basis
chifty distinguishes Chat per user, Office per mailbox and Knowledge per organisation with storage requirements. Your workflow determines the required combination.
To prepare an offer, discuss the use case, users and mailboxes, relevant sources and deployment requirements. The offer sets out prices, included services and introduction scope together.
Useful next steps: