How much does business process automation cost?
How much business process automation costs: what drives the build price, the monthly running costs of platforms and AI, and how payback and billing work.
Business process automation has two price tags: building it once and running it every month. Most quotes only show the first. This guide explains what moves both, how to judge payback and how the work is billed, so you can read any automation quote with the right questions.
Quick answer
- The build price depends on how many systems are involved, whether they have an API, how clean the data is, how many exceptions the process has and whether an AI step is needed.
- Running costs are separate: the automation platform subscription, AI model usage, hosting if you run it yourself, and upkeep when connected tools change.
- Public Croatian price lists exist: AIS Tech lists €690-€2,400 for one automated process and €2,400-€8,500 for an AI agent connected to email, CRM or ERP. Treat these as market figures, not a quote.
- Payback is a comparison of the build and running costs with the hours and errors the automation removes.
- With us: a fixed price agreed in writing after a short discovery phase, small changes at €40-60 per hour, and upkeep through a monthly partnership.
What drives the build price
Six things decide where a project lands:
- Number of systems. Moving data from email into an ERP is one connection; email, ERP, web shop and accounting is four.
- APIs. A system with a documented API is quick to connect. One without it needs file exports, screen reading or a workaround.
- Data quality. Duplicate customers, free-text product codes and missing VAT numbers have to be cleaned or handled by rules.
- Exceptions. The happy path is cheap. Partial deliveries, credit notes and “call me first” orders are where the hours go.
- AI steps. Reading unstructured documents or emails needs a model, prompts and testing on real samples.
- Approvals and logging. Steps with financial risk need a human approval and a record of what the automation did and why.
Two processes with the same name - “order entry” - can differ tenfold in price because of points 3 and 4.
Running costs nobody quotes
| Item | How it is billed | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Automation platform | Monthly subscription with a usage allowance | Number of runs and steps |
| AI model | Per token (piece of text) processed | Volume and length of documents |
| Hosting | Server for self-hosted tools or custom code | Volume, uptime needs |
| Upkeep | Hours when an API, supplier format or rule changes | How many tools are connected |
Platforms count usage differently, which matters more than the headline price. n8n bills per execution - one full run of a workflow, however many steps - and its Starter plan is €20 a month (billed annually) for 2,500 executions. Make bills credits, and most actions use one credit. Zapier bills tasks, one per successful action, with the Professional plan from $19.99 a month.
A worked example. A distributor receives 40 orders a day, 22 working days a month: 880 runs. The workflow has six actions after the trigger - read the email, extract the order, create it in the ERP, check stock, confirm to the customer, log the result. In n8n that is 880 executions, inside the Starter allowance. In Make or Zapier it is roughly 880 × 6 = 5,280 credits or tasks a month. Same process, a very different usage bill - so ask which platform a quote assumes and why.
Is it worth it?
Put the build and running costs next to what the process costs today. In the example above, retyping takes about four minutes an order: 880 × 4 = 3,520 minutes, or roughly 59 hours a month. The formula for turning that into a payback period is in our automation ROI guide; the processes that usually pay back first are in 8 processes worth automating.
How we price automation
- Discovery first. A short, fixed-scope phase maps the process step by step and ends with a written specification and a fixed price, agreed in writing before work starts. We don’t publish a price list because the drivers above differ for every process.
- Your accounts. Platform and AI subscriptions are paid by you, directly to the providers, on accounts in your name.
- Small changes later are billed by the hour at €40-60 (excluding VAT), with a monthly breakdown of hours.
- Upkeep - monitoring runs, fixing failures, adapting to changed tools - is covered by our monthly partnership. See all ways of working with us.
What we build and how is described on the business process automation page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don’t you publish a price per automation? Because the same process name hides very different work. We estimate after a short discovery, and the fixed price is agreed in writing before we start.
Can we start with one process? Yes, and we recommend it. One automated process proves the savings and shows which data problems need fixing before the next one.
Is custom code cheaper than Make, Zapier or n8n? To build, usually not. To run at high volume, sometimes yes, because there is no per-step usage fee. Many projects combine a platform with a few pieces of custom code.
Who pays the platform subscription? You do, directly to the provider and on your own account, so the automation stays yours if you change vendors.
What happens when a connected tool changes its API? The automation can break. Monitoring tells us within minutes, and the fix is covered by the monthly partnership or billed by the hour.
Related Articles
- ROI of business automation - the payback formula with a worked example.
- 8 business processes worth automating - where to start.
- Process automation: 7 signs your business needs it - how to spot the candidates.
Thinking about automating a process?
Describe the process that takes the most time. The first call is free, and you get a fixed price in writing before any work starts. Reach us at [email protected] or via the form on our homepage.