Why is there no salary benchmark?

Because no single salary figure would be honest for your team, in your city, at your stage. The only real answer to what a person costs is your own payroll, so the field starts at a round £45,000 and expects you to change it.

Where does forty-six weeks come from?

Statutory paid holiday in the UK is 5.6 weeks a year, 28 days for a five-day week (gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights, checked 26 August 2026). Fifty-two less 5.6 is 46.4, rounded down to 46. Costing anyone at 52 weeks overstates the hourly figure by about twelve percent.

Why charge for the hours spent on the tooling?

Because they are the largest part of the AI layer and almost every calculator omits them. Three hours a week is eight percent of a working week: around £4,650 a year per person at a £58,000 loaded cost, against roughly £360 for the seat.

Is the pension figure right for us?

It is the legal minimum: at least 3% from the employer on band earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (gov.uk/workplace-pensions, checked 26 August 2026). Most schemes pay more, so raise the slider if yours does. Above £50,270 the pension line stops rising.

What is missing from this?

Employer's liability insurance, apprenticeship levy and recruitment cost, which belong in the overhead field if they apply to you. And the productivity the tooling gives back: the whole argument for doing it, and not a cost. This page prices the bill, not the benefit.

AI team cost calculator

What an AI-assisted team actually costs a year. Not the licence fee: the loaded cost of the people, the seats, the shared model spend, and the hours the tooling itself eats before it gives anything back.

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4 PEOPLE, A YEAR, ALL IN

£255,108

£63,177

per person, per year

£22,452

is the AI layer, 8.8% of the total

£33.72

an hour, loaded, across 46 working weeks

01The people

People on the team

Average salary, each

£

Your payroll figure. No salary benchmark is claimed anywhere on this page.Other overhead, per person, per year

£

Desk, kit, insurance, and the software that has nothing to do with AI.Contracted hours a week

hrs

02What the law adds on top

Employer National Insurance15%15% on earnings above £96 a week, tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 (gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters, checked 26 August 2026). Editable, because your category letter may differ.Employer pension contribution3%3% is the automatic enrolment minimum, on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (gov.uk/workplace-pensions, checked 26 August 2026). Raise it if your scheme is more generous, and most are.

03The AI layer

Tool seats, per person, per month

£

Whatever your seats actually cost. Prices move too fast for a default to be worth citing.Shared model and API spend, per month

£

The metered part: usage that is not attached to a named seat.Hours a week, each, spent on the tooling

hrs

Learning it, prompting it, and checking what it produced. This is the line most calculators leave out, and it is usually larger than the licence.

One person, line by line

Salary: £45,000
Employer National Insurance15% above £4,992 a year: £6,001
Employer pension3% of band earnings: £1,163
Other overhead: £6,000
Loaded cost of the person: £58,164
Tool seat£30 a month: £360
Time spent on the tooling3 hrs a week is 8.0% of the working week, charged at the loaded rate: £4,653
Per person, all in: £63,177

× 4 people: £252,708
Shared model and API spend£200 a month, across the whole team: £2,400
The team, a year: £255,108

WORKED EXAMPLE, NOT A BENCHMARK

Four people on £45,000 each, £30 a month for a seat, £200 a month of shared model spend, and three hours a week each on the tooling.

£255,108

a year, all in. Those are the figures the calculator opens on.

The AI layer is £22,452 of it, and the seats are £1,440

The licence is the number everyone quotes, and it is six percent of the AI layer. The rest is time: three hours a week each, at the loaded rate, is about £4,650 a person a year.

Set the hours to zero if your team really spends none, and the total drops by £18,612. That is the size of the argument.

Where every figure comes from

Which numbers here are real and which are ours?: Three are published UK figures: employer National Insurance at 15% above £96 a week, tax year 2026 to 2027 (gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters, checked 26 August 2026), the 3% automatic enrolment pension minimum, and 46 working weeks. Everything else is a round default waiting for yours.
Why is there no salary benchmark?: Because no single salary figure would be honest for your team, in your city, at your stage. The only real answer to what a person costs is your own payroll, so the field starts at a round £45,000 and expects you to change it.
Where does forty-six weeks come from?: Statutory paid holiday in the UK is 5.6 weeks a year, 28 days for a five-day week (gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights, checked 26 August 2026). Fifty-two less 5.6 is 46.4, rounded down to 46. Costing anyone at 52 weeks overstates the hourly figure by about twelve percent.
Why charge for the hours spent on the tooling?: Because they are the largest part of the AI layer and almost every calculator omits them. Three hours a week is eight percent of a working week: around £4,650 a year per person at a £58,000 loaded cost, against roughly £360 for the seat.
Is the pension figure right for us?: It is the legal minimum: at least 3% from the employer on band earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (gov.uk/workplace-pensions, checked 26 August 2026). Most schemes pay more, so raise the slider if yours does. Above £50,270 the pension line stops rising.
What is missing from this?: Employer's liability insurance, apprenticeship levy and recruitment cost, which belong in the overhead field if they apply to you. And the productivity the tooling gives back: the whole argument for doing it, and not a cost. This page prices the bill, not the benefit.

Carry on next door

An agent or another hire

Once you know what a person costs loaded, this is the next question: does the next unit of work need a person at all.

Open it

AI budget planner

The project side of the same money: build, discovery, running cost and contingency.

Open it

The total is large. The question is what it buys

Most of the cost on this page is the people, and that is as it should be. The part worth twenty minutes is whether the three hours a week are teaching the team something, or just being spent.

Book twenty minutes