Cost & Pricing

Production-grade AI agent engagements at DevStudio land between $14k and $85k for 4-10 week project-rate engagements. Larger multi-agent platforms or enterprise integrations land $85k-$200k over 14-22 weeks. The Paid Scoping entry product runs $700-$2,800 over 1-2 weeks and credits 100% toward the build engagement if you proceed. See the AI Agent Development Cost guide at /blog/ai-agent-development-cost-2026/ for industry-wide ranges.

Three reasons. First, "AI agent" covers a 5x complexity range from a simple FAQ bot to a multi-agent enterprise system. Second, vendors at different geography tiers price differently — onshore senior $200-$280/hr vs senior offshore $60-$100/hr blended in 2026. Third, demo-stage vendors quote demo-grade work; production-stage vendors quote production-grade work, and the line items differ (eval set, observability, runbook, 6-month QA window). See /blog/why-software-outsourcing-pricing-varies/ for the full breakdown.

For well-scoped 4-10 week engagements with a complete Paid Scoping output, yes — DevStudio quotes a fixed project rate. For ambiguous or evolving scope, we quote a sprint-based engagement with weekly demos and acceptance criteria per increment. The Paid Scoping engagement itself is always fixed-price.

The project rate covers discovery, architecture, eval set construction (200+ reference cases, CI-gated), build, hardening, observability, runbook, and 6-month QA window with quarterly Token Audit. Full source code, infrastructure-as-code, and deployment docs are delivered to your accounts on day one of handover.

Typical structure for a $40k-$120k engagement: 30% on signature, 30% on eval set delivery (typically week 3-4), 30% on shadow-mode pilot (week 8-10), 10% on production cutover and 6-month QA window start. For smaller Paid Scoping engagements, 50% upfront / 50% on delivery is the default.