How this is priced
The audit and the build are two separate decisions, priced separately. The audit is a fixed price deliverable: a 6 to 8 page written brief, two weeks of work, refundable after kickoff if the audit will not produce useful output for either side. The brief belongs to the buyer. If the buyer takes the brief to a different shop to build the integration, that is a clean outcome.
The build is the engagement that puts the AI feature into production. Six to ten weeks, fixed scope written into the SOW, payment split across signing, a working week-five integration milestone, and an acceptance gate at the end with 20 percent of the fee held back. The acceptance gate is concrete: the evaluation harness passes the metric written in the SOW, per-call cost is at or below the audit's cost model, and the integration runs cleanly over a rolling seven-day uptime window.
The €25,000 floor exists because below it the work is dev-shop wrapper-around-an-LLM territory, not production AI integration. The €50,000 ceiling exists because above it the buyer mentally re-pictures the studio as a four-person German agency, which a solo operator with AI multipliers cannot out-form-factor. Above the ceiling the engagement re-scopes to fit, or refers out and the studio takes a referral fee. Both sides keep the relationship clean.
What the build typically costs by shape
Three integration shapes, three price bands. The bands are calibration, not a menu. Final price is named at the end of the audit when the scope is concrete enough to commit to.
| Integration shape | Typical band | What drives the band |
|---|---|---|
| Retrieval (RAG) | €25K to €35K | Search over your corpus, document Q&A, in-app assistants. Most of the work is retrieval and re-ranking, not the LLM call. |
| Agentic workflow | €35K to €50K | Multi-step automations and agents that complete a workflow. Pricing reflects added latency, cost, and failure-mode work. |
| Regulated industries | +€10K to +€20K | HR, healthcare, finance, legal. Audit logging, data residency, and explainability work added on top of the base shape. |
Long-form pricing analysis lives in the cost essay: What AI integration actually costs in 2026. Regulated-industry multipliers are detailed at AI integration in regulated industries.
Build payment split
50 / 30 / 20. Each tranche is tied to a concrete milestone, not a calendar date. The week-five tranche releases on a working integration behind a feature flag, not on a slide deck.
Buyers who prefer a 50 / 50 split can have one. The acceptance-gate holdback structure adjusts accordingly in the SOW. The studio holds the line on the gate itself, not the percentage.
Audit credit, refund clause, and the off-ramps
- Audit credit. If the integration build is signed within 45 days of audit handoff, the €10,000 audit fee is credited toward the build invoice. The credit is named in the build SOW.
- Audit refund. If the kickoff call surfaces that the audit will not produce useful output, the fee is refunded and both sides walk on good terms. Mismatched audits help neither side.
- Build off-ramp at the week-five milestone. If the working integration does not land cleanly at week five, both sides have a written walk-away clause. Tranches already invoiced are non-refundable; remaining tranches do not invoice. The acceptance gate is the studio's discipline, not just the buyer's protection.
- No price haggling on the headline number. Scope reductions are fine. Negotiating the rate same-scope teaches the wrong lesson and the studio passes.
Frequently asked
Why is there a milestone holdback on the build?
The 20 percent acceptance-gate holdback signals that the studio is on the hook for outcomes, not just hours. The acceptance gate is three concrete checks: the evaluation harness passes the metric set in the SOW, the per-call cost is at or below the model the audit produced, and the integration runs cleanly over a rolling seven-day uptime window. If a buyer will not accept a holdback, that is a signal the buyer does not believe the integration will deliver, which is the wrong starting point for either side.
How does the audit credit work?
If the integration build is signed within 45 days of audit handoff, the €10,000 audit fee is credited toward the build invoice. The credit is named in the build SOW, not held back as a discount lever during negotiation. The 45 day window is calibrated to one board cycle, long enough to brief the CTO, the CFO, and the board chair without forcing a rushed decision.
What does the build typically cost in practice?
Retrieval-augmented generation builds (search over your corpus, document Q&A, in-app assistants) typically land in the €25K to €35K band. Agentic workflows (multi-step automations, agents that complete a workflow rather than answer a question) typically land in the €35K to €50K band. Regulated industry contexts (HR, healthcare, finance, legal) carry a €10K to €20K uplift over the equivalent unregulated scope, driven by audit logging, data residency, and explainability work. Above €50K the engagement re-scopes or refers out to a German agency.
What is the payment split on the build?
50 percent on signing, 30 percent at the week five working integration milestone, 20 percent at the acceptance gate. The week five milestone is a working integration behind a feature flag in your environment, not a demo. The acceptance gate is the eval harness, the cost ceiling, and the seven day uptime window all green at the same time. Buyers who prefer a cleaner 50 / 50 split can have one, with the holdback structure adjusted accordingly in the SOW.
Are USD-equivalent prices available for US buyers?
Yes. The studio bills in EUR by default for tax and contract simplicity, but USD-equivalent quotes are available on request and the contract can be denominated in USD if a buyer's accounting prefers it. The conversion is done at the prevailing rate at contract signing and held flat for the duration of the engagement.
Related
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