How much does business process automation cost?

Automation pricing looks opaque from the outside because the same phrase covers a two-day job and a three-month build. The honest answer is that cost tracks two things: how many systems have to talk to each other, and how much judgement sits in the middle.

What sits at each end of the range

A single-system automation is the cheap end. Auto-tagging an inbox, sending a follow-up when a quote goes quiet, pushing form submissions into a CRM. One tool, one trigger, clear rules. These are typically a few days of work.

A cross-system workflow with AI in the middle is the expensive end. Pulling data from three platforms, reconciling it, having a model classify or extract something, then writing the result back and alerting a human when it looks wrong. Every extra system adds an integration, an authentication method, a rate limit and a failure mode.

Our fixed-fee projects typically run £2,000 to £50,000 and up, and that includes documentation, handover and 30 days of support after launch.

What actually drives the price

• Number of integrations. Two systems is not twice the work of one. Each new connection adds error handling for the ways it can fail.
• Data quality. If the source data is messy, cleaning it is the project. This is the single most common reason a quote comes in higher than expected.
• Whether a human stays in the loop. Review steps, approval queues and exception handling are extra surface area, but they are usually what makes a system safe to trust.
• API limits. Some platforms will not let you pull what you need at the frequency you want, and working around that is real engineering.

The three ways we structure it

Fixed fee. Scoped, built, delivered, for a defined price. Best for workflow automations, reporting systems and data pipelines where the outcome is clear up front.

Revenue share. We build the system and take a percentage of the value it creates. No large upfront cost. This suits lead generation and outreach systems where results are directly measurable, and it means we carry some of the risk.

Ongoing support, from £2,500 a month. Monitoring, troubleshooting, new automation ideas and priority access, for businesses running live systems that need iterating and adapting as the business grows and changes the way it works.

What to check before you commit

Ask any provider what happens when the automation breaks, who owns the account credentials, and whether you get the documentation. An automation you cannot maintain or move is a liability dressed as an asset.

If the numbers matter more than the narrative, run your task through the savings calculator first. If the annual saving does not comfortably clear the build cost in year one, it is probably not the right first project.