This guide explains what each type of work should include, what pushes the price up or down, and how to tell whether it's worth it for your team. We use our own published prices throughout, so you have real numbers to work with.
Our prices at a glance
| What you need | What it is | Starts from (+ GST) | Usually takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A clear plan | AI Opportunity Assessment | $3,000 | Two to three weeks |
| A confident team | AI Workshops | $3,500 a half day, $5,000 a full day | Half a day or a full day |
| Claude set up for the whole team | Claude for Teams | $3,500 for setup and a half-day workshop | A half day to three months |
| The best ideas working every week | AI Implementation | $7,500, or $15,000 across several departments | About a month, or around three months |
| Help keeping it going | Ongoing AI Advisor | $1,500 a month | Month to month |
These are starting prices. Every business gets a fixed quote once we know what it needs, and you see it before anything starts.
Start with what it's worth
Price only makes sense next to what you get back. In Thomson Reuters' 2025 survey of 2,275 professionals, people expected AI to save them about five hours a week each. That's more than half a day a week for each person.
For a team of 15, that's around 75 hours a week back for client work and the jobs that grow the business. Your own numbers will be different, so work them out with the AI Time Calculator. It takes two minutes and shows the hours and their value for your team.
Then compare that with the price. If the work frees up more time than it costs within the first few months, it's worth doing. If nobody can show you how it will, hold off until someone can.
Why most AI consultants price by the job
Most firms we've looked at quote a fixed price for a defined piece of work rather than an hourly rate, and that's the better deal for you.
An hourly rate tells you what an hour costs. It doesn't tell you how many hours the work will take, or what you'll have at the end. A fixed price with a written scope tells you both, and if the work runs long, that's the consultant's problem. If someone only offers hourly billing, ask for an estimate of total hours and a cap.
What each type of work should include
An AI assessment
Our price:
from $3,000 + GST, usually two to three weeks.
Check what you're comparing. A one-hour session with the owner is useful for ideas, but it can't tell you how the work in your business runs day to day. A proper assessment includes time with the people doing the work, because that's where the time goes and where the good opportunities are.
What you should get:
a written plan you keep, with each opportunity ranked by how much time it saves once checking is counted, what it costs, and what's safe to put into an AI tool. It should also tell you what to leave alone. If you only get a slide deck of possibilities, you've paid for a sales meeting.
Team workshops
Our price:
from $3,500 + GST for a half day, $5,000 for a full day.
The difference between a good workshop and a forgettable one is preparation. A workshop built on your team's own emails and documents takes longer to plan than a generic "intro to AI" session, and it's the version people keep using afterwards.
What you should get:
everyone set up on the tool before the day, hands-on practice with their own work, simple written guidance on what's safe to put in, and a few uses that already work by the time they leave.
Implementation
Our price:
from $7,500 + GST for smaller teams, usually about a month. Larger teams working across several departments start from $15,000 and take around three months.
Implementation is where the jobs your team repeats every week get set up properly, tested on real cases and handed over. Some firms build custom software, others work inside the tools you already have. Building costs far more, so ask whether you need it before you pay for it.
What you should get:
each job set up with your team, tested on the tricky cases, handed over with clear checks, and someone on your side who understands how it works when the consultant leaves.
Ongoing advice
Our price:
from $1,500 + GST a month, set by how often we meet and who's involved.
What you should get:
regular sessions on what's next, help by email when something gets stuck, and someone keeping across the tool changes so you don't have to. It should be a fixed monthly fee you can see in advance.
What pushes the price up or down
How many people we talk to. Interviews with your team take time to run and make sense of. In our experience they're also the difference between a list of ideas and a plan that fits how your business works.
How many teams get trained. One group is the cheapest way in. Separate sessions for sales and operations, each built on that team's own work, take longer to prepare.
Whether anything gets built. Training people to use Claude or ChatGPT well costs much less than custom software.
On site or online. Ask whether interstate travel is in the quote. Ours is.
How long we stay involved. A one-off workshop gets people started. Monthly support keeps it going as the tools change, and it costs more over a year.
What it might look like for a 15-person business
Say a 15-person business wants to roll out Claude and get the whole team using it well. There's no single price for that, because it depends on what the business needs and how much support the team wants along the way.
It usually starts with an assessment, from $3,000 + GST, which shows where Claude will save the most time and what the team needs to get there. What comes next depends on what it finds. For example:
- If the jobs are clear and people mainly need confidence, a half-day workshop for the whole team, from $3,500 + GST.
- If different teams do very different work, a workshop for each team plus extra time with a few champions, quoted on how many sessions you need.
- If the plan finds repeat jobs worth setting up and testing properly, hands-on implementation, from $7,500 + GST, or from $15,000 across several departments.
Some businesses skip the assessment because they already know what they want. Others keep going with monthly support afterwards. These are starting prices, not a quote. Every business gets its own fixed price once we know what it needs, and you see it before anything starts.
The software is separate. As shown to Australian accounts in October 2026, including GST, Claude Team costs A$34 a person a month on annual billing, so 15 seats come to A$6,120 a year. ChatGPT Business costs A$28 a person a month on annual billing, so 15 seats come to A$5,040 a year. Whoever you work with, budget for the tool as well as the consulting.
Costs people forget
Your team's time. Interviews and workshops take people away from client work for a few hours. That's worth it when the result frees up more time than it took, so ask how they'll show you.
Commissions you can't see. Some consultants earn commission on the software they recommend. Ask directly, because it changes how far you can trust the recommendation. We don't resell software or take commissions.
Red flags in a quote
- A scope that says "AI strategy" without saying what you'll receive.
- A price that only appears after several calls.
- A long minimum contract before you've seen any results.
- A specific product recommended before they've looked at how your team works.
- Hourly billing with no cap and no estimate of total hours.
Common questions
Most work is priced per job rather than by the hour. Our prices, before GST, start from $3,000 for an AI Opportunity Assessment, $3,500 for a half-day team workshop, $7,500 for hands-on implementation and $1,500 a month for ongoing advice. You get a fixed quote before anything starts.
If they're registered for GST, yes, and most established firms are. Check whether a quote is before or after GST. Our prices are all before GST.
Yes, as a chance to ask questions and judge whether they understand your business. A free 30-minute chat won't produce a plan, and it shouldn't pretend to.
It's a good place to start. Our free AI readiness check takes a few minutes and shows which area to work on first. A paid assessment goes further because it's built from conversations with your team and your own numbers.
A fixed price, wherever you can. It puts the risk of the work running long on the consultant.