- Premium Content It takes our newsroom weeks - if not months - to investigate and produce stories for our premium content. You can’t find them anywhere else.
Melissa Goh · · 6 min readSticker shock for $20,000 AI agents? Corporate budgets put to test
How much would you pay for an AI agent?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is flirting with the idea of charging as much as US$20,000 a month for AI agents capable of doing PhD-level research, The Information reported in March.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman / Photo credit: Photo Agency / Shutterstock
This amount is 10x what the company plans to charge for AI agents that could replace “high-income knowledge workers,” and twice that of mid-tier AI agents that can handle tasks like software development.
Is spending US$20,000 a month on AI – excluding development costs – far-fetched?
The answer could depend on where you’re based. Given how prices are trending and the rising data loads being fed to AI agents, it’s not entirely out of the question, industry experts say.
Increased costs could give companies pause as they look to adopt AI agents – AI systems capable of making autonomous decisions and carrying out a series of actions to achieve goals with little to no human supervision – into their workflows.
“Perhaps even by the end of this year, [US$20,000] is definitely going to be a likely figure for [an AI agent] with industry-specific expertise,” Val Bercovici, chief AI officer at Weka, tells Tech in Asia.
Beyond PhD-level research, use cases in professional spheres like engineering and law or even in medical fields could also warrant such a price tag, he says.
What’s in a number?
Dissecting the cost of an AI agent isn’t straightforward.
While rates for customized enterprise plans are typically opaque, many pricing plans for businesses start at US$2,000 and up.
These costs could differ based on the level of customization needed. Generally, prices jump as more software integrations are required and as tasks become more complex and specific.
One-time development costs, which take up a bulk of costs, can range between US$3,000 to US$10,000.
Maintenance costs can contribute another 10% to 20% to annual costs. These expenses, which include prompt adjustments and model fine-tuning, are necessary for performance upkeep.
Basic vs. extra
Not too out there
Willingness to pay
Stay ahead in Asia’s tech landscape
This is premium content. Subscribe to read the full story.
Hidden expenses, performance demands, and tariff hits are quietly driving up the costs – and uncertainty – of deploying AI agents.
We know this is not ideal. ⌛ Sign up in 20 seconds. Cancel anytime.
Our subscriber community includes professionals from these companies:
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
