Short answer: for most small-business agents, the AI work itself costs between under $1 and about $50 a month. Three things set the number: how often the agent runs, how hard each run is, and how the tool you use charges for it. The examples below use AgentNava's published prices, because those are the numbers we can stand behind. We make AgentNava, so weigh our view accordingly.
Example costs for common small-business agents
Every example counts turns. A turn is one message to the agent, or one scheduled run, plus everything the agent does to answer it: reading, searching, using your apps and writing back. On AgentNava a turn costs $0.01 on the Standard grade and $0.05 on Premium.
| Agent | How often it runs | Turns a month | Standard ($0.01) | Premium ($0.05) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice reminders: checks open invoices and drafts the day's reminders | Once each morning | 30 | $0.30 | $1.50 |
| Weekly prospect list: researches new leads for the sales team | Once a week | 4 | $0.04 | $0.20 |
| Inbox triage: sorts new email and drafts replies | Every hour, 9 to 5, on weekdays | 176 | $1.76 | $8.80 |
| Status checker: watches a system and reports problems | Every hour, all day | 720 | $7.20 | $36 |
| Customer questions: answers messages from customers | 1,000 messages a month | 1,000 | $10 | $50 |
An agent that is not running costs nothing. The bill follows the work.
What drives the cost
1. How often it runs. Each scheduled run and each message is one turn. An agent that runs once a day costs a thirtieth of one that runs every hour. Start with the slowest schedule that still does the job.
2. How hard each run is. Routine reading, sorting and drafting runs well on a standard model. Work that has to be right, like reconciling numbers or judging a contract clause, is worth a stronger model. On AgentNava you set this per agent:
- Standard ($0.01 a turn): everyday work such as reading, writing and routine reasoning.
- Premium ($0.05): the hardest reasoning, for work that has to be right.
- Fast ($0.10): the fastest model we run, for voice and live conversation. It costs more than Premium and reasons less deeply, because what it buys is response time.
- Best ($0.20): the strongest model we run.
3. How the tool charges. Tools for AI agents and automation charge in different units, so compare them on the same job:
- Per turn or per message: you pay each time the agent does a piece of work, whatever it does inside it.
- Per task or per operation: common in workflow automation tools. Each step a workflow takes counts, so a ten-step workflow costs ten times a one-step one.
- Per credit: a credit buys a set amount of work, and different actions use different numbers of credits.
- Per seat: a monthly fee for each person, often with usage limits on top.
- Per token, if you build it yourself: model providers charge for the text going in and out. It can be cheap per message, but you also pay for hosting, engineering and upkeep.
Costs people forget
- The apps the agent works in. The agent uses your existing accounts, such as QuickBooks, HubSpot or Gmail. Those subscriptions stay what they are.
- Your time to describe the job. Writing down what the agent should do, and what it must never do, often takes an hour or two. It is also what makes the agent reliable.
- Review time. Most teams start with the agent asking a person before anything sensitive, like sending a final payment notice. That is a few minutes a day, and it shrinks as trust grows.
- Mistakes. An agent that emails the wrong customer costs more than any model bill. Have the agent ask you before anything sensitive until you have watched it work for a few weeks.
How to estimate your own agent in three steps
- Count the runs. How many scheduled runs and how many messages a month? Use the table above as a guide.
- Pick the grade. Standard unless the work needs hard reasoning.
- Multiply. Runs times the price of a turn. A daily agent on Standard is $0.30 a month; on Premium, $1.50.
If the answer is under a few dollars, the agent is worth trying on a real task this week. If it is in the hundreds, check whether it really needs to run that often, or whether part of the job is a fixed step that a plain automation could do for less.
What it costs on AgentNava
- Pay per turn: $0.01 Standard, $0.05 Premium, $0.10 Fast, $0.20 Best. Full details on the pricing page.
- Prepaid credit that does not expire, bought in any amount from $5. Packs of $25, $100 and $500 are there to make it quick.
- Your first $5 is free. That is 500 turns on Standard, or 100 on Premium.
- No monthly minimum, and no limit on how many agents you build.
- If credit runs out, a scheduled run is skipped without charge, and runs start again once you add credit.
You can see what an agent will do before you start: the AgentNava agent library lists 46 ready-made agents, each with its written workflows and the apps it uses.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free way to try an AI agent?
Yes. A new AgentNava workspace starts with $5 of credit, which is 500 turns on the Standard grade. That is enough to run a daily agent for more than a year, or to test several agents on real work.
Do AI agents cost money when they are not doing anything?
Not on AgentNava. You pay per turn, so an agent that is waiting costs nothing. Tools that charge per seat or per month cost the same whether the agent works or not.
Why does a faster model cost more than a smarter one?
Speed and reasoning are different things. A model built to answer in under a second, for voice or live chat, runs on special hardware, and that costs more even though it reasons less deeply. Pick it only when response time matters.
Is it cheaper to build my own agent on a model API?
Per message, often yes. In total, usually not for a small business: you also pay for hosting, for connecting each app, for handling errors and retries, and for someone to keep it running. Building it yourself makes sense when you have engineers and a job no product covers.
How much does an AI agent cost compared with a person doing the same work?
For routine work like reminders, sorting and first drafts, an agent’s monthly bill is usually a small fraction of an hour of a person’s time. The useful comparison is the hours the agent gives back, minus the time you spend reviewing its work.