Pricing
AI development cost and pricing: what Apex36 charges
By Yash Soni, Founder & CEO, Apex36Updated
In short
AI development at Apex36 starts at $8,000 per project, and a private LLM deployment also starts at $8,000. An MVP or a first automated workflow starts at $5,000, DevOps at $1,500 for a setup or $45 an hour, AI SEO at $500 for an audit or $1,200/mo, and engineers at $20/hr. Every figure is a starting point, and you get a fixed price in writing after scoping.
Key facts
| Lowest starting price | $500 (AI SEO audit); engineers from $20/hr |
|---|---|
| Free | AI readiness assessment, report by email within 48 hours |
| Engagement models | Fixed-scope project, milestone build, monthly team, hourly |
| Markets | US, UK, Australia, Singapore, UAE |
| Currency | USD |
Starting prices by service
AI consulting and development
From $8,000 per project
- What the starting price covers
- A first production use case, such as a RAG assistant on your documents
- What moves it up
- Several integrations, agents, private hosting
Private LLM
From $8,000 per deployment
- What the starting price covers
- One use case, one model setup in your cloud account and an evaluation on your data
- What moves it up
- More use cases, on-premise hardware, fine-tuning, high availability
AI for small business
First workflow from $5,000
- What the starting price covers
- One automated workflow running on your data, after a free assessment
- What moves it up
- More systems, more volume
Workflow automation
First workflow from $5,000
- What the starting price covers
- One workflow from one source system to one destination, with a review queue and a log
- What moves it up
- More sources and systems, high volume, regulated audit needs
SaaS and MVP development
MVP from $5,000
- What the starting price covers
- One core workflow with auth and a deploy you own
- What moves it up
- Billing, AI features, integrations, a separate admin app
DevOps and cloud consulting
Setup from $1,500, or $45/hr
- What the starting price covers
- A standard setup, typically in 1 to 2 weeks
- What moves it up
- Multi-account setups, Kubernetes, migrations
AI SEO and technical SEO
Audit from $500; retainer from $1,200/mo
- What the starting price covers
- A written audit with a ranked fix list; the retainer covers fixes shipped as code plus a monthly report
- What moves it up
- Bigger sites, more templates, several languages
Dedicated AI engineers
From $20/hr
- What the starting price covers
- Junior $20/hr, Mid $25 to $30/hr, Senior $30+/hr, in a monthly team (minimum 80 hours a month)
- What moves it up
- Team size and seniority
Staff augmentation
From $20/hr
- What the starting price covers
- Engineers who join your team and process, billed hourly (minimum 80 hours a month)
- What moves it up
- Seniority and monthly hours
Dedicated development team
From $20/hr
- What the starting price covers
- A team led by our founder that owns delivery, with a weekly demo (minimum 80 hours a month)
- What moves it up
- Team size and seniority
White-label development
From $20/hr
- What the starting price covers
- Engineers for your agency's client work, under your brand and an NDA (minimum 80 hours a month)
- What moves it up
- Team size and seniority, or a fixed price per project once the scope is clear
Fractional CTO
From $5,000/mo
- What the starting price covers
- Part-time technical leadership from our founder, up to 40 hours a month
- What moves it up
- Scope agreed in writing
What does AI development cost?
An AI development project at Apex36 starts at $8,000 for a first production use case, such as a RAG assistant that answers from your documents with sources. The price rises with the number of data sources and integrations, agents that take actions, private model hosting and the accuracy bar you need. Model and API usage is billed to your own accounts.
What does an MVP cost?
An MVP starts at $5,000 for one core workflow with auth and a deploy you own. Billing, AI features, integrations and a separate admin app move the price up. Discovery typically takes under a week, and you get a fixed quote in writing after it.
What does SaaS development cost?
SaaS development starts with the MVP (from $5,000). After launch, you can keep a monthly team billed by the hour (junior $20/hr, mid $25 to $30/hr, senior $30+/hr) for multi-tenancy, permissions, integrations and support tooling. You choose the team size month by month.
Engineer rates
- Junior engineer: $20/hr
- Mid-level engineer: $25 to $30/hr
- Senior engineer: $30+/hr
- DevOps specialist: $45/hr
- Fractional CTO: from $5,000/mo, up to 40 hours a month
Every engineer can start within 1 week, with a minimum of 80 hours a month and 2 weeks' notice to change hours. Hire developers by technology, add engineers to your team with staff augmentation, or have a dedicated development team own delivery. Agencies can use white-label development.
How you can work with us
- Free AI readiness assessment: answer 5 questions and get a written report by email within 48 hours.
- Fixed-scope project: a fixed price agreed in writing after discovery, for a clear first version.
- Milestone build: larger builds split into milestones, each with its own fixed price and demo.
- Monthly team: engineers billed hourly, with a weekly demo and changelog, for ongoing work.
- Hourly specialist work: DevOps at $45/hr.
Start with the free AI readiness assessment.
What is not included
- AI model and API usage (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock and others), billed to your own accounts
- Cloud hosting costs, billed to your own AWS, Azure or GCP account
- Third-party software licences
We size these costs before you commit and set budgets and alerts before launch.
What clients say about working with us
Founded by Yash Soni, Top Rated on Upwork with a 100% Job Success Score
Frequently asked questions
At Apex36, AI development projects start at $8,000 for a first production use case, such as a RAG assistant on your documents. More integrations, agents or private hosting raise the price, and you get a fixed quote in writing after discovery.
A RAG or LLM application starts at $8,000 for one use case on your data, with an evaluation set and sources in the answers. More data sources, user permissions, connectors and a higher accuracy bar move the price up.
At Apex36, an MVP starts at $5,000 for one core workflow with auth and a deploy you own. Billing, AI features and integrations add to that. Discovery typically takes under a week.
A SaaS product starts with an MVP from $5,000. After launch, a monthly team is billed by the hour: junior $20/hr, mid $25 to $30/hr, senior $30+/hr.
A first automated workflow starts at $5,000, including a review queue and an audit log. The AI readiness assessment before it is free.
Junior engineers start at $20/hr, mid-level engineers are $25 to $30/hr and senior engineers start at $30/hr. A fractional CTO starts at $5,000/mo for up to 40 hours a month.
You do, directly. Model, API and cloud usage is billed to your own accounts, so there is no markup and you keep control. We size the budget and set cost alerts before launch.
Rates in India are lower, so the same work costs less. You keep the things that matter: a founder-led team, a weekly demo and changelog, code in your repositories and invoices in USD. We adjust to your time zone, so our working hours follow yours.
Find out what to build first
Start with the free AI readiness assessment and get a written report by email, or book a 30-minute strategy call with the founder.