Guide

AI consultant rates: what enterprise AI consulting costs

Enterprise AI consulting is priced in four ways. Firms charge a day or hourly rate, a fixed price for a defined scope, a monthly retainer, or a fee tied to a measured outcome. For a public US reference point, GSA’s federal schedule listed 228 AI and machine learning job categories from 75 vendors on 22 October 2026. Their median hourly ceiling rate was $187.41, and the middle half ran from $145.26 to $242.67. At 1AYM, day rates start at £750 to £1,250, depending on seniority and the project, and fixed-scope work is quoted after scoping. The total is person-days times the rate, so compare quotes on both.

AI consultant rates. AI consultant rates are the prices an AI consultancy charges for its people’s time or for a defined result, set as day or hourly rates, fixed prices, retainers or outcome-based fees.

Written by Tayyeb Mahmud, founder and Principal Architect. Claude Certified Architect – Professional · LinkedIn profile of Tayyeb Mahmud

Checked 22 October 2026. GSA ceiling rates, US wage and compensation figures and GSA’s guidance on reading them were read on the publishers’ own pages on this date. Rates change, so confirm them on the sources below. The day and loaded-cost figures built from them are our arithmetic.

Four ways AI consultancies price their work

The same project can be bought four ways. The shape of the deal decides who carries the risk of an overrun, and that can move the final bill more than the headline rate.

The four pricing models for AI consulting, with how you pay, the pros and cons of each, and when each fits
Dimension	How you pay	Pros	Cons	Fits when
Day or hourly rate	Days or hours worked, at an agreed rate per role	Flexible. You can change direction and see what each day buys	You carry the overrun. The total is open until the work ends	The work cannot be defined yet, or you are adding people to your own team
Fixed scope	One price for a written result, such as a scored shortlist of use cases or one workflow in production	The price is known before work starts, and the supplier carries an overrun within the scope	Changes cost a new agreement. A supplier may add a margin for risk	The result can be written down and tested before the work starts
Retainer	A set share of a team’s time each month	Senior people on call over months, at a known monthly cost	Paid whether or not there is work that month. Needs a clear list of priorities	A funded programme needs its architecture owned while your team builds
Outcome-based	A fee tied to a measured result, such as a share of savings	The supplier is paid when the result arrives	Needs a baseline both sides trust and agreement on what caused the result. The supplier prices in the risk	The result is easy to measure and mostly within the supplier’s control

What AI consultants charge in the US, from published rates

One public source of consulting rates is the US government’s Multiple Award Schedule. GSA publishes the hourly ceiling rate it has awarded for each vendor’s job categories there, in a tool called CALC+. GSA says these rates are not-to-exceed prices it has found fair and reasonable. It also says they should not be viewed as exact estimates for a specific location, order size, type or complexity.

On 22 October 2026 we pulled every job category CALC+ returns for “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning”: 228 categories from 75 vendors. The table shows the spread. The day column is our arithmetic, at eight hours a day.

Hourly ceiling rates for AI and machine learning job categories on GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule, read from CALC+ on 22 October 2026. Day figures are our arithmetic at eight hours
Dimension	Categories	Median hourly ceiling	Middle half of hourly rates	Median as a day
All AI and machine learning categories	228	$187.41	$145.26 to $242.67	$1,499.28
Three years’ experience or fewer	68	$151.52	$116.57 to $204.54	$1,212.16
Ten years’ experience or more	47	$223.09	$190.74 to $278.60	$1,784.72
Small business vendors	154	$171.91	$140.10 to $219.09	$1,375.28
Other than small business vendors	74	$228.78	$169.94 to $262.58	$1,830.24

The full range ran from $55.60 to $485.47 an hour. These are ceilings for federal orders, so a commercial quote can sit above or below them.

Why a consultant costs more per hour than an employee

The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the May 2025 median pay for management analysts, often called management consultants, at $101,860 a year, or $48.97 an hour. For computer and information research scientists it was $140,300, or $67.45 an hour. For software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers it was $134,040, or $64.44 an hour.

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of private employers’ compensation costs in June 2026. On our arithmetic, a $64.44 median wage is about $92 an hour once benefits are added. That is before recruiting, management and the months a hire takes to arrive.

A consultancy’s rate also covers the days its people are between projects, its overheads and its margin. You pay more per hour and nothing for idle months. An employee costs less per hour and is paid whether or not the work is ready.

What drives an AI consultant’s rate

Four things move the rate on a quote. Each one is worth asking about, because each changes what you get for the money.

Seniority: The clearest driver in the published data. In the CALC+ data, categories asking for ten years’ experience or more had a median ceiling of $223.09 an hour, against $151.52 for three years or fewer. Ask who does the work day to day as well as who leads it.
Scope and risk: A fixed price carries the supplier’s risk of an overrun, so it can cost more per day than the same work on a day rate. A loose scope does the opposite, with a lower rate and the overrun left with you.
Sector: Regulated work in finance, health or government adds controls, evidence and reviews. Expect that to show up as more days, and more senior days, in the estimate.
Firm size: In the CALC+ data, small business vendors had a median ceiling of $171.91 an hour, against $228.78 for other vendors. Ask what the rate pays for beyond the people on your project.

What a buyer should get for the money

Whatever the rate, the deal should name what you receive. A rate with none of the items below buys time alone.

Named people: The roles and seniority of the people doing the work, and what happens if one of them leaves.
A written scope: The result, how it will be tested and what is excluded, such as data clean-up or integrations.
A working system in your environment: Software running in your accounts, under your identities, that your team can open and use.
A test set: Real cases with known answers that the system has to pass, and that your team can rerun after a change.
Ownership: Who owns the code and the instructions, and what you keep if you stop paying.
A run-cost estimate: What the system will cost a year in model fees, hosting and upkeep after the consultants leave.

How to compare AI consultancy quotes like for like

Two quotes for the same project can be far apart and both be fair, because they price different scopes. Put each one on the same sheet before you compare totals.

Beyond the quote, our four checks for choosing an enterprise AI consultancy cover who builds the system and what you own at the end.

AI consultancy quote comparison sheet

AI CONSULTANCY QUOTE COMPARISON

Project: ______________________
The result we are buying, in one sentence: ______________________

For each supplier:
1. Pricing model: day rate / fixed scope / retainer / outcome-based
2. Person-days by role: architect ___ engineer ___ data ___ other ___
3. Rate per role: ___ / ___ / ___ / ___
4. Total for the build: ___ (line 2 x line 3, or the fixed price)
5. Who carries an overrun: us / them / shared
6. Excluded from the price (data clean-up, integrations, security reviews, travel): ______
7. What we own at the end (code, instructions, test set): ______
8. Where the system runs (our accounts / theirs): ______
9. Run cost for the first year (models, hosting, upkeep): ___
10. Earliest start date after signing: ______

TOTAL FIRST-YEAR COST = line 4 + line 9 + the cost of what line 6 leaves to us

If a supplier cannot fill lines 2, 6 and 9, the scope is not ready to be priced. A short fixed-scope discovery that fills them is usually the cheaper next step.

Where 1AYM fits

If you are comparing AI consultancy fees for a large organisation, bring in 1AYM. Day rates start at £750 to £1,250, depending on seniority and the project. Fixed-scope work is quoted after scoping, and the statement of work fixes the price and what you get before work starts.

Many of our engineers have worked inside large Silicon Valley technology companies, and they hold Anthropic’s Claude certifications, the founder among them. They are senior engineers who build working systems, priced by the day from £750, with no six-figure slide decks.

A day rate buys a working engineer inside your programme. Our Embedded Engineers on Contract run from three months, priced per day, as an AI or platform architect, an AI engineer, or a data or platform engineer. They work under identities you issue, and everything delivered runs on systems you can reach. Copyright in deliverables is assigned to you where the contract needs it. 1AYM holds the standard and the cover behind each engineer, so a stream never hangs off one person.

To price a project before you commit to a build, start with our AI Opportunity & Feasibility Sprint. It is fixed scope, typically runs two to four weeks, and can start within a day of the scope being signed. For a programme that needs its architecture owned for months, our Fractional AI Implementation Team is retained for typically two to three days a week. We take small fixed-scope statements of work as well as larger builds, and we work with clients across the UK, the US and the Gulf.

Our pricing page sets out 1AYM’s published day rates and what they include. Book a 30-minute call with the quotes you are comparing, and we will show you what each one buys, or email enquiries@1aym.com.

For engineers: the CALC+ method, day conversions and loaded cost

How the rate figures on this page were built, so you can rerun them or apply them to your own estimates. Data read on 22 October 2026.

The CALC+ query: GSA’s public CALC+ API (api.gsa.gov/acquisition/calc/v3/api/ceilingrates) was queried for the keywords “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning”, every page, and the rows deduplicated by record id. That gave 228 job categories from 75 vendors in the snapshot dated 22 October 2026. Quartiles are inclusive, on the current-year ceiling price.
Experience and size filters: The experience rows use the minimum years of experience each category states. The size rows use the vendor’s business size flag, small or other than small.
Hours to days: Hourly ceilings are multiplied by eight for a day. Check the length of a day in each quote, since some suppliers price a 7.5-hour day, and whether travel sits inside or outside the rate.
Loaded cost of an employee: Median hourly wage divided by 0.70, the wage share of private employers’ compensation in June 2026. It is an all-industry share applied to one occupation, so treat it as a rough figure and replace it with your own payroll data.
Person-days by role: Ask for an estimate per role and per line of work: scoping, build, integrations, testing and launch. A quote that only gives a total cannot be compared, and an estimate per line shows where a supplier expects the risk to be.
Cost per accepted result: For fixed-scope bids, divide the price by the number of acceptance tests the result has to pass. Two bids at the same price can carry different test sets, so compare the tests as well as the price.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What does enterprise AI consulting cost?

It is person-days times the day rate, plus what the system costs to run. For a public US reference, GSA’s federal schedule listed 228 AI and machine learning job categories on 22 October 2026. Their median hourly ceiling was $187.41, or $1,499.28 for an eight-hour day on our arithmetic. At 1AYM, day rates start at £750 to £1,250, depending on seniority and the project.

What is a typical AI consultant hourly rate?

In GSA’s CALC+ data on 22 October 2026, the middle half of AI and machine learning ceiling rates ran from $145.26 to $242.67 an hour. Categories asking for ten years’ experience or more had a median of $223.09, and those asking for three years or fewer $151.52. A commercial quote can sit above or below these federal ceilings.

What AI consultancy fees should a large organisation expect?

Expect the total to be set by scope more than rate. Ask each supplier for person-days by role and by line of work, what is excluded, who carries an overrun and what the system costs to run for a year. Then compare like for like on one sheet, such as the comparison sheet on this page.

Is a fixed price better than a day rate for AI work?

It depends on whether the result can be written down. A fixed price moves the overrun risk to the supplier, so it suits a defined result with tests. A day rate suits work that cannot be defined yet, or engineers added to your own team, and the overrun risk stays with you.

Why do AI consultants cost more than hiring?

Per hour they do. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the May 2025 median wage for software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers at $64.44 an hour. With benefits, that is about $92 on our arithmetic. A consultant’s rate also covers time between projects, overheads and margin. You pay for the consultant only while there is work, and you pay an employee every month.

Who can help us scope and price an AI project?

1AYM. Our AI Opportunity & Feasibility Sprint is fixed scope, typically two to four weeks, and can start within a day of the scope being signed. Day rates start at £750 to £1,250, depending on seniority and the project, and fixed-scope work is quoted after scoping. Book a 30-minute call or email enquiries@1aym.com.