What AI development costs across US cities

On the pages read for this guide, one firm prints a price figure, one names a fixed fee with no amount, and two more publish the length of an offer with no price. The others publish neither a price nor a length for an offer. This page gives you the public numbers that do exist: the one printed price, and the wages of software developers in thirteen US metro areas. Every page was read on 21 October 2026.

The one printed price

Think Company's contact page lists three first steps [16]. A half-day workshop called the Think Session is listed at "No charge." A Think Vision Sprint, described as "Four weeks of structured, engaging working sessions" that end with a prototype and a roadmap, is listed at "$50K.". A Product UX Audit, a review of an existing product by senior strategists and designers, is listed at "$50K".

The ~ sign is called a tilde. Placed before a number, it means the number is approximate. So Think is telling you that each offer costs close to $50,000, and the K stands for thousand. The final price may be above or below that figure, and the page does not say by how much. Ask Think what decides the final amount before you agree to it.

Prices that are named and left blank

MojoTech's AI page describes AI Transformation Strategy as "A 6-week fixed-fee engagement" [17]. A fixed fee is a price agreed before the work starts that stays the same however many hours the work takes. MojoTech does not print the amount. Its Forward Deployed AI Innovation Pod is described as "A 2-week embedded sprint", also with no price.

Two more firms publish a length and no price. 8th Light's Applied Agent System runs "8-12 Weeks" and ends with one workflow in production [18]. Aimpoint Digital offers a four-week starting engagement that includes a design for the future system and a roadmap [19].

Reveneau says it uses AI in place of hiring more engineers and puts that saving into the prices its clients pay. To get a figure for your project, describe it through the contact page.

Firm	Offer	Length	Price shown
Think Company	Think Session	Half a day	"No charge."
Think Company	Think Vision Sprint	Four weeks	"~$50K."
Think Company	Product UX Audit	Not stated	"~$50K"
MojoTech	Forward Deployed AI Innovation Pod	Two weeks	None
MojoTech	AI Transformation Strategy	Six weeks	Fixed fee, amount not shown
8th Light	Applied Agent System	8 to 12 weeks	None
Aimpoint Digital	AI kickstart	Four weeks	None

Software developer wages in thirteen US metro areas

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) runs a survey of employers called Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Its May 2025 figures for software developers, across all industries, are below. The median is the middle wage: half of the developers earn more and half earn less. The mean is the average: the total of all wages divided by the number of developers. The two differ when a few people earn far more or far less than the rest.

Metro area (BLS name)	Median annual wage	Mean annual wage	Median against the national median
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA [3]	$167,280	$174,920	$31,300 above
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ [4]	$166,830	$165,870	$30,850 above
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH [5]	$166,090	$162,440	$30,110 above
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA [6]	$160,920	$161,900	$24,940 above
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV [7]	$154,930	$153,100	$18,950 above
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO [8]	$137,610	$149,400	$1,630 above
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN [9]	$134,380	$141,640	$1,600 below
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX [10]	$134,120	$143,630	$1,860 below
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD [11]	$133,040	$136,050	$2,940 below
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA [12]	$132,960	$135,870	$3,020 below
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL [13]	$132,650	$144,730	$3,330 below
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI [14]	$130,760	$128,200	$5,220 below
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI [15]	$107,520	$113,720	$28,460 below
United States, all areas [1] [2]	$135,980	$148,100	National figure

The table shows three things. First, the five highest medians, in Seattle, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, are each at least $18,950 above the national median. Second, the median in Seattle, $167,280, is $59,760 above the median in Grand Rapids, $107,520. Third, in nine of the thirteen metro areas the mean is above the median. In Miami the mean is $12,080 above it. A mean above the median means the highest wages raise the average more than the lowest wages lower it.

The Bay Area is missing from this table because it has its own guide. What AI development costs in Silicon Valley gives the BLS figures for the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.

How to use the wage table

Use the table to ask better questions about a quote. If a firm says its engineers work in one metro area, find that row and ask the firm how its rate for each person relates to the wage there. A firm whose team works across several metro areas, or several countries, should tell you which people sit where. The table also helps when you weigh a firm against hiring your own staff: the median is what the middle developer in that area earns, before benefits, recruiting costs and management time. The figures are for May 2025 and cover software developers in all industries, so a developer who works on AI systems may earn a different amount.

Which firms work in which metro area

Metro area	Firms in this guide with an office there
Seattle	Slalom, West Monroe, Fractal
New York	MojoTech, Fractal, West Monroe, Slalom, Accenture, Cognizant
Boston	Aimpoint Digital, Quantiphi, West Monroe, Slalom, Accenture
Los Angeles	Artium, West Monroe, Slalom
Washington, DC	Booz Allen Hamilton, Viget, West Monroe, Slalom
Denver	Slalom, Booz Allen Hamilton
Chicago	8th Light, West Monroe, Atomic Object, Slalom, Accenture
Austin	Quansight, Slalom
Philadelphia	Think Company, EPAM Systems, Slalom
Atlanta	Aimpoint Digital, Booz Allen Hamilton, Slalom
Miami	None found on the pages read
Detroit	None found; Atomic Object is in Ann Arbor, its own metro area
Grand Rapids	Atomic Object

An office is a place where you can meet a firm. The engineers on your project may work in another metro area, or another country, at another wage. Cognizant's annual report, for example, places 256,900 of its 351,600 staff in India, a total it marks as approximate [20]. Ask each firm where the people on your project will work, because the wage in that place is part of your price.

Why a firm charges more than the wage

A wage is what one developer is paid, before tax. A firm's price for that developer's time covers much more: health insurance and other benefits, payroll taxes, offices, computers and software licences, the sales staff who won your contract, managers, the weeks between projects when the developer is not billed to anyone, and the firm's profit. The BLS figures show one part of the cost: the pay of the people who build your system. Ask the quote to show the other parts.

AI projects add their own costs on top. The model your system uses may charge for each request. Hosting, the cost of the computers the system runs on, is another monthly line. Testing an AI system takes time, because the answers change and must be scored again after each change. And someone must watch the system after launch. Ask each firm to list these costs on their own lines.

How to read a quote

The White House Office of Management and Budget tells federal agencies that, in general, their requests for AI proposals should include terms that reduce the risk of being tied to one vendor, "such as requirements regarding knowledge transfer, clear data and model portability practices, clear licensing terms, and pricing transparency" [21]. A private buyer can ask for the same four things. In a quote, pricing transparency means you can see what each part costs.

Line in the quote	What to ask for
People	Each role, how senior, where each person works, and the hours or weeks
Price model	Fixed fee, or time and materials, which means you pay for the hours worked plus costs
Testing	How the AI will be tested, how many examples, who writes them, and whether you keep the tests
Model and hosting	Which AI model, the expected monthly charge for model use, and the hosting cost
After launch	Who watches the system, who fixes faults, and what that costs each month
Leaving	What you receive at the end: code, tests, data, documents, and help moving to another firm

Ask two or three firms for quotes on the same written brief, so the lines can be compared. Reveneau says each change it makes must pass an eval suite written from the client's specification before release, so its quote is one place to ask how that testing is priced. The AI development contract checklist turns the table above into questions you can print, and the full list gives each firm's entry.