Business & money
AI Content Cost vs Agency
Price the same content two ways: an agency invoice, or your own team with AI doing the first draft.
Monthly difference
$2,352
65% versus the agency · $28,224 a year
- Agency / month
- $3,600
- In-house with AI
- $1,248
- Agency per piece
- $450
- Your cost per piece
- $156
- Team hours / month
- 21.6 h
- Agency / year
- $43,200
In-house with AI wins on cost, but not by enough to ignore quality. Keep the agency for flagship pieces and produce the volume yourself.
What the agency price actually buys
An agency invoice is not just writing. It covers briefing, research, a second pair of eyes, revisions, scheduling and the fact that the work happens whether or not your team is busy that week. AI removes a large slice of drafting time — it removes none of the management.
The honest comparison is the one above: your real loaded hourly cost multiplied by the hours left after AI, plus tool spend. If that number is close to the agency's, the agency is usually worth keeping. If it is a third of it, the case for in-house is hard to argue with — provided someone owns quality.