How this calculator works
| Metric | Formula |
|---|---|
| Human-only cost | conversations ÷ conversations per agent × agent cost |
| Cost with AI | conversations × (1 − AI resolution) ÷ conversations per agent × agent cost + conversations × AI cost + platform fee |
| Payback | setup cost ÷ monthly savings |
Worked example
With these inputs:
- Currency: USD ($)
- Support conversations per month: 5,000
- Cost per human agent per month: 2,500
- Conversations one agent handles per month: 600
- Share the AI resolves without a human: 50%
- AI cost per conversation: 0.8
- AI platform & monitoring per month: 500
- One-off setup cost (from your quote): 15,000
Monthly savings with AI: $5,917. Handling 5,000 conversations a month costs about $20,833 with people only and $14,917 with an AI agent resolving 50% — saving $5,917 a month.
| Human-only cost per month | $20,833 |
|---|---|
| Cost with AI agent per month | $14,917 |
| Yearly savings | $71,000 |
| Cost per conversation — human / with AI | $4.17 / $2.98 |
| Agent capacity needed — before / after | 8.3 / 4.2 agents |
| Setup payback | 2.5 months |
Open this example in the calculator
What an AI support agent can resolve
| Usually automatable | Usually needs a human |
|---|---|
| Order and delivery status | Complaints and escalations |
| Return and refund policies | Complex technical faults |
| Account and password help | Negotiation and retention offers |
| Product questions from documentation | Sensitive or regulated decisions |
| Booking, rescheduling and cancellations | Edge cases the help content does not cover |
Keeping quality high
- Ground answers in your own help centre and policies (retrieval-augmented generation), not the model’s general knowledge.
- Hand over to a person smoothly, with the conversation history attached.
- Review a sample of AI conversations every week and fix gaps in the help content.
- Track resolution rate, customer satisfaction and escalations alongside cost.
Rolling it out
- Analyse past tickets to find the most frequent, repeatable questions.
- Connect the AI to your help centre, order system and help desk.
- Launch on one channel with a clear route to a human.
- Expand to more channels and actions as resolution rates rise.
Open this calculator with your numbers
Every option can be set in the web address, so you can bookmark a scenario or send it to a colleague. AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity can use the same parameters to open this calculator with your numbers and the result already on the page.
| Parameter | What it sets | Accepted values |
|---|---|---|
currency |
Currency | one of USD, INR, AED, GBP, EUR |
tickets |
Support conversations per month | number from 0 to 100000000, default 5000 |
agent_cost |
Cost per human agent per month | number from 0 to 1000000 (in the chosen currency), default 2500 |
tickets_per_agent |
Conversations one agent handles per month | number from 10 to 20000, default 600 |
resolution |
Share the AI resolves without a human | number from 0 to 100 (%), default 50 |
ai_cost |
AI cost per conversation | number from 0 to 100 (in the chosen currency), default 0.8 |
platform_fee |
AI platform & monitoring per month | number from 0 to 10000000 (in the chosen currency), default 500 |
setup_cost |
One-off setup cost (from your quote) | number from 0 to 100000000 (in the chosen currency), default 15000 |
Also available as plain text for AI assistants and a free JSON API (OpenAPI spec).
Last reviewed by the Infikey Technologies team.
Disclaimer
This calculator is provided free for general information and planning only. Results are estimates based on the inputs you enter and the assumptions described on this page, reference data such as published prices may change, and actual costs and outcomes will differ. Nothing on this page is financial, legal, tax, investment or other professional advice. Infikey Technologies Private Limited, Infikey Technologies LLC and their directors, employees and affiliates make no warranty, express or implied, about the accuracy, completeness or suitability of this tool or its results, and accept no liability for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, arising from its use or from reliance on its results. Verify all figures independently and seek professional advice before making any decision. Use of this tool is at your own risk.