AI vs Human Cost Comparison

Who it's for: Business owners deciding whether to keep a task with a person, hire extra help, or hand it to an AI tool.

What it does: For one specific recurring task, compares the real cost of human time against an AI tool's cost and time saved, and gives a direct answer on which is cheaper.

1. The task

Task type

How often does this happen?

Hours per occurrence (human time today)

2. Human cost

Who does this task?

Hourly rate (AUD, fully loaded)

3. AI cost

AI tool

Monthly AI cost (AUD)

Pre-filled from the tool selected above. Edit if your plan or seat count differs.

Time with AI for this task (hours per occurrence)

How long the task takes when a person uses the AI tool to do it, not zero unless it's fully automated.

Cost comparison

Human time

Per occurrence-

Per month-

Per year-

AI (tool + time)

AI tool/month-

Human time w/ AI-

Per month-

Per year-

This shows the full AI tool cost allocated to this task. If you use the tool for multiple tasks, your actual cost per task is lower.

How we calculate this

Human cost per month = hourly rate x hours per occurrence x occurrences per month. AI cost per month = the human time still needed while using the AI tool (at the same hourly rate) plus the full monthly AI tool cost. Occurrences per month: one-off and monthly tasks count as 1, weekly as 4.33, daily as 22 working days. The full AI tool subscription cost is allocated to this single task as a conservative estimate — if the tool also covers other tasks, your real cost per task is lower. This is a single-task comparison. For a whole-of-business view, see the AI ROI Calculator.