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Tools / Build cost

What would it cost to build it with AI?

AI can now build a website, a quote form or an automation for your business. Pick what you have in mind and see the AI bill, the hours it takes you, and when you'd be better off hiring a developer.

2 minutesA real build to compare againstHonest about when not to DIY
What are you building?

Pick the closest one, or search.

Your experience
AI model
Building it with AI
0tokens, roughly
$0AI cost to build it
0hours of your time
Where the tokens go

Do it yourself with AI

Build it with me

Hire a developer

A real reference

These tools were built this way.

The pages in this section, including the one you're on, were built with an AI coding agent in one evening, with me directing it. Here's what that actually took.

6pages, plus a small server that sends me each lead
2,971lines of code written
About 3 hfrom "build this" to live, including research
10–20MtokensEstimate
$15–80of AI, depending on cachingEstimate
6bugs caught by testing before anyone saw them

Hours and lines are measured. Tokens are estimated from the length of the session; most of them were the AI rereading the project, not writing it.

The AI cost calculator page, built in the same session

What it took besides tokens

  • Knowing what to build. Researching what owners actually ask, and what each tool should say "no" to.
  • Checking every fact. Prices, survey numbers and security claims, each traced to a source.
  • Testing on a phone. The running total was hidden below ten rows of jobs, so it got a pinned bar.
  • Fixing what looked fine. The booking popup silently dropped answers; spaces turned into "+" signs.
  • The boring parts. Spam protection, where leads go, secrets stored safely, a privacy page that matches.
The honest part

The tokens are the cheap part.

An AI can write the code for less than a lunch. What it can't do on its own is decide what's worth building, or look after it once it's live.

Rounds of fixing

First versions mostly work. Getting to "works every time, on every phone" is where the hours go.

Hosting and upkeep

Usually $0–20 a month for a site or form. Apps that log people in or store data need more care.

Security

Anything with logins, payments or customer data has to be built carefully. AI is happy to skip that if you don't ask.

Six months later

Something changes, it breaks, and you've forgotten how it works. That's when people wish someone else knew it too.

Free, from a person

Tell me what you want to build.

I'll reply within a business day with the honest path: build it yourself (and how), build it with me, or hire a developer, and roughly what each would cost.

Trevon HippolyteFounder. I build with AI every day.

Your picks above come along. No newsletter. Privacy.

Other questions owners ask

What would running AI cost me?Tokens explained, with a monthly estimate. Will it pay for itself?See the hours you'd get back each week. Am I a fit?Seven quick questions, and an honest answer.

Token and hour ranges are our estimates for building with an AI coding agent, which rereads the project many times as it works; caching usually cuts the bill by half or more, so costs are shown as a range up to list price (everyday model $2 in / $10 out per million tokens; most capable $4 / $20, October 2026). Developer prices are typical US freelance quotes, our estimate; agencies charge more. "Build it with me" uses Time with me at the founding price of $600 a month for 3 hours.