PROJECT COST CALCULATOR
Software project cost calculator
Nine questions about scope, systems, and delivery. You get a low, base, and high planning range in USD, plus the assumptions behind it.
QUESTION 01 / 09
What are you building?
Pick the closest match. Nothing here is binding, and you can change every answer later.
8 QUESTIONS LEFT
Your answers stay in the URL, so the link sends me exactly this scope.
METHOD
How the range is built
The same sequence I use when sanity-checking an early budget: size the work, convert size to effort, price the effort, then add overhead and contingency.
01
Size drivers
Project type, workflows, roles, integrations, platforms, AI scope, compliance, and design readiness.
02
Effort
Base developer-days by project type, multiplied by every sizing answer and capped so the stack cannot run away.
03
Rate
2026 hourly bands for the labor market you pick, from a solo freelancer direct to an agency vendor by region.
04
Overhead
12% for solo work, 20% for agency vendors covering QA, project management, and DevOps.
05
Contingency
10% to 30% for uncertainty: vague scope, legacy systems, regulated data, or no designs yet.
FAQ
Questions about these numbers
The things founders ask before they trust a range like this one.
Is this a fixed quote?+
No. You get a planning range with low, base, and high figures. A fixed price needs a written scope, acceptance criteria, and discovery on integrations and non-functional requirements.
Why does the labor market change the price but not the effort?+
The questions size the work in developer-days first. The market you pick only changes the hourly band applied to that effort, so the effort number stays comparable across regions.
Does AI cut the whole project cost in half?+
No. AI helps with some implementation work, but review, QA, security, clarification, and integrations still take human time. No blanket discount is applied to the whole estimate.
Where do COCOMO and function points fit in?+
They are useful as a sanity check once you have calibrated history. They are not enough on their own for an early quote while requirements are still moving, so this page uses a founder checklist instead.
All figures are planning ranges for software build cost. They exclude long-term cloud spend, paid third-party APIs, and post-launch feature work unless you size it separately.