If you have searched for what an AI consultant costs in Australia, you have probably found the same answer on every website: book a call to find out. This page is the other kind of answer. Our full price list is below, with what each price buys, the running costs most quotes leave out, and a checklist for comparing a quote from anyone, including us. If you want to know the consultancy behind these prices first, that is one page.
How much does an AI consultant cost in Australia?
At Coastworks, a fixed price project runs from $495 for the Starter Pack to $8,900 for the Full Business Launch, with the packages in between, all flat and published upfront. Hourly consultants in Australia vary widely on price, which is why we publish ours.
We can only publish our own prices, so here they are. Our packages run from $495 to $8,900, one-off and flat, in Australian dollars. Ongoing support after your included period, if you want it, is $195 to $795 a month. A 60 minute consult with us is $295, credited toward the Engine, the Website + Email Build or the Full Business Launch. There are no hourly rates and no hidden extras: the price you see is the price you pay.
Those figures are the same ones on our homepage, and every job starts with a one-page inclusions sheet we both sign before any invoice. It lists exactly what we are building for you, what you pay us, and the running costs you will pay and manage in your own accounts.
Why almost nobody publishes prices, and why we do
The usual defence is that every job is custom, so no price can be published. There is some truth in it: businesses differ, and the work has to be sized to yours. But it is also convenient. A price you can only get on a sales call is a price that can move once someone has heard what you can spend.
We publish because we think you should be able to compare before you talk to anyone. That sizing still happens, at the consult, and the result is a fixed quote in writing. The published prices are the ceiling for each package, not an estimate that grows later.
One more number worth having before you compare anyone's prices: the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts AI use among small businesses at about 11%. What you are pricing is an edge most of your competitors do not have yet, not a software setup.
Our full price list
All prices are one-off and in Australian dollars. What each price buys is spelled out below.
The Starter Pack
For trying AI properly for the first time. Your AI assistant set up and trained for you, a written guide to run it yourself, and 30 days of support. Credited in full toward any build within 90 days, so trying costs nothing if you go further. If you are not sure which job to hand over first, the first things worth automating covers the order we recommend.
The Engine
For a running business keeping its current website. Your own small rented server (a VPS) in your name, your sales, bookings and accounts linked through read-only connections you control, a daily report each morning, a live dashboard, your first element pack of automations (your choice of Marketing, Accounts, Operations, Sales or Service), and 90 days of support.
The Website + Email Build
Everything in the Engine, plus a new website and customer email system built with you on your server, and all five element packs included. For a running business whose website needs replacing anyway. The websites themselves are on show in our demonstration builds for 9 kinds of business.
The Full Business Launch
For a business that does not exist yet: website, email, payments, billing, launch content and reporting, set up ready to trade, with all five element packs and 90 days of support.
Add-ons and ongoing support
- Element packs: $950 each, one-off, added any time after the Engine. Each is a set of automations for one part of your business: Marketing, Accounts, Operations, Sales or Service. The Marketing pack is why an AI answer names one business and not another. What that pack sets up, layer by layer, is on our AI search and SEO page. The Accounts pack, for example, is the judgement layer behind automatic invoice chasing, and the Operations pack sits over a job system once you have turned on the ServiceM8 automations worth keeping. Not sure which job app to run yet? Our ServiceM8 and Tradify price comparison works through the real numbers. For what the packs look like inside one industry, see the front desk we set up for allied health practices.
- Care plans: Essentials $195, Growth $395 or Scale $795 a month, each on a 3 month minimum then month to month. They cover your server managed for you, support, and 5, 10 or 25 new automations built into your elements every month.
- The consult: $295 for 60 minutes with us. You leave with a written recommendation and a fixed quote, and the $295 is credited toward the Engine, the Website + Email Build or the Full Business Launch.
The running costs most quotes leave out
Whatever anyone builds you, something has to keep it running, and those costs should be in the quote. Ours are small, always disclosed, and never marked up, because they are paid by you, in your own accounts: your server at $15 to $25 a month, your Claude subscription from $30 a month sized to your actual usage, and if we build your website, your domain at about $25 a year plus email sending costs as your customer email list grows.
Because every account is yours, everything keeps running if you stop working with us. Leaving costs nothing, and we built it that way on purpose.
How to compare quotes from any AI consultant, including us
Whoever you talk to, ask these seven questions:
- Is the price fixed and in writing, with a list of exactly what is included? An hourly rate with no cap means you will not know the total until the work is finished, and the list you sign should match the work that arrives.
- Who owns the accounts when the work is done? It should be you. Every account, every password.
- What does it cost to keep running each month? Small running costs are normal, but they should be listed before you pay, and paid from your own accounts.
- What happens if you leave? The best answer is that nothing changes, because everything already runs in your name.
- Would they ever recommend a smaller package, or none at all? A consultant who always recommends the biggest option is selling packages, not advice.
- Who do they usually work with? Look at their case studies. If it is all big firms, that is who they are set up for, and a one-person business will never be their priority. Everything we build is for the owner-operator, and the demonstrations on this page show what that looks like.
- Will they teach you to run it yourself? Training and a handover should be part of the package, not an upsell. A consultant whose model needs you forever is selling a subscription with extra steps. Every package includes the training to take over, and staying with us afterwards is your choice, not a requirement.
Our answers to all seven are on the homepage and in our terms. We would rather lose a sale than set up something you do not need.