AI Project ROI Calculator

Work out ai project roi instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About AI Project ROI Calculator

ROI is net benefit divided by total cost, where total cost is the one-off build plus running cost across the horizon. Payback is the build cost divided by the monthly net contribution, which is the number executives usually care about most. AI projects fail this test when the running cost — inference, monitoring, retraining and the team — is understated relative to a large upfront build.

Formula

ROI and payback

total cost = build + run x years; net = benefit x years - total cost; ROI = net / total cost; payback months = build / ((annual benefit - annual run) / 12)

Worked example

With the default values below, AI Project ROI Calculator returns Return on investment of 196.1%. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Annual benefitminimum 0: 750,000
One-off build costminimum 0: 400,000
Annual running costminimum 0: 120,000
Evaluation horizonaccepts 1–10 years: 3 years

Results

Return on investment: 196.1%
Net benefit over the horizon: $1,490,000.00
Total cost over the horizon: $760,000.00
Payback period: 7.6 months

Step by step

1Values used
2ROI and payback
3Return on investment= 196.1
4Net benefit over the horizon= 1,490,000.00
5Total cost over the horizon= 760,000.00
6Payback period= 7.6 months

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation or tax into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should benefits be discounted?

For horizons beyond a couple of years, yes. Use net present value with your organisation's discount rate; simple ROI overstates value that arrives late.

What is most often missing from the cost side?

Ongoing data labelling, monitoring and incident response, and the engineering time to keep the pipeline working. These frequently exceed the compute bill.