What does AI help cost a small business in BC?

Most people selling AI help won’t put a number on a page. You get “every business is different” and an invitation to a discovery call. That’s frustrating when all you want is a rough idea of whether this is a $50 thing or a $50,000 thing.

So here are real numbers, including mine.

Tool prices change often and are frequently set in US dollars. Treat the figures below as a rough guide and check current pricing before you buy.

Cost 1: The tools

For most small businesses, the tools are the cheapest part.

• Free plans. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini all have free versions. They’re fine for learning, but not the place for customer information (see Is ChatGPT safe for my customers’ information?).
• Business plans. Expect roughly $30 to $45 CAD per person per month for a business-grade AI assistant, whether that’s a ChatGPT business plan, Copilot added to Microsoft 365, or Gemini inside Google Workspace.
• Connecting tools together. Services like Zapier or Make, which move information between your inbox, spreadsheets and other software, have free tiers and paid plans that commonly run tens of dollars a month for a small business.

For a five-person office, that’s often $150 to $250 a month all in. Many owners start with one or two paid seats and grow from there.

For current ChatGPT prices in Canadian dollars, and which plan fits a solo owner or a small team, see ChatGPT for small business: which plan, and what it costs in CAD.

Cost 2: Your time

This is the cost nobody puts on the invoice, and it’s usually the biggest.

Learning a tool well enough to trust it takes time: trying things, getting bad drafts, figuring out how to explain what you want. On your own, you might spend 10 to 20 hours over a couple of months before one job is running smoothly. That’s worth doing if you enjoy it. It’s expensive if your hour is worth $100 and you’d rather spend it with customers.

Cost 3: Outside help

Outside help falls into three kinds. Here’s how I price each one, as an example of what fair, published pricing looks like. All prices are in Canadian dollars, plus tax. Every job is priced on scope and what we’re teaching, so these are starting points.

What	What you get	Price
A first look	An hour at your place, one thing you can use the next day, and a written report with prices	Free
Teaching	A half-day with you and your team, working on your real work	$2,000
Setup	Setting up tools you already have (or cheap ones) to fit how you work	$3,500
Custom tools	Something built for your business, that you own outright, with a care plan for the first 12 months: someone watching it and fixing it	$5,000, then $600 a month for care

Elsewhere you’ll see everything from $99 online courses to consulting firms charging tens of thousands for “AI strategy.” The right price depends less on the size of the project than on whether it pays for itself.

Will it pay for itself? The simple math

Here’s the only calculation that matters:

hours saved per week × what an hour is worth to you × 52

Say a job currently takes 4 hours a week (quotes, customer replies, chasing invoices) and setting it up properly cuts that to 1 hour. That’s 3 hours back each week. If your time is worth $60 an hour, that’s about $9,400 a year.

Against that number, a $3,500 setup pays for itself in about four and a half months. A custom tool takes longer, because the care plan is part of the cost. Paid up front, the build and its first 12 months of care come to $12,200, so check that against what it saves you. A $2,000 half-day of training pays back quickly if even two people on your team save an hour a week each.

If the math doesn’t work, don’t do it. Honestly, that’s the most useful thing this page can tell you. Some jobs aren’t worth paying to fix, and anyone helping you should be willing to say so.

Pricing red flags

Be careful when you see:

• No prices anywhere, only a “book a strategy call.” It usually means the price depends on what they think you’ll pay.
• Long contracts for simple things. Setting up an assistant for your inbox shouldn’t need a 12-month commitment.
• Paying monthly to rent something built for you. If someone builds a custom tool for your business, you should own it, running on your own accounts.
• Bundles you can’t break apart. “The AI transformation package” usually includes things you don’t need.
• Promises in percentages. “Grow revenue 40% with AI” is a sales line, not a plan.

The cheapest way to start

If budget is tight, start here:

1. Pick one repetitive job (see How to start using AI in your small business).
2. Try it on a free plan for a week, with no customer details.
3. If it clearly saves time, pay for one business seat and set it up properly.
4. Only bring in outside help once you know what you want help with.

That path costs somewhere between nothing and $45 a month to find out whether this is worth it for you. Most owners know within two weeks.