Pricing and engagement models
Fixed-fee AI builds from $25,000, dedicated engineering pods from 4 engineers, and logistics services priced as a share of the load, not a monthly bill.
The numbers below are the starting points we already publish across our service pages. Your exact price comes from a scoping call and arrives as a fixed-fee proposal within 3 to 5 business days, with a full breakdown before you sign anything.
Four numbers to plan around.
Single production agent, fixed fee
Also HIPAA-ready healthcare builds
Operational in about 3 weeks
Business days after scoping
Four ways to work with us, each priced differently.
Defined-scope work is a fixed fee. Capacity and operations are a monthly retainer. Most clients start with one model and add another as the work changes shape.
Fixed-scope project
Fixed fee, agreed before work starts
A defined system with a clear outcome: an AI agent, an LLM application, a RAG pipeline, a modernization.
- AI agents from $25,000
- Generative AI and HIPAA-ready healthcare builds from $30,000
- Fixed-fee proposal within 3 to 5 business days of scoping
- You own the code, models, and infrastructure
Dedicated pod / staff augmentation
Monthly, per engineer on the pod
You have a roadmap and engineering leadership, and need senior AI, data, or platform engineers working inside your team.
- Pods from 4 engineers
- 40 to 60% less than a comparable US or UK in-house hire
- You interview and approve every engineer
- Add engineers in 2 to 3 weeks, reduce with 30 days notice
Global Capability Center
Monthly retainer
A long-running, dedicated engineering center that reports into your leadership while MetaSys carries the entity, HR, and payroll underneath.
- Running in about 3 weeks of contract signature
- Minimum pod of 4 engineers
- 3-month minimum, then month-to-month with 30 days notice
- 40 to 60% below a US or UK in-house hire
Managed AI operations
Monthly retainer scoped to your system
An AI system is already in production, or about to be, and needs a named owner for monitoring, retraining, and incidents.
- SLA response times from 4 to 24 hours
- A named engineer, not a ticket queue
- Monitoring, drift detection, and retraining
- Takes over systems built by your team or a prior vendor
What moves a quote up or down.
Two projects with the same headline can differ several times over in cost. These are the factors a scoping call is designed to surface. The full breakdown, with market ranges, is in our AI development cost guide.
| Driver | What moves the number | Typical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Scope and agent complexity | The number of tools an agent calls, how ambiguous its inputs are, and whether it works alone or inside a multi-agent workflow. | The single biggest driver |
| Integrations and data readiness | Legacy ERPs, inconsistent schemas, and rate-limited third-party APIs. Unstructured data needs a preprocessing layer. | Often 30 to 50% of build cost when data is not clean |
| Evaluation infrastructure | Test datasets, automated scoring, and regression runs after every model or prompt change. | Typically 15 to 25% of build cost |
| Compliance requirements | Encryption, access control, and audit trails for regulated data, plus more upfront architecture for fintech compliance work. | Why healthcare builds start from $30,000 |
| Team model and duration | A fixed-scope build is a one-time fee. A pod or a Global Capability Center is a monthly cost that scales with headcount. | Pods start at 4 engineers |
| Post-launch operations | Monitoring, retraining, and incident response once the system is live, sized to volume and the response time you need. | SLA from 4 to 24 hours |
Four rules every MetaSys proposal follows.
Fixed fee for defined scope
Project work is quoted as one fixed price, so scope risk sits with us, not with you.
Full breakdown before signing
Every proposal itemizes the price before any contract is signed. No surprise line items later.
No hourly billing on projects
We do not bill by the hour for project work. Ongoing work runs on a monthly retainer.
You own what you pay for
Code, models, pipelines, and infrastructure are yours, with no vendor lock-in.
For carriers: you pay when the truck earns.
Dispatch, factoring, and MC lease placement are priced as a share of the load or the invoice. Full details live on each logistics service page.
Truck dispatch
A percentage of gross load revenue that drops as your fleet grows.
- 1 truck
- 7 to 8%
- 2 to 5 trucks
- 6 to 7%
- 6+ trucks
- 5 to 6%
No monthly fees, no setup costs, and it runs week to week.
Dispatch pricingFreight factoring
MetaSys is an authorized partner of Riviera Finance, OTR Solutions, and RTS Financial, and matches each carrier with the partner that fits.
of the invoice value, confirmed with your matched partner during onboarding.
Your exact rate depends on invoice volume, broker credit, and recourse or non-recourse.
Factoring ratesMC lease
The cost depends on which authority your truck is placed under. You know which one before you sign anything.
Partner carrier path
Settlement of 5% to 20% of each load, set by the partner carrier.
MetaSys own-authority path
A straightforward settlement agreed with you before your first load.
A scoped architecture and a fixed price, not a slide deck.
Bring one workflow or one hiring need. After a 30-minute scoping call you get a written scope summary within 24 hours and a fixed-fee proposal within 3 to 5 business days.
Request a proposalPricing, answered plainly.
How much does MetaSys charge for AI development?
Defined-scope builds are priced as a fixed fee. A single production AI agent starts from $25,000, and a production generative AI application or RAG pipeline starts from $30,000, as do HIPAA-ready healthcare builds. Multi-agent systems and deep legacy integrations are priced against scope after a scoping call, with a full price breakdown in the proposal before anything is signed.
Do you bill by the hour?
Not for project work. Defined-scope projects get a fixed-price proposal, so the total is known before work begins. Ongoing work, such as a dedicated engineering pod, a Global Capability Center, or Managed AI Operations, runs on a monthly retainer.
How quickly will I get a price?
An engineer replies to every request within one business day. After a scoping call you get a written scope summary within 24 hours and a fixed-fee proposal within 3 to 5 business days.
What does a dedicated engineering pod cost compared to hiring in house?
A MetaSys AI engineer typically costs 40 to 60 percent less than a comparable US or UK in-house hire once salary, benefits, payroll taxes, and recruiting overhead are included. Pods start at 4 engineers, are operational in about 3 weeks, and run on a 3-month minimum before moving to month-to-month with 30 days notice.
How is Managed AI Operations priced?
Managed AI Operations runs on a monthly retainer scoped to your system: its volume, complexity, and the incident response terms you need. SLA response times run from 4 to 24 hours, and every retainer comes with a named engineer.
How much does truck dispatch cost?
Dispatch is a percentage of gross load revenue: 7 to 8 percent for a single truck, 6 to 7 percent for 2 to 5 trucks, and 5 to 6 percent for 6 or more. There are no monthly fees and no setup costs, and the service runs week to week.
What do freight factoring and an MC lease cost?
Factoring is arranged through MetaSys's authorized factoring partners, with rates from 1.5% of the invoice value, confirmed during onboarding. For an MC lease, the cost depends on the path: under a partner carrier's authority the settlement runs 5% to 20% of each load, set by that partner, while under MetaSys's own authority the settlement is agreed with you before your first load.
Who owns what we pay for?
You do. The code, models, pipelines, and infrastructure built for you are yours. MetaSys retains no rights to the systems it builds for you, and there is no vendor lock-in.
Turn a starting price into your price.
Describe the system or the team you need. An engineer reads every request and replies within one business day.
- Fixed-fee proposal within 3 to 5 business days of scoping
- Full price breakdown before any contract is signed
- AI agents from $25,000, generative AI from $30,000
- Pods from 4 engineers, at 40 to 60% less than a US or UK in-house hire