stop guessing what to spend on tools.
Most companies do one of two things with tools and AI. They spend nothing and fall behind. Or they spend too much and buy a pile of stuff nobody uses. Neither one is a plan. Here is a simple way to figure out what to spend per person each year. And why we start where we start.
A designer and a bookkeeper don't need the same tools.
That sounds obvious. But here is how most companies pick a tools budget. Someone guesses a number. They multiply it by how many people work there. Done. Then the designer has to beg to pay for Adobe. And the office manager has four tools that all do the same thing.
The problem is not that the number is too big or too small. The problem is that it is the same for everyone. Tool spending should match the work. A designer uses different tools than someone running the office. That person uses different tools than the one doing the books. Each job needs its own set of tools. And each set costs something different.
You don't have a money problem. You have a sorting problem. Put people in groups by what they actually do, and the number shows up on its own.
The math
Two things decide what one person costs to set up: what they do and how old your company is. What they do sets the starting number. How old your company is moves it up or down. Then you add one shared cost for tools the whole team uses. And a little extra for the things that charge by how much you use them.
What to spend per person, per year
The starting number is what one person's tools cost at a normal company. The stage pulls it down when you are new and small. It pushes it up once you are ready for more. The shared tools are things the whole team uses, like an AI helper. The extra room is the part people forget. It is the cloud, the credits, and the AI use that go over the flat price almost every month.
The price per seat is the floor, not the ceiling. The thing that goes over budget is usage. That means cloud, AI credits, and how much your team runs things. If your team blows the cloud budget every month, the budget was too low, not the team. Plan for the extra on purpose.
Every number here comes from real 2026 prices. Sources are at the bottom. Prices change, so use the ranges as your guide and the exact dollars as an example.
Four groups, four starting numbers.
Almost everyone on your team fits in one of four groups. Sort your people into these and you are most of the way to a number. The numbers below are per person, per year, at a normal company. New or older companies go up or down from there. One rule: not everyone in a group gets every tool. Only designers get the design tools. Only coders get the coder tools. Don't buy the whole team Figma.
Office & Sales
Office staff, sales, admin, and marketing. They work in a chat app, a database, and an AI chatbot. That's the whole job.
- One AI chatbot seat (Claude or ChatGPT, about $300/yr)
- A share of the team apps (chat, docs)
- Maybe a notetaker for meetings
Creative
Designers, video, and brand people. They need real design tools, and those cost real money. Only they get them. Don't buy them for everyone.
- One AI chatbot seat (about $300/yr)
- Adobe All Apps (about $1,080/yr) or Figma (about $190/yr)
- Often already paid for somewhere else. Don't pay twice.
Specialist
Accounting, finance, and data people. They run one big app the rest of the team never opens. That app is most of the cost.
- One AI chatbot seat (about $300/yr)
- Their main app (accounting or data, about $900/yr)
- A share of the team apps
Developer
The biggest range on the team. It comes down to one question. Are they just playing with code, or building real software?
- Light coding (about $1,500): an AI chatbot and a basic helper for small scripts
- Real software (about $4,800): coding AI tools can run $150–300 a month per person, plus cloud costs
- This is where bills go over. See the extra room below.
One question comes up a lot: is this an AI cost or a tool cost? When Figma, Adobe, Slack, or Airtable add AI to a seat you already pay for, don't make a new AI line for it. Count it with that tool. Only a few things get their own AI line: an AI chatbot seat, an AI helper that does tasks for you, or a coder's AI tools. And if another team already pays for a tool, leave it there. The calculator below lets you take those out so you don't count them twice.
Then change it based on your stage.
Here is the thing we say the most in training: keep it simple for the first two years. A new company does not need a big pile of tools. It needs one AI chatbot, the few tools the work can't happen without, and the guts to say no to the rest. Fancy tools won't save a business that is still finding its feet.
New & Small
Pick one AI chatbot and use it for everything. Buy only what you truly need. No fancy automation yet. That is a good thing, not a limit.
Growing
Now you know what you do. Add the tools that have proven their worth. Turn on the AI features. Add a helper for the tasks you do a hundred times a month.
Established
Top plans, backups, and real automation. Now the tools save so many hours that they pay for themselves in a week.
The calculator
Put in how many people you have in each group. Pick your stage. Get a number you can drop right into your budget.
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This is a starting point, not a final price. It gives you a solid number to put in your budget and a way to explain it. Your real cost depends on which apps your team uses and how much you automate.
What we actually use.
We don't give advice we don't follow. Here is what we use and what it costs, so you can see how this works in real life and not just on paper. We pick one AI chatbot. We let the tools we already pay for do the AI work when they can. And we keep one helper for the tasks we run all the time.
| Tool | What it does | Group | ~ Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | Our main AI chatbot for daily work | AI | ~$25/seat/mo |
| ChatGPT | A second AI chatbot for certain jobs | AI | ~$25/seat/mo |
| Google AI Ultra | Premium Gemini for 3 power users, not the whole team | AI | ~$100–200/seat/mo |
| Slack | Team chat. Its AI counts as Other budget. | Team apps | ~$15/user/mo |
| Airtable | Our database. AI now comes built in. | Team apps | ~$20/seat/mo |
| Otter | Records and writes up meetings | Team apps | ~$20/user/mo |
| Superwhisper | Talk instead of type. Saves real time, and real money. | Team apps | ~$8/mo |
| Lindy | Builds helpers for tasks we repeat | Shared | ~$50–200/mo |
| Adobe / Figma | Design work. Designers only. | Creative | ~$16–90/seat/mo |
| Claude Code / Cursor | AI for coding. Real coders only. | Developer | ~$20–300/seat/mo |
| Cloud & AI credits | Pay-by-use costs that go over every month | Extra room | varies, add +18% |
Look at the groups. The AI inside Slack and Airtable gets called "Other budget" and counts with that tool. Adobe and Figma go in the design line, not the AI line, even though they both have AI now. Only the chatbot seats and the helper go in the pure AI group. That is the whole trick to keeping an AI budget honest.
The companies that get this right are not the ones that spend the most. They are the ones who can tell you why each tool is on the list. Start small. Add on purpose. The number was never the hard part.
Prices are 2026 rates for Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, Airtable, Otter, Lindy, Adobe, and Figma. Tool prices change a lot. Use the ranges as your guide and check the exact prices when you build your budget.
