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A full-time SDR or receptionist costs $3,000 to $8,000/mo fully-loaded. A Vapi+Modal voice AI agent handling the same call volume costs a fraction of that to run. This calculator shows the exact monthly savings, payback period, and 3-year NPV of making the switch, using real billing data from Scouq's 35 active voice AI deployments.
Monthly cost comparison
Payback timeline
Build cost fully recovered in month 1 of operation.
Monthly savings switching to voice AI
$8,952/mo
Human team fully-loaded
$9,222/mo
Voice AI total cost
$270/mo
Annual savings
$107,424
Payback period
Month 1
Voice AI cost breakdown
Voice ($0.13/min)
$260
LLM ($0.005/min)
$10
Minutes/mo
2,000
+$277,674
at 8% discount rate
The voice AI deployment creates positive economic value over 3 years net of the $8,000 build cost.
Voice AI cost: Monthly minutes (calls x duration) x $0.13/min (Vapi basic tier). Source: Scouq Modal Vapi billing, 35-caller production system, 2026.
LLM cost: Monthly minutes x $0.005/min (Modal Qwen-14B inference). Source: Scouq CPX31 Modal usage logs, 2026.
Human cost: Hourly rate x 160h/mo x 1.31 (BLS employer cost multiplier, Q4 2025) x staff count. This is the fully-loaded cost including payroll taxes and benefits.
Build cost: $8,000. Scouq Quick Build tier for a single-use-case voice agent with 2 integrations (~66h at $150/hr blended rate).
NPV: -$8,000 + sum(m=1..36) [monthly savings / (1 + 0.08/12)^m]. Discounted at 8% annual, conservative WACC for small-business capital.
We scope your specific call types, integration requirements, and escalation rules, then give you a fixed-price proposal. Scouq has deployed 35 voice callers on the Vapi+Modal stack. Most ship in under 3 weeks.
Related: AI Receptionist Break-Even Calculator . Missed Call Cost Calculator
Voice AI cost model
We use $0.13/min (Basic) or $0.22/min (Premium) for Vapi call handling, the exact rates on Scouq's Modal Vapi billing for 35 active callers. Plus $0.005/min for Modal Qwen-14B LLM inference -- our observed cost from CPX31 production logs.
Human cost model
We multiply hourly rate by 160h/mo then by 1.31x, the BLS employer cost multiplier for wages plus payroll taxes and benefits (Q4 2025). This is the fully-loaded cost, not just salary.
Payback period
Payback = build cost / monthly savings. We use $8,000 as the build cost, the Scouq Quick Build tier for a single-use-case voice agent with 2 integrations. This is our actual pricing basis, not a generic estimate.
3-year NPV
We discount future savings at 8% annual (0.67%/mo), a conservative hurdle rate for small-business capital. A positive NPV means the voice AI investment creates real financial value net of the build cost.
