AI ROI Calculator — Hours Saved vs Subscription Cost

How much does AI actually save you? Enter hours saved + tool cost. Get monthly ROI, payback period, and annual savings.

Your AI ROI

Hours saved per week

Your hourly value ($)

Salary ÷ 2,000 hrs, or freelance rate

Monthly AI tool cost ($)

All AI subscriptions + API spend

Setup time (one-time hours)

Initial learning + workflow setup

Hourly value: If salaried, divide annual salary by 2,000. If freelance, use your billed rate. Founders: opportunity cost = revenue per founder hour.
Hours saved: Be honest. Most knowledge workers save 4-10 hrs/week with AI. Power users save 15-25 hrs. Don\'t over-claim.
Setup time matters: Learning Cursor, Claude Code, or n8n+AI takes 5-20 hours upfront. Factor this in.
Tool cost: Include ALL spend — Claude Pro + ChatGPT Plus + Cursor + occasional API + a buffer.

Role	Hours/week saved	Tools that drive it
Engineer	8-15	Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot
Marketer / writer	5-12	Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus
Founder / CEO	3-8	Claude Pro for thinking, Cursor for prototyping
Designer	3-10	Midjourney, ChatGPT (DALL-E), Figma AI
Researcher / Analyst	4-10	Perplexity Pro, Claude Pro

API cost across all models.

Which subscriptions actually pay back.

14-page solo founder stack.

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