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Operations agent cost model

Scheduled work, exceptions, operating cost, and checked results.

Illustration: defaults are assumptions, not benchmarks. Any vendor price is dated beside the source; enter the actual contract price for a business case. Capacity released becomes cash savings only if spending changes.

A Today, by hand
Example

Every rule firing, scheduled or event-driven.

Example
Example
Example

6,000 items a month take 400 h by hand.

B Exceptions and failures
Example
Example

Often longer than the hand work: the easy items are gone, and the person reads why the rule stopped.

Example
Example
Example

Finding what half-happened and finishing it by hand.

To a person8%
Fail first try3%
Stay failed1%

The agent attempts 5,520 items; 480 go to a person and 66 fail even after a retry.

C Checks
Example

Confirmed in the system of record, not read off the run’s status.

Confirmed95%

5,181 checked results a month, of 5,454 completed items.

Monitoring

Example
Example
Example
D Platform price
How the platform charges
Example

Each step that does work: sending the reminder, creating the task.

List price

The platform costs $1,137 a month for 11,371 billed actions.

Salesforce Agentforce: $500 per 100,000 Flex Credits, and a standard action uses 20 credits. At that rate, one standard action costs $0.10; a voice action uses 30 credits. The pricing page doesn’t say whether failed actions use credits.

Agentforce pricingList price, checked September 29, 2026. Contracts can differ.

Zapier: $49 a month for 2,000 tasks, billed annually (Professional). At the full allowance, one task costs $0.0245. Zapier counts a task when a step completes; failed actions are not counted. Larger tiers change the price per task.

Zapier pricingList price, checked September 29, 2026. Contracts can differ.

By hand today$18,0006,000 items
With the agent$7,420per month
Change−$10,580−58.8%

Where the monthly cost goes

  • Total
  • Lowers cost
  • Adds cost
  1. Hand work today$18,000
  2. Checked results−$15,543
  3. Platform price+$1,137
  4. Extra time on exceptions+$2,160
  5. Cleaning up failures+$745
  6. Monitoring and checks+$920
  7. Net monthly cost$7,420

The axis starts at $0.

Point at a bar to see how the step is calculated.

How each bar is calculated
StepCalculationMonthly
Hand work today6,000 items × 4 min × $45/h$18,000
Checked results5,181 checked results × 4 min × $45/h−$15,543
Platform price11,371 actions × $0.10 (failed tries billed)+$1,137
Extra time on exceptions480 exceptions × (10 min − 4 min) × $45/h+$2,160
Cleaning up failures66 failures a retry didn’t fix × 15 min × $45/h+$745
Monitoring and checks(15 h upkeep + 109 samples × 3 min) × $45/h+$920
Net monthly costToday’s hand work plus every step above$7,420

Cost per result

The platform, exceptions, failures and checks come to $4,963 a month. Divided by attempted items, then by checked results, next to a person doing the item by hand.

  • Per attempted itemCounts items that failed or weren’t confirmed.$0.90
  • Per checked resultThe number to manage.$0.96
  • By handMinutes by hand × hourly cost.$3.00

The platform price alone is $0.22 per checked result.

People’s time

260 h freed a month.

  • Checked results+345 h
  • Extra time on exceptions−48 h
  • Cleaning up failures−17 h
  • Monitoring and checks−20 h
  • Exceptions and unfixed failures stay with people: the hand work stays, plus the extra minutes.
  • Freed hours lower the bill only when the team hires less or takes on other work.

How to measure the pilotSimpler pilot calculator