As of 13 August 2026, AI can calculate a project price.

What to actually do

1. Use a tool built for this

   The route this page recommends

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. 1. Open your current rate card, supplier prices, expense policy and standard quote terms, then gather the client brief, deliverables, quantities, deadline and revision requirements.
   2. 2. Remove confidential information that is not needed, and paste the remaining scope and commercial facts into the prompt under the matching headings.
   3. 3. Add your actual rates, estimated hours, direct costs, contingency rule, margin or markup rule, VAT treatment and minimum acceptable price; write unknown where you have no reliable figure.
   4. 4. Paste the completed prompt into a chatbot and ask it to calculate the base price, lowest acceptable price, client price and sensitivity scenarios without guessing.
   5. 5. Copy the table into your spreadsheet or quoting system and compare every rate, quantity, cost, VAT treatment and formula against your current records.
   6. 6. Resolve each open question with the client or your project team, then update the calculation for scope exclusions, payment terms, deadline risk and any included revisions.
   7. 7. Send the final quote only after checking that the total, assumptions, exclusions and acceptance terms match the version you intend to offer.

   Prompt

   Calculate a price for this project using only the information I provide. Do not invent quantities, hours, costs, rates, taxes, discounts or assumptions. If information is missing, list it as an open question rather than guessing.
   
   Project scope:
   [PASTE THE CLIENT'S SCOPE]
   
   Deliverables and quantities:
   [LIST EACH DELIVERABLE AND QUANTITY]
   
   My rate card or unit prices:
   [PASTE YOUR CURRENT RATES]
   
   Estimated time or effort for each item:
   [PASTE ESTIMATES, OR SAY UNKNOWN]
   
   Direct costs, supplier costs and expenses:
   [PASTE COSTS]
   
   Contingency rule:
   [STATE A PERCENTAGE OR FIXED AMOUNT, OR SAY NONE]
   
   Target gross margin or markup:
   [STATE YOUR RULE, OR SAY UNKNOWN]
   
   VAT treatment:
   [STATE WHETHER PRICES ARE VAT INCLUSIVE OR EXCLUSIVE AND ANY VAT RATE YOU USE]
   
   Commercial constraints:
   [MINIMUM PRICE, PAYMENT TERMS, DEADLINE, REVISIONS, TRAVEL, RISK OR OTHER TERMS]
   
   Produce:
   1. A line-by-line price calculation showing quantity, unit price, hours or costs, and subtotal.
   2. Any contingency, discount, markup, gross margin and VAT as separate lines, with the formula for each.
   3. A recommended client price and the lowest price I should accept, only if the supplied information supports both.
   4. A list of every assumption and unresolved question.
   5. A short quote-ready summary that does not claim anything not supported by the supplied information.
   6. Two sensitivity scenarios showing how the price changes if the work takes longer or the scope expands, using stated assumptions only.
   
   At the end, show the calculation in a compact table and separately flag anything I must decide before sending the quote. This is not professional advice; do not advise on tax or accounting treatment beyond clearly applying the VAT information I provide.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Hand it to a person

   The distant third

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.