Reports / October 2026
State of AI Agent Pricing — October 2026
Published by CostKite
- Tools tracked
- 85
- Median entry price
- $22.50/mo (n=50)
- With a free tier
- 52 (61%)
- Open-source repos
- 89
Pricing status
- Listed: 61 tools
- Custom pricing: 16 tools
- Usage-based: 4 tools
- Free only: 3 tools
- Unverified: 1 tools
Pricing models
A tool can carry several tags. 20 tools are not tagged.
- Credits: 27 tools
- Seat: 21 tools
- Hybrid: 18 tools
- Flat subscription: 17 tools
- Usage: 16 tools
- Free/open-source: 9 tools
- Per-call: 2 tools
- Outcome: 1 tools
Median lowest paid monthly price by category
| Group | Median lowest paid plan | n |
|---|---|---|
| Coding agents | $20/mo | 21 |
| Business agents | $20/mo | 7 |
| MCP platforms | $29/mo | 15 |
| Industry agents | $49/mo | 7 |
Median lowest paid monthly price by industry
| Group | Median lowest paid plan | n |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | $20/mo | 21 |
| Finance & Stock Market | $29/mo | 3 (small sample) |
| SEO & Marketing | $59/mo | 4 (small sample) |
| Sales & CRM | $65/mo | 3 (small sample) |
| Customer Support | $25/mo | 3 (small sample) |
| Research | $24.50/mo | 4 (small sample) |
| General / Workflow automation | $20/mo | 11 |
Groups with fewer than 3 priced tools are omitted; n under 5 is marked small sample.
Protocol support
36 tools document MCP client support and 41 document MCP server support (65 either). See the protocol support matrix.
Notable facts
- Intercom Fin charges $0.99 per outcome, with a 50-outcome monthly minimum. Source ↗
- Salesforce Agentforce Flex Credits work out to about $0.10 per action, sold at $500 per 100k credits. Source ↗
- ForecastGartner predicts over 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls. Source ↗
- Menlo Ventures: US enterprise generative-AI spend reached $37B in 2025, up from $11.5B; coding accounted for $4.0B. Source ↗
- State of FinOps 2026: 98% of respondents now manage AI spend. Source ↗
- Apify is live on x402 with pay-per-run pricing. Source ↗
Methodology
Data comes from official pricing pages checked in October 2026. Pricing-model tags are derived by rule from the recorded plan text (plan names, included usage, overage and notes); tools with unverified pricing get no tags. Medians use each tool's lowest paid monthly plan in USD. All figures on this page are computed from the CostKite dataset at build time.
FAQ
How much does an AI agent cost per month in October 2026?
The median lowest paid plan across 50 priced tools is $22.50 per month.
What is the most common AI agent pricing model?
Credits is the most common tag, applied to 27 of 85 tools.
How many AI agents have a free tier?
52 of 85 tools (61%) offer a free tier or free plan.