Every trade business owner asks the same question before investing in new software: "What's it actually going to cost me, and will I get that money back?" Fair enough. AI is everywhere right now, and the hype makes it hard to separate real value from marketing fluff.
This guide gives you the real numbers. We'll break down what Sprigr costs at each tier, compare it against the admin expenses it replaces, and walk through three illustrative ROI scenarios from a solo plumber to a multi-trade operation with 20+ technicians.
What does AI actually cost?
Sprigr has six tiers. Every plan includes a monthly token allowance (tokens are what agent work consumes) and a cap on the number of agents:
- Free plan: $0/month. 2 agents and 1M tokens a month. Enough to run one or two real workflows against simPRO or your inbox and see how automation fits your business.
- Starter: $49/month. 3 agents and 12M tokens a month. Suited to small businesses with one to three technicians.
- Team: $199/month. 10 agents and 60M tokens a month. Built for growing businesses with three to ten technicians.
- Pro: $399/month. 22 agents and 120M tokens a month, for operations that have outgrown ten agents.
- Business: $799/month. 50 agents and 240M tokens a month. Designed for multi-trade operations running 10 to 50+ technicians.
- Enterprise: unlimited agents and tokens, priced on request.
On paid tiers you can turn on overage billing at a flat $5 per extra 1M tokens; otherwise agents pause at 100% of the allowance until the next cycle. Every tier gets the same integrations, workflows, audit trail and security; the tiers differ only in agents, tokens and storage. Full details are on the pricing page. No contracts, no setup fees, cancel any time.
What does admin cost without AI?
Before calculating ROI, you need to know what you're currently spending on the tasks AI replaces. For most trade businesses, the admin burden falls across four areas:
- Scheduling and dispatch. Coordinating technician calendars, handling reschedules, and managing emergency bookings. Typically 8 to 15 hours per week for a mid-size operation.
- Quoting. Creating quotes from job details, sending them to customers, following up on unanswered quotes. Often 5 to 10 hours per week.
- Invoicing and payment follow-up. Generating invoices after job completion, chasing overdue payments, reconciling accounts. Another 5 to 8 hours per week.
- Customer communication. Appointment confirmations, on-the-way notifications, post-job follow-ups, handling enquiries. Easily 5 to 10 hours per week.
For the sums below, assume an office administrator costs around $30 per hour including super or benefits (adjust for your market). A full-time admin at $30/hour costs roughly $5,200 per month. Even a part-time admin doing 20 hours a week runs $2,600 per month.
ROI scenario 1: solo plumber on the free tier
The business: one plumber, no office staff. Currently does all admin after hours, quoting from the ute, invoicing at the kitchen table, answering enquiries between jobs.
AI cost: $0/month (Free tier, 2 agents, 1M tokens).
Time saved: say 10 hours per week. The AI agent triages incoming enquiries, drafts appointment confirmations and quotes for a one-tap approval, and creates invoices after job completion.
Value of time saved: those 10 hours aren't free, they're either billable hours the plumber could spend on jobs, or personal time lost to admin. At a modest $80/hour charge-out rate, that's $800/week in potential billable time recovered. Even if only half those hours convert to paid work, that's $1,600/month in additional revenue capacity.
Monthly ROI (illustrative): $1,600 in recovered capacity for $0. A solo operator will bump into the 1M-token allowance if the agent is busy, at which point Starter at $49 is the next step.
ROI scenario 2: HVAC company with 5 technicians
The business: five HVAC technicians, one full-time office admin, and the owner handling overflow admin. Running jobs across residential and light commercial.
AI cost: $199/month (Team tier, 10 agents, 60M tokens).
Time saved: roughly 25 hours per week of office admin time. The AI agents handle scheduling across five technician calendars, draft quotes and invoices, and draft routine customer communication for the office to approve. The office admin shifts from data entry and scheduling to handling exceptions and customer relationships.
Value of time saved: at $30/hour, 25 hours per week equals $3,250/month in admin labour costs. The business doesn't necessarily eliminate the admin role, but it avoids hiring a second admin as the business grows, and the existing admin focuses on higher-value work.
Monthly ROI (illustrative): $3,250 in admin savings minus $199 = $3,051 net monthly benefit, on the assumption that the 25 hours are really recovered. Add a few dollars of overage in a busy month and the picture barely changes.
ROI scenario 3: multi-trade operation with 20+ technicians
The business: a field-service company running plumbing, electrical, and HVAC divisions. Twenty-two technicians, three office staff handling dispatch, quoting, invoicing, and customer service.
AI cost: $799/month (Business tier, 50 agents, 240M tokens).
Time saved: 40+ hours per week across the admin team. AI agents handle the bulk of scheduling and dispatch, quote and invoice drafting, and drafted customer communication across all three divisions. The office team focuses on complex quotes, escalations, and business development.
Value of time saved: 40 hours at $30/hour equals $5,200/month. More importantly, the business avoids hiring a fourth admin as it scales toward 30 technicians, a saving of $5,200/month in salary that never needs to be spent.
Monthly ROI (illustrative): $5,200 in admin savings minus $799 = $4,401 net monthly benefit. Over a year, that's roughly $52,800 back in the business, if the hours saved match the estimate.
The hidden savings most businesses miss
The direct admin time savings are easy to calculate. But three less-obvious benefits often deliver even more value:
- Faster quotes win more work. When a customer requests a quote and gets it in minutes instead of two days, your close rate goes up. Businesses that quote faster tend to win more of the work, simply because they respond before competitors do.
- Faster invoicing improves cash flow. When invoices go out the same day a job is completed instead of sitting in a pile until Friday, payment cycles shorten. Better cash flow means less reliance on overdrafts and credit lines.
- Fewer errors reduce rework. Manual data entry introduces mistakes: wrong addresses, missed job details, incorrect pricing. AI agents pull data directly from the source, eliminating transcription errors that cost time and money to fix.
Getting started: start free, upgrade when you see results
You don't need to commit to the Business tier on day one. The most common path for trade businesses is straightforward:
- Start on the free tier. Set up one AI agent to handle a single workflow, incoming enquiry management or appointment confirmations. See how it works with your business.
- Measure the impact. Track hours saved and response times over two to four weeks. The numbers will tell you whether to continue.
- Upgrade when you're ready. Move to Starter or Team when you need more agents or a bigger token allowance. Scale to Pro or Business when your operation demands it.
No contracts, no lock-in, and no cost on the Free tier. If AI saves your business even five hours a week, the ROI is already there.