The Economics
What it costs. What it returns. When it breaks even.
The figures below are a starting point — not a forecast. Adjust the capture rate and price assumptions to match your view. The goal is to give partners a structured way to think about the decision, not to present numbers as settled.
Indicative data: All figures on this site are indicative scenarios derived from a single workflow conversation with one Bentleys staff member. They represent useful orders of magnitude, not audited data. Before any investment decision, replace these defaults with a structured internal time-and-motion sample across multiple roles and offices.
$186K
Pilot deployment (indicative capex)
~2-month break-even at 50% capture
$387K
Full deployment (indicative capex)
~4.5-month break-even at 50% capture
$1.04M
Indicative annual value at 100% capture
Verify with your own time-and-motion data
Productivity value by role
Adjust the capture rate and toggle Year 1 vs Year 3 (post fine-tuning) to see how the value compounds.
What % of automatable time is actually captured as productivity gain?
Indicative. Adjust capture rate above and replace defaults in content.ts with your firm's actual hours and billing rates.
All-tool cost comparison
Comparing 8 tools across tiers — including premium (“max”) plans. Switch price scenarios to stress-test SaaS cost assumptions.
| Tool / Tier | $/user/mo (AUD) | 80-user yr 1 | 5-yr total | Context | Data | Audit | Fine-tune |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow AIPersonal / Unmanaged | Unknown liability | Unquantified | — | Varies | Uncontrolled | ||
| Microsoft 365 CopilotStandard | $47 | $45k | $226k | 128K tokens | Vendor cloud | ||
| ChatGPT TeamTeam | $47 | $45k | $226k | 128K tokens | Vendor cloud | ||
| ChatGPT EnterpriseEnterprise | $93 | $89k | $446k | 128K tokens | Vendor cloud | ||
| ChatGPT ProPro (Max plan) | $310 | $298k | $1.49M | 200K tokens (o1 Pro) | Vendor cloud | ||
| Claude TeamsTeams | $47 | $45k | $226k | 200K tokens | Vendor cloud | ||
| Claude MaxMax (5× usage) | $155 | $149k | $744k | 500K tokens | Vendor cloud | ||
| Private DeploymentLlama 3.3 70B (or equivalent) | ~$9 equiv. | $186k capex | $414k | 128K tokens | On-premises |
Shadow AI
Personal / Unmanaged
Unknown
Declared cost is $0. Actual liability is unknown — APP 11 breach and TPB Code exposure are unquantified until an incident occurs.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Standard
$226k / 5yr
Client data processed in Microsoft tenant. Compliant under DPA — but data still leaves your network. Strongest SaaS option for M365-heavy firms.
ChatGPT Team
Team
$226k / 5yr
Rate limits are a real constraint at 80+ simultaneous users. No Australian data residency guarantee.
ChatGPT Enterprise
Enterprise
$446k / 5yr
No fine-tuning. No Australian data residency. SOC 2 compliant but US-hosted infrastructure.
ChatGPT Pro
Pro (Max plan)
$1.49M / 5yr
Individual power-user plan — not designed for enterprise governance or multi-user administration.
Claude Teams
Teams
$226k / 5yr
Strong data handling policy — Anthropic does not train on enterprise data. No Australian data residency guarantee.
Claude Max
Max (5× usage)
$744k / 5yr
Individual power-user plan. 500K context window is a genuine advantage for large-document work.
Private Deployment
Llama 3.3 70B (or equivalent)
$414k / 5yr
AUD pricing calculated at 1.55 rate. Private deployment 5-yr total includes capex + 5 years of operating costs.
Per-role time savings + cumulative cost model
Per-role time savings
| Role | Headcount | Hrs/wk saved | Rate (AUD/hr) | Annual value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partners | 5 | 2.0 | $450 | $216,000 | Indicative — verify |
| Senior Managers | 12 | 4.0 | $320 | $737,280 | Indicative — verify |
| Managers | 18 | 3.5 | $220 | $665,280 | Indicative — verify |
| Junior Accountants | 30 | 2.5 | $150 | $540,000 | Indicative — verify |
| Admin | 8 | 1.5 | $90 | $51,840 | Indicative — verify |
| Total | 73 | — | — | $2,210,400 |
Cumulative cost: Private AI vs Copilot Enterprise
Net Private AI cost subtracts captured productivity value from the $387,500 full deployment cost. Toggle scenarios above to recalculate.