How Much Does It Cost to Build an App with AI?
What it takes to build an app, stated as effort ranges by complexity band, adjusted for platform and region, with the method, the sample and the exclusions written down. The same model answers how much it costs to develop a website or an app, and what an AI-assisted rebuild would consume in tokens. Independent research from Scrums.com over224 documented apps; not a quote.
Cost benchmarks by complexity
production-ready first release · 2–4 person team| Band | Complexity score | Typical scope | Effort (engineer-weeks) | Illustrative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | 1–3 | Single core job, few screens, standard auth, one integration. | 8–14 | $24k–$42k |
| Intermediate | 4–6 | Multi-role product, payments, maps or messaging, admin console. | 14–30 | $42k–$90k |
| Advanced | 7–10 | Marketplace or real-time logistics, media processing, ML features, several connected apps. | 30–60+ | $90k–$180k+ |
Rate assumption: cost columns use an illustrative blended rate of $3,000 per engineer-week ($75/hour). This is a readability assumption, not a market survey. Substitute your own blended rate; the effort range is the durable figure. Scrums.com's own delivery pricing is published on the pricing page.
Platform and region factors
multiply the effort range| Delivery target | Factor | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Web app (responsive) | 1.0× | Baseline: one codebase, one release channel. |
| Cross-platform mobile (Flutter, React Native) | 1.1–1.3× | Store submissions, device testing, some native modules. |
| Two native apps (iOS + Android) | 1.6–2.0× | Two codebases, two teams or one team sequentially. |
| Mobile + web + admin console | 1.4–1.8× | Most marketplace and delivery apps land here. |
| Team location | Factor (assumption) |
|---|---|
| North America | 1.0× |
| Western Europe / UK | 0.8–1.0× |
| Central & Eastern Europe | 0.5–0.7× |
| South Africa | 0.4–0.6× |
| Kenya · Nigeria · rest of Africa | 0.35–0.55× |
| India · South-East Asia | 0.3–0.5× |
Region factors are model assumptions relative to a North American base, kept deliberately wide. They are not a rate survey and carry no ranking. Quality, governance and time-zone overlap matter more than the multiplier; a distributed, governed team is how Scrums.com delivers regardless of region.
Methodology, sample and exclusions
method v2 · research date 2026-08-26- 01
Document the feature surface
Each of the 224 app profiles records publicly observable features in three tiers (basic, intermediate, advanced) plus design and UX scope. Nothing internal to the app's owner is used.
- 02
Score complexity 1–10
The documented surface is scored deterministically (weighted length of the tier descriptions, advanced features weighted highest). The score places the app in a band.
- 03
Apply the effort band
Each band carries an effort range in engineer-weeks for a production-ready first release by a 2–4 person team, including QA and release engineering.
- 04
Apply platform and region factors
Multiply by the platform factor for the delivery target and by the region factor for where the team is based. A website follows the same steps: a content or marketing site sits in the Simple band, a web application in Intermediate or Advanced.
- 05
Convert to a range, never a quote
The cost columns use an illustrative blended rate of $3,000 per engineer-week. Substitute your own rate; the effort range is the durable figure.
Sample and assumptions
- Sample: 224 documented app profiles maintained by Scrums.com.
- Scope is a production-ready first release, not feature parity with a mature product.
- Team: 2–4 engineers with product, design and QA capacity included in the effort range.
- Estimates are independent. Scrums.com is not affiliated with the apps profiled, and no internal architecture, cost, revenue or staffing figures are used or implied.
Excluded from every figure
- App-store fees, developer accounts and payment-processor charges.
- Third-party licences and usage fees (maps, SMS, media, AI APIs, data feeds).
- Marketing, user acquisition and content production.
- Ongoing hosting, monitoring, support and maintenance after the first release — budget these separately and continuously.
- Compliance audits, certifications and legal work (for example SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA).
- Hardware, devices and any on-premise infrastructure.
Token-budget explorer
224 apps · 4 AI coding tools · directionalThe same complexity score, expressed as the tokens an agentic AI rebuild would consume with today's frontier coding tools. Claude Code is the base column; the other tools carry directional multipliers for the extra iterations they tend to need to converge on the same build. Relative effort between apps and tools, not a price list.
No app matches. Tell us what you're building and we'll scope it.
Frequently asked
How much does it cost to build an app in 2026?
<p>Using the benchmarks on this page, a simple app is roughly $24k–$42k, an intermediate app $42k–$90k, and an advanced app $90k–$180k+ at an illustrative blended rate of $3,000 per engineer-week. Platform and region factors move the range; the effort range in engineer-weeks is the figure to carry into your own budget.</p>
How much does it cost to develop a website?
<p>A content or marketing website sits in the Simple band: roughly $24k–$42k at the illustrative rate, or less when a template and a hosted CMS carry most of the build. A web application with accounts, payments or an admin console follows the Intermediate band, $42k–$90k. The same effort model applies whether you develop a website or an app; the platform factor is 1.0× for a responsive web build.</p>
Are these figures quotes from Scrums.com?
<p>No. They are research benchmarks derived from documented feature surfaces and stated assumptions. Scrums.com prices delivery through its catalog and plan tiers, published on the pricing page; a scoping call produces an actual estimate.</p>
Where do the app profiles come from?
<p>From Scrums.com's collection of 224 documented app profiles, each describing publicly observable features. Scrums.com is not affiliated with those apps or their owners, and no internal figures are used or implied.</p>
What is the token-budget explorer?
<p>A directional model of the tokens an agentic AI rebuild of each app would consume with today's frontier coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok), derived from the same complexity score. It shows relative effort between apps and tools; it is not a price list.</p>
How often is this page updated?
<p>The benchmark model is reviewed annually. The research date, last-updated date and methodology version are shown at the top of the page (currently 2026-08-26, 2026-09-08, v2).</p>
Benchmarks are the easy part. Shipping is ours.
Scrums.com pairs governed AI agents with vetted engineers to take an app from estimate to production. Tell us the target; we reply within a business day.
AI AGENTS · VETTED TALENT · ONE PLATFORM