AI agents often cost more than one prompt
An AI agent may call a model several times to plan, use tools, read results and produce a final answer. A good MVP estimate should model the average tokens per step and the number of steps per task.
Use the calculator by pasting the average context for one agent step, then multiply monthly interactions by expected agent steps or runs.
| Agent step | Tokens to include | Cost risk |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Goal, constraints and available tools | Usually small but repeated |
| Tool result analysis | Tool output and previous context | Can grow quickly |
| Final response | Summarized context and answer | Output tokens matter most |