Consulting Rate: $300/hour

This is reasonable for AI integration consulting, but I’d suggest a tiered approach:

$250/hr — Standard integration work (connecting existing APIs, configuring tools)
$350/hr — Custom development (new MCP tools, bespoke workflows, complex orchestration)
$500/hr — Architecture & strategy (system design, security audits, AI governance planning)

Hourly billing works for consulting, but for integration projects, consider fixed-price packages instead. Clients prefer predictability: “Connect your CRM + email + Slack to the Orchestrator: $5,000” is easier to approve than an open-ended hourly estimate. You can pad the fixed price to cover overruns.

Usage-Based Pricing for the Platform

The LLM-style per-request model makes sense, but pure usage pricing scares away new customers. A hybrid model works better:

┌────────────┬─────────┬───────────────────┬────────────┐ │ Tier │ Monthly │ Included Requests │ Overage │ ├────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────┤ │ Starter │ $99 │ 5,000 │ $0.02/req │ ├────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────┤ │ Business │ $299 │ 25,000 │ $0.015/req │ ├────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────┼────────────┤ │ Enterprise │ $799 │ 100,000 │ $0.01/req │ └────────────┴─────────┴───────────────────┴────────────┘

This gives you recurring revenue (the real goal) while the usage component scales with value delivered.

What You’re Actually Selling

Don’t undersell yourself. You’re not selling API plumbing — you’re selling AI governance for companies that aren’t ready to let AI run unsupervised. The access control layer, audit trails, and permission guardrails are the differentiator. That’s compliance, risk management, and operational control — things medium-size companies will pay a premium for.

My Recommendation

Lead with consulting at $300/hr to get in the door and understand their systems
Charge a setup fee ($3,000–$10,000) for the initial Orchestrator deployment and integrations
Monthly platform fee ($299–$799) for ongoing access, with usage overages
Retainer option — $2,000–$5,000/month for ongoing support and new integrations

The consulting gets you cash flow now. The platform subscriptions build recurring revenue. Shall I draft a pricing page or proposal template?