What AI content writing costs a small business

1. You write it with an AI assistant. About $20 a month in software. The cost is your time: outlining, editing and adding the stories only you know. Cheapest in dollars, most expensive in hours.

2. A writer who uses AI writes it. You pay per piece or per month, and rates vary a lot, so get a per-piece quote and ask how they use AI. For a sense of scale, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for writers at about $37 an hour in its May 2025 wage survey. That's an employee wage, and freelancers price their own way, so treat it as a reference point, not a rate.

3. A team or agency runs your content. Strategy, writing, publishing, all of it. This is the priciest option and makes sense only once content is clearly bringing in business. Ask for the scope in writing.

Fact-checking. AI tools will state wrong things confidently, including prices and dates. Every number in a draft needs checking before it goes out.

Seats. Tools like Jasper charge per seat, so a three-person marketing team pays three times the sticker price. Price in everyone who will actually write.

Content that goes stale. A post with last year's prices does more harm than no post. Put a reminder on the calendar to recheck anything with numbers in it.

Photos. A great post with a stock photo still reads like a stock post. Real pictures of your work cost a shoot, and they're usually worth it.

You just want help writing. A $20 assistant and an hour learning it will do more for you than I would. We don't sell writing.

You want someone to run your content. That's a writer or a marketing agency, not a builder. Hire for that.

Your content process works and you just want more of it. Keep going. Nothing here needs building.