How to use this calculator

1. Project type, delivery model and currency: pick the closest project type and how the work is actually resourced, so your budget is compared with a sensible range. The currency symbol is for display only. You can also type your own typical per-module cost range.
2. Number of core features / modules and team size: count modules at a similar level of detail you'd use in a sprint-planning breakdown, not epics.
3. Budget you've been given or quoted (optional): used to check whether it's realistic.
4. External dependencies / integrations (optional): used to size the hidden integration cost and the what-if section below.
5. Type a number or drag the slider. Results update instantly. Copy share link reopens these exact numbers.

How it is calculated

Suggested budget = (modules + dependency-equivalent modules) × project-type cost-per-module × delivery-model multiplier, with a team-size floor so small teams aren't quoted an unrealistically low number. Each external dependency is modelled as roughly 0.4 of a module's integration effort. Figures are calculated unrounded and rounded only for display.

Your biggest risk compares up to three things: your quoted budget sitting more than 10% below the suggested midpoint, the hidden cost added by external dependencies, and the contingency buffer every project should carry regardless. The budget-gap and dependency risks are shown only when they're actually triggered by your numbers; the buffer recommendation always shows.

Good to know: these are budget benchmarks, not a quote or a guarantee of final cost. They assume typical delivery conditions for the project type and model selected. Cost ranges are broad indicative figures from 2026 IT delivery benchmarks, not audited statistics or your own closed projects.

Timeline, staffing and change requests

The timeline bar splits the suggested budget into four phases (Discovery, Build, Test / Integration, Deploy) using a fixed benchmark split, converted to weeks via a blended daily team-cost assumption and your team size. Dependency cost is added entirely to the Test / Integration phase, since that's typically where integration work lands.

The staffing split is a simple rule of thumb that varies by project type (for example, AI/ML and legacy-modernization work skews more QA-heavy with less dedicated design than a typical customer-facing web app) — a starting point for resourcing, not a substitute for your own team plan. You can override the split for your own project below the staffing section. Teams smaller than four aren't split, since dedicated roles rarely make sense at that size.

The change-request calculator reuses the same per-module cost and timeline model to show, instantly, what adding scope mid-project would cost in both budget and schedule — useful for the moment a stakeholder asks for "just one more thing."