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Guide · 27 countries
AI agent vs employee cost
What 20 common office tasks cost once each, done by an employee or by an AI agent plus a short human check, in every EU country.
By country
Each row is the same 20 tasks done once. Sorted by the cost of the person. Labour cost per hour is the full employer cost for all jobs, Eurostat 2025 (Belgium 2024, Austria provisional), shown for context.
| Country | Labour cost/h | Person, 20 tasks | Agent + check | Person ÷ agent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denmark | €51.70 | €262.02 | €42.58 | 6.2× |
| Luxembourg | €56.80 | €256.15 | €42.06 | 6.1× |
| Belgium | €48.20 | €244.86 | €40.55 | 6× |
| Ireland | €44.20 | €240.13 | €39.67 | 6.1× |
| Germany | €45.00 | €202.72 | €33.56 | 6× |
| Netherlands | €47.90 | €182.93 | €30.29 | 6× |
| Finland | €39.40 | €179.96 | €29.85 | 6× |
| Austria | €46.30 | €176.84 | €29.28 | 6× |
| Sweden | €43.10 | €166.99 | €27.58 | 6.1× |
| France | €44.30 | €162.82 | €27.29 | 6× |
| Italy | €32.00 | €149.61 | €25.09 | 6× |
| Spain | €26.40 | €122.80 | €20.75 | 5.9× |
| Cyprus | €21.70 | €112.30 | €19.19 | 5.9× |
| Slovenia | €29.70 | €107.69 | €18.23 | 5.9× |
| Malta | €19.00 | €99.02 | €16.75 | 5.9× |
| Estonia | €21.10 | €91.36 | €15.62 | 5.9× |
| Lithuania | €17.80 | €90.77 | €15.56 | 5.8× |
| Portugal | €19.40 | €84.63 | €14.69 | 5.8× |
| Czechia | €19.80 | €84.55 | €14.56 | 5.8× |
| Greece | €18.20 | €81.28 | €13.92 | 5.8× |
| Latvia | €16.30 | €80.98 | €14.02 | 5.8× |
| Croatia | €18.40 | €76.80 | €13.31 | 5.8× |
| Slovakia | €19.80 | €74.37 | €12.86 | 5.8× |
| Poland | €19.10 | €69.91 | €12.26 | 5.7× |
| Romania | €13.60 | €69.09 | €12.20 | 5.7× |
| Hungary | €15.20 | €66.14 | €11.63 | 5.7× |
| Bulgaria | €12.00 | €51.02 | €9.24 | 5.5× |
Most of the agent's cost is the human check, not the tokens. If your team checks less, or more, change the check minutes in the calculator.
Need it for one country, in a file?
The €29 country report puts all 20 tasks, eight AI models and break-even volumes for one country into a 7-page PDF, with the source behind every line.
FAQ
Is an AI agent cheaper than an employee?
For the 20 routine office tasks we price, yes in every EU country: at the EU average the person costs €156.07 in wages and the agent with a human check €25.99. The gap is smallest where wages are lowest. The agent still needs a person to check its work, and that check is most of its cost.
Which costs are included?
For the person: estimated minutes times the Eurostat 2022 mean hourly wage for the matching job group. For the agent: estimated tokens at the Claude Sonnet 5.5 list price, plus an estimated human check at the same wage. Setup time and software are not included.
Why use 2022 wages?
The Structure of Earnings Survey is the only EU source with hourly wages by occupation for all 27 countries; the 2022 wave is the latest. Its figures exclude employer social contributions, so they understate today's cost of a person.
Sources
- Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey 2022: mean hourly earnings by occupation (earn_ses22_14) (doi:10.2908/EARN_SES22_14)
- Eurostat, Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev) (doi:10.2908/LC_LCI_LEV)
- Eurostat news, hourly labour costs 2025 (31 Mar 2026)
AI model list prices read 2026-10-28; $1 = €0.8969 (ECB 2026-10-27). Task minutes, check minutes and token counts are estimates. Full method.