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Guide · 20 tasks
Cost per task: AI agent vs human
What one task costs when a person does it, and when an AI agent does it and a person checks it. EU average wages, with the range across the 27 countries.
| Task | Minutes | Person, EU | Person, range | Agent + check, EU | Person ÷ agent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summarise a 10-page contract | 60 min | €24.40 | €8.49–€40.70 | €4.12 | 5.9× |
| Translate one page | 50 min | €20.33 | €7.08–€33.92 | €4.09 | 5× |
| Write a help-centre article | 40 min | €13.13 | €4.16–€24.30 | €2.01 | 6.5× |
| Write a job ad | 30 min | €12.20 | €4.25–€20.35 | €2.06 | 5.9× |
| Review a small pull request | 30 min | €12.20 | €4.25–€20.35 | €2.11 | 5.8× |
| Write a SQL report query | 30 min | €12.20 | €4.25–€20.35 | €2.08 | 5.9× |
| Write a product description | 20 min | €8.13 | €2.83–€13.57 | €1.24 | 6.6× |
| Reconcile 50 bank lines | 30 min | €7.92 | €2.15–€14.64 | €1.13 | 7× |
| Clean a 200-row contact list | 30 min | €7.92 | €2.15–€14.64 | €1.20 | 6.6× |
| Write minutes for a 30-minute meeting | 25 min | €6.60 | €1.79–€12.20 | €1.10 | 6× |
| Research one B2B lead | 20 min | €6.57 | €2.08–€12.15 | €1.15 | 5.7× |
| Triage a bug report | 15 min | €6.10 | €2.12–€10.18 | €1.28 | 4.8× |
| Draft a social media post | 15 min | €4.92 | €1.56–€9.11 | €0.67 | 7.3× |
| Log a 15-minute sales call | 10 min | €3.28 | €1.04–€6.08 | €0.36 | 9.2× |
| Triage 20 shared-inbox emails | 10 min | €2.64 | €0.72–€4.88 | €0.31 | 8.5× |
| Reply to a customer support email | 8 min | €2.11 | €0.57–€3.90 | €0.29 | 7.3× |
| Screen one CV | 6 min | €1.97 | €0.62–€3.65 | €0.34 | 5.8× |
| Enter a supplier invoice | 5 min | €1.32 | €0.36–€2.44 | €0.15 | 8.9× |
| Answer a customer chat | 5 min | €1.07 | €0.27–€2.03 | €0.13 | 8× |
| Check an expense claim | 4 min | €1.06 | €0.29–€1.95 | €0.15 | 7× |
Minutes and check minutes are estimates. Agent model: Claude Sonnet 5.5, standard list price. Open a task to see every country and all eight models.
Need it for one country, in a file?
For one country, the €29 report lists every task with person cost, agent cost, eight models and break-even volume, in a 7-page PDF.
FAQ
How is cost per task calculated?
Person: estimated minutes times the Eurostat mean hourly wage for the job group (SES 2022). Agent: estimated input and output tokens times the Claude Sonnet 5.5 list price, plus estimated minutes for a person to check the result.
Which task gains most?
At EU averages, log a 15-minute sales call (9.2×). The smallest gain is triage a bug report (4.8×), because checking the output takes longer.
What does the range mean?
The lowest and highest person cost for that task across the 27 EU countries, using each country's own wage for the job group.
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.