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SDR cost calculator: human SDR team vs AI SDR

The fully-loaded cost of an SDR is far more than salary: add variable pay, benefits and taxes, tools and data, a share of a manager, and the recruiting and ramp cost of replacing people who leave. This calculator adds those up for your team, divides by meetings booked to get a cost per meeting, and puts that next to an AI SDR platform's annual cost and meeting output.

Your inputs

Every pre-filled number is a default assumption — replace it with your numbers. Defaults are placeholders, not industry benchmarks.

Results

Human team, fully loaded (annual): $527,600
AI SDR, year 1: $80,000; $75,000 / yr after setup
Loaded cost per SDR: $131,900; incl. management & hiring share
Ramp + attrition cost: $27,834; 1.4 backfills / yr
Cost per meeting — human: $958; 551 meetings / yr
Cost per meeting — AI (yr 1): $222; 360 meetings / yr

Annual cost

Human SDR team$527,600
AI SDR (year 1)$80,000

Cost per meeting

Human SDR team$958
AI SDR (year 1)$222

Breakeven

The AI SDR's year-1 cost equals 0.6 human SDRs at your loaded cost per seat.
To match the human cost per meeting, the AI SDR needs 7 meetings / month (you entered 30).
Year-1 difference: $447,600 in favour of the AI SDR (cost only — not output).

How this is calculated

All figures are annual and computed for year one.

Human SDR team

comp per SDR      = base salary + variable at target
benefits per SDR  = comp per SDR × benefits %
tools per SDR     = (tooling + data per seat per month) × 12
direct per SDR    = comp + benefits + tools
management        = (SDRs ÷ SDRs per manager) × manager cost
backfills / year  = SDRs × attrition %
recruiting        = backfills × recruiting cost per hire
human annual cost = SDRs × direct per SDR + management + recruiting
loaded cost / SDR = human annual cost ÷ SDRs

Ramp, meetings and cost per meeting

New hires are assumed to ramp linearly, so across the ramp period they produce half of a ramped SDR's output on average.

lost seat-months  = backfills × ramp months × 0.5
ramp cost         = lost seat-months × (direct per SDR ÷ 12)   (already inside the total)
ramp + attrition  = recruiting + ramp cost
human meetings    = (SDRs × 12 − lost seat-months) × meetings per SDR per month
human $/meeting   = human annual cost ÷ human meetings

AI SDR and breakeven

AI year 1         = platform + setup + oversight
AI steady state   = platform + oversight
AI meetings       = meetings per month × 12
AI $/meeting      = AI year 1 ÷ AI meetings
breakeven meetings/month = AI year 1 ÷ human $/meeting ÷ 12
AI cost in SDRs   = AI year 1 ÷ loaded cost per SDR

Assumptions & defaults

The pre-filled values are starting assumptions so the calculator shows a result on load. They are not industry statistics — replace each one with your own numbers.

Default team: 4 SDRs, $60,000 base and $25,000 variable at target, 25% benefits and payroll taxes. Placeholders — use your payroll data.
Default tooling of $250 and contact data of $150 per seat per month. Replace with your actual contracts.
One manager per 8 SDRs at a $150,000 fully-loaded cost; the team is charged a fractional share of that manager.
35% annual attrition, $6,000 recruiting cost per hire and a 3-month ramp. These drive the ramp + attrition figure; use your own history.
12 meetings per ramped SDR per month and 30 per month for the AI SDR — the comparison is only as good as these two numbers.
AI SDR at $60,000 per year, $5,000 setup and $15,000 per year of internal oversight. Use the vendor's quote, not list prices.
Variable pay is assumed to be paid at 100% of target. Meeting quality is treated as equal across both options, which you should validate.
Vacancy time between an SDR leaving and the backfill starting is not modelled.

Frequently asked questions

What does fully-loaded SDR cost include?

Base salary, variable compensation at target, benefits and payroll taxes, per-seat tooling and contact data, a share of the manager's cost, and the recruiting cost of replacing SDRs who leave. The calculator also shows how much salary is paid during new-hire ramp, which is already inside the total.

Why is cost per meeting a better comparison than total cost?

A cheaper option that books far fewer meetings is not cheaper in practice. Dividing annual cost by meetings booked puts a human team and an AI SDR on the same unit, so you can see what each meeting actually costs you.

How does attrition change the cost of an SDR team?

Every SDR who leaves has to be recruited and then ramped. The calculator multiplies headcount by your annual attrition rate to get backfills per year, charges the recruiting cost for each, and removes half of each backfill's ramp months from productive capacity, which lowers meetings and raises cost per meeting.

Does an AI SDR need human oversight?

In most deployments someone still owns targeting, messaging, domain health and reply handling. That is why the calculator has an internal oversight cost input for the AI side. Set it to the share of a salary you expect to spend running the tool.

Are the default numbers industry benchmarks?

No. The defaults are placeholder assumptions so the calculator shows a result on load. Replace every input with your own salaries, vendor quotes and meeting data before using the output in a budget or business case.

What does the breakeven number mean?

It is the number of meetings per month the AI SDR would need to book for its year-one cost per meeting to equal your human team's cost per meeting. The calculator also expresses the AI SDR's year-one cost as an equivalent number of fully-loaded human SDRs.