AI developer from $20 per hour: what you actually get
My rates start from $20/hour, and for defined projects I quote a fixed price. This page explains what that rate covers, what makes a project cost more or less, and how to start on a small budget without cutting corners.
- Rates from $20/hour
- 100% Upwork Job Success, 11 jobs
- First automation live in ~1 week
What $20/hour gets you
You work directly with me, not with an account manager passing notes to someone you never meet. The same person scopes the problem, writes the code, wires up the integrations, deploys it and sets up the tracking that shows whether it worked. That includes the parts that often get skipped on cheap projects: error handling, retries, tests and a short write-up your team can follow after handover.
Hourly or fixed price
Both are available, and the right choice depends on how well the work can be defined before it starts. A sensible pattern is a small fixed-price first project to test the fit, then hourly work for the improvements that follow. On the intro call I will tell you which model I think suits your project, and why.
- Hourly suits ongoing work, debugging an inherited codebase, or projects where requirements will shift as you see demos
- Fixed price suits one defined deliverable — a workflow, an integration, a feature — that can be written down up front
- Either way you get a written scope and weekly progress you can see
What drives the cost of an AI project
The rate matters less than the number of hours, and three things drive the hours. Scope is the biggest: one lead-qualifying assistant is a different job from a multi-role SaaS. Integrations come next, because every CRM, payment provider or data API adds authentication, rate limits and failure cases. Data is the third: messy spreadsheets, thin datasets and paid third-party data all take engineering. On OnOffDeals I built versioned market caching and batched prefetching to keep third-party data costs viable under rate limits.
Why a lower rate is not lower quality
The rate reflects working from Delhi, not a lower standard of work. I hold a 100% Job Success score on Upwork across 11 jobs and 80+ hours, Charyx Labs has a 4.8★ average client rating, and I passed Anthropic’s proctored Claude Certified Developer – Foundations exam with 896/1000. OnOffDeals, the SaaS I architected alone, runs on 311 automated tests, including invariant tests on its valuation maths.
How to keep an AI budget small
Start with one automation that fixes one painful problem: missed-call text-back, lead routing, or a report someone builds by hand every week. A typical first automation goes live in about a week, so you see a working result before committing more. If it pays off, we extend it; if not, you found out cheaply. I would rather earn the second project than oversell the first.
Rates from $20/hour
Hourly for open-ended work, fixed price for defined projects. The first call is free and there's no obligation.
Frequently asked questions
Is $20/hour the rate for every project?
Rates start from $20/hour. The final rate or fixed price depends on the scope and complexity of the work, and I confirm it in writing before anything starts, so the invoice never holds surprises.
Can I pay a fixed price instead of hourly?
Yes. For defined projects I quote a fixed price after the intro call and a short scoping step. The quote covers the agreed deliverables, and anything new that comes up is discussed and agreed before it is added.
Do I pay through Upwork or directly?
Either. On Upwork the contract and payments run through the platform, which can be convenient for a first project. You can also contract directly with Charyx Labs, my studio. The way I scope, demo and hand over work does not change.