An AI SDR costs $2,500-3,500/month. A human SDR costs $5,000-8,000/month. But the real difference is not the price tag.
The headline numbers
| Metric | Human SDR | AI SDR (Prospecting OS) |
|--------|-----------|--------------------------|
| Monthly cost | $5,000-$8,000 | $2,500-$3,500 |
| Leads researched/day | 30-50 | 500+ |
| Hours worked/week | 40 | 168 (24/7) |
| Ramp-up time | 3-6 months | 0 days |
| Turnover rate | 34% annually | 0% |
| Sick days | 8/year avg | 0 |
The hidden costs nobody talks about
Training and ramp-up
A new SDR takes 3-6 months to reach full productivity. During that ramp, you are paying full salary for partial output. At $6,000/month, that is $18,000-$36,000 of sub-optimal output before they hit stride.
Management overhead
Every SDR needs a manager. Even if that manager oversees 5 SDRs, 20% of a sales manager's $120,000 salary is $24,000/year per SDR.
Turnover
At 34% annual turnover, you are replacing one out of every three SDRs each year. Replacement cost (recruiting + onboarding + ramp) averages $30,000-$45,000 per SDR.
Tool stack
A human SDR needs: Sales Navigator ($99/mo), an email outreach tool ($75/mo), a CRM seat ($50/mo), a dialer ($50/mo), and usually 2-3 more point solutions. That is $300-$500/month in tools alone.
What an AI SDR actually does
- Sources 500+ leads/day from LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Scores every lead against your ICP criteria
- Writes personalized icebreakers using Gemini AI
- Auto-launches multi-step email sequences
- Detects replies and updates your pipeline automatically
- Delivers a scored CSV to Slack or Telegram every morning
The real comparison is output, not cost
A human SDR working 40 hours/week can research maybe 150-200 leads/week (30-50/day with deep work). An AI SDR running 24/7 can research and score 2,500+ leads/week.
That is a 15x output difference — for roughly half the monthly cost.
When a human SDR still wins
- Enterprise deals requiring complex multi-stakeholder navigation
- Industries where LinkedIn presence is thin (manufacturing, some healthcare)
- When the buyer needs to hear a very specific industry story
For everything else — SaaS, agencies, consulting, professional services — the AI SDR is the better unit economics by a wide margin.
