Cost2026-05-20 · 6 min

RAG Development Cost: What to Budget

The real cost drivers for a RAG system — content, access control, and evaluation.

Content is the biggest variable

Document volume, formats, and quality drive ingestion design, cleaning, and OCR work.

Permission-aware retrieval is more complex but essential for enterprise use.

Simple knowledge search: $15k–30k. Enterprise-grade with access control: $30k–60k.

Book a 30-minute call — a senior engineer will map the highest-value path for your business.

What to look for, what to ask, and the red flags that separate production AI teams from demo builders.

Agents take action, which means reliability, guardrails, and evaluation matter more than ever.