Five inputs, an honest answer. The calculator uses AnswerVault's published per-user prices, collects nothing about you, and shows what the alternatives publish rather than guessing their prices.
AnswerVault is a governed AI knowledge layer that connects SharePoint, Google Drive and Confluence and answers staff questions from approved documents, with a citation to the source. The calculator estimates what that is worth in time your team stops spending on finding things.
This calculator estimates potential savings based on your inputs. Actual results depend on your organisation's usage patterns. Hourly cost assumes a 37.5-hour week across 52 paid weeks.
A like-for-like cost comparison needs a published price on both sides. Here is what each vendor states on its own site for a team of 50 people.
Verified against each vendor's own pages, 24 September 2026. Feature-by-feature detail is on our comparison page.
Time recovered is team size × hours per person per week spent looking for information × the share of that time recovered × working weeks per year. Every one of those is your input, so the result is only as good as the estimates behind it. Start conservative.
Value of time recovered prices each hour at average salary divided by a 37.5-hour week across 52 paid weeks. That excludes employer costs such as National Insurance and pension, so it understates the true cost of an hour.
AnswerVault annual cost is the plan's published per-user monthly price × 12, billed for at least the plan's minimum number of users. AI is included on every plan, so there are no usage charges to add. Full plan detail is on the pricing page.
Take 50 people on an average salary of £45,000, each spending 3 hours a week looking for information, over 46 working weeks. If AnswerVault recovers 25% of that time, the team gets back 1,725 hours a year, worth £39,808. On Pro the annual cost is £4,200, leaving a net benefit of £35,608.
For the line items that never appear on a vendor quote, from connector work to procurement time, see our guide to cost and comparisons for governed AI knowledge platforms.