How AI costs add up
Flowstate puts every piece of AI spend on exactly one line, so your AI totals never double up. This page explains which line. The formulas are on How costs are calculated.
People, contractors and agents
| Who | Their cost |
|---|---|
| Employee | Their pay, plus the copilots they use |
| Contractor | Their rate, plus the copilots they use |
| Agent | Its own AI use, tied to no person |
Copilots stay with the person
A copilot is an AI tool a person uses, such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot. Its cost goes on that person, matched by their email address at the provider. If your Cursor bill doubles, your engineers got more expensive — no new worker appeared.
Some providers only send a total for the whole organisation. That cost can’t be put on anyone, so it stays with the organisation. See AI usage providers.
An agent is its own line
An agent runs on its own, so its spend is its own. It’s measured from the AI calls the agent reports to Flowstate, and shows as Cost on the agents list and Realised spend on the agent’s record.
The same tool can be either
Claude Code used by an engineer is copilot use, on that engineer. Claude Code running unattended as an agent is agent work, on the agent.
Where you see it
| Screen | What you see |
|---|---|
| Insights → Agent insights | AI spend by person, team, provider and project |
| Resourcing → Agents & copilots → Agents | Each agent’s spend |
| Hybrid workforce | Employees, contractors, and agents and copilots on one bill |
| Finance → Budgets → AI caps | This month’s AI spend against your organisation’s cap |