This calculator estimates the cost of scoring one transaction with an AI fraud-detection system. It combines token usage, feature or data lookup charges, compute cost, third-party service fees, and fixed monthly expenses allocated across transaction volume.
Use the result for vendor comparisons, pricing models, or business-case reviews. The breakdown makes it easier to distinguish usage-sensitive expenses from fixed costs that decline per transaction as processing volume increases.
1. Enter model usage
Provide average tokens consumed for each transaction and the blended token price.
2. Add transaction-level costs
Include compute, data lookup, and third-party service charges.
3. Allocate fixed expenses
Enter monthly platform or operations cost and expected transaction volume.
4. Review the cost structure
Use the main unit cost together with the variable, fixed, and monthly totals.
Cost per transaction = (Tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × Token price) + Compute + Data lookup + Third-party fee + (Monthly fixed cost ÷ Monthly transactions)
All costs must use the same currency. The fixed portion is spread evenly across all entered transactions.
The result is the estimated fully loaded cost to score one transaction at the stated monthly volume.
Chargebacks, fraud losses, manual investigation, and false-positive impacts are outside this operational processing estimate.
Given: 900 tokens at $4 per million, $0.0018 compute, $0.0025 data lookup, $0.004 third-party fee, $2,500 fixed cost, and 1,000,000 transactions.
Calculation: Token cost = 900 ÷ 1,000,000 × 4 = $0.0036. Variable cost = 0.0036 + 0.0018 + 0.0025 + 0.0040 = $0.0119. Fixed allocation = 2,500 ÷ 1,000,000 = $0.0025.
Result: $0.0144 per transaction, or about $14,400 per month.
Include it only if you want the cost of the broader fraud operation. Convert expected review labor into an average cost per transaction.
Use the blended rate expected at your forecast volume rather than the highest or lowest published tier alone.
Fraud-scoring costs are often small per transaction. Extra decimal places prevent meaningful components from disappearing through display rounding.
No. It estimates processing cost only. Compare it with prevented losses and operational impacts in a separate business-case analysis.
Variable cost per transaction stays the same under constant rates, while fixed allocation per transaction is cut in half.