--- title: "ROI Calculator · Consus" description: "Compare the cost of building a compliant AI gateway yourself with the Consus access fee. Tokens cost the same either way." canonical: https://consus.io/roi-calculator --- ROI Calculator # Spend months and $100K+ building compliant AI. _Or start using it today._ Building it yourself means a gateway, an audit, and a year of ops: $162,500\* before your first token. The Consus access fee is $25,000 and you're in production in days. The tokens cost the same either way. ### Year one, itemized Tokens appear on neither side because both paths pay the same raw GovCloud rates. This is what access costs. | | Build it yourself | Consus Gateway | | --- | --- | --- | | Annual access fee | $0 | $25.0K | | Gateway engineering | $37.5K | $0 | | Security audit prep | $75.0K | $0 | | Audit cost | $50.0K | $0 | | Access cost, year 1 | $162.5K | $25.0K | | Your AI tokens | GovCloud rates | Same | | Time to production | 3 months | Days | | Compliance risk | Your team owns it | Consus owns it | ### Five years of access costs DIY ops run every year and the first re-audit lands in year 4. The Consus fee stays flat. | Year | DIY access cost | Consus access fee | Annual savings | What the DIY money buys | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Year 1 | $162.5K | $25.0K | $137.5K | Gateway build + audit prep + the audit itself | | Year 2 | $112.5K | $25.0K | $87.5K | Compliance ops + engineering ops | | Year 3 | $112.5K | $25.0K | $87.5K | Compliance ops + engineering ops | | Year 4 | $162.5K | $25.0K | $137.5K | Ops + first re-audit, then every 3 years | | Year 5 | $112.5K | $25.0K | $87.5K | Compliance ops + engineering ops | | 5-year total | $662.5K | $125.0K | $537.5K | | 5-year savings with Consus $537,500 DIY access runs $662,500 over five years. Consus runs $125,000. Your token spend adds equally to both. ### Where the DIY numbers come from Every assumption is set at the low end of reality. Real programs routinely run higher.

Year-1 engineering (bring-up)	$37.5K	Build the gateway and connect the clouds; 1 engineer × 3 months at $150K
Year-1 security audit prep	$75K	0.5 FTE × $150K to document controls and gather evidence
Year-1 audit cost	$50K	AI's portion of your CMMC audit; a full assessment is $300K+
Ongoing compliance ops	$75K/yr	0.5 FTE × $150K, real cost is 0.75–1.0 FTE
Ongoing engineering ops	$37.5K/yr	0.25 FTE × $150K to run, patch, and update the gateway
Year-4 re-audit	$50K	First reassessment, 3 yrs after the year-1 audit; CMMC reassessment every 3 yrs after that
Time to production	3 months	Aggressive; typical is 9–12 months for full ATO

## Get to production in days, not months. Consus Gateway runs inside FedRAMP High and DoD IL5 authorized cloud boundaries from day one. One SDK swap, same OpenAI API you already know. [Book a compliance call →](https://cal.com/emagliarditi/consus-gateway-intro-discussion) \*DIY figures are conservative estimates sized for a small team, based on common defense-tech staffing and vendor rates. Actual costs vary by organization. Consus pricing shown is the published rate for companies under 50 employees. Over 50, enterprise pricing applies, and DIY costs grow with headcount: more users, more ops burden, a wider audit scope. Evaluating ChatGPT Federal or Claude for Government? [Talk to our enterprise team](mailto:sales@consusindustries.co).