CTOs and founders
AI coding tools for CTOs and founders
Adopting AI coding agents across an organisation is a governance question before it is a tooling one. Seat cost is the visible number and rarely the deciding one; what decides it is metered usage, what an agent is permitted to reach, and whether the review process absorbs the extra output it produces.
What actually changes
The bill has two halves and only one is on the pricing page. Seats are fixed; metered usage is not, and the tools differ in how they meter — some include an API allowance and bill above it, others state capacity as a multiple of a base tier.
Security posture becomes a configuration question with a real answer. Approval modes, sandbox policy and hooks decide what an agent can reach, which means the assurance you can give is a settings review rather than a promise.
And the productivity claim should be treated as unproven until measured. This site publishes a break-even formula rather than a multiplier, because the multiplier depends on inputs only your own team has.
Recipes for your stack
These are documentation pages. Some are free to read; the rest are part of the subscription.
Where you stand
Twenty-five questions on your team's AI-engineering maturity across adoption, governance, automation and ROI, with a board-ready 30/60/90-day plan. Free, no account.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost per seat?
Claude Team Standard and ChatGPT Business are both $25/user/month ($20 billed annually); Cursor Teams Standard is $40/user/month ($32 annually). All three offer custom Enterprise contracts. Metered usage sits on top and is the half that varies.
How do you limit what an agent can reach?
Through approval modes, sandbox policy and hooks. Codex keeps sandbox policy separate from approval, so what may run and what must be confirmed are configured independently; Claude Code offers manual, auto, plan and bypass modes plus a full hook system.