We do not sell hours, so we cannot price them. Every BearPlex engagement is scoped to an outcome: a diagnostic with a fixed scope, a build priced per pod, or a retainer that keeps a live system honest. The number comes after we understand the problem, and it arrives fixed.
Hourly billing structurally rewards inefficiency: the longer the work takes, the more the vendor earns. We refuse to operate that way.
Fixed after diagnostic
Every engagement starts as a diagnostic. The number for the build arrives fixed, with the architecture that justifies it.
You own everything
Code, infrastructure, and IP are yours from the first commit. The price never includes a hostage clause.
Which shape fits
Three shapes.One commitment.
Every engagement starts as a diagnostic. The build and guardian phases follow only if the architecture warrants them. Find your situation; the shape follows.
You know the problem, but nobody has sized the build.DiagnosticFixed fee
The architecture is under audit pressure and needs a map before more code lands.DiagnosticFixed fee
A regulated production system has to ship from zero.BuildPod-based
The blueprint exists and needs an engineering pod to execute it.BuildPod-based
The system is live and you cannot afford regression after launch.GuardianRetainer
Someone has to own the SLOs and the quarterly architecture review.GuardianRetainer
01Fixed fee
Diagnostic
A two-week discovery sprint. We deconstruct the problem to first principles and produce the architecture before a single engineering hour ships.
Ends with scope, phasing, and a fixed price for the build. If the build is not worth doing, the diagnostic says that too.
02Pod-based
Build
A 12 to 16 week engineering pod executes the core platform. Modular, evidence-driven, examiner-ready by the end of the engagement.
Ships a production system in your VPC or sovereign cloud, with the evidence packet and the operations handover.
03Retainer
Guardian
Ongoing partnership. We own the SLOs, run the RLHF loops, and ship the quarterly architecture reviews that keep the system compounding.
Holds the line after launch, on a monthly retainer, for operators who cannot afford regression.
By family
Where the numbercomes from.
The pricing language differs by family, but the route to it never does: the page describes the work, the diagnostic sizes it, the quote arrives fixed.
AI engineering
Scoped through the diagnostic, then quoted as fixed milestones. Each page describes what an engagement covers.
Hourly billing structurally rewards inefficiency: the longer a project takes, the more the vendor earns. We refuse to operate that way, so there is no hourly rate to publish. Our compensation is tied to outcomes the client cares about, not hours we burn.
Every engagement starts as a diagnostic: a two-week discovery sprint that produces the architecture, the phasing, and a fixed price for the build. Paid discovery gives us the time to understand your actual problem and quote a real price instead of an optimistic estimate.
If we underestimate scope, we absorb the cost overrun. That is the point of fixed-price milestones: the risk of inefficient execution sits with us, not with you. Genuine scope expansion, where you add new requirements mid-engagement, is re-scoped and re-priced as a new milestone.
Start with the diagnostic
Bring the problem.We bring the number.
A two-week, diagnostic ends with the architecture, the phasing, and a fixed price for the build. If we should not take the work, we will tell you that too.