Benchmarks for managed IT, hourly break-fix, and a first in-house hire, with sources and dates on every number. Built for owners of 1 to 30 person companies who want a straight answer.
Small businesses pay $100 to $250 per user per month for managed IT in 2026, with most quotes landing between $125 and $200. Anything below $80 per user is usually missing security essentials like endpoint detection and backup monitoring.
| What you are buying | Typical 2026 cost | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Managed IT (MSP) | $100 - $250 per user/month, most quotes $125 - $200 | Huntress MSP pricing guide; Corsica Technologies, May 2026; SerenIT 2026 guide |
| Break-fix hourly | $125 - $250 per hour, $250 - $500 after hours | Flamingo MSP pricing benchmarks, 2026 |
| First in-house IT hire | About $96,000 per year fully loaded | BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data plus BLS benefit-cost data, Dec 2025 |
| Anthony AI | $19.99 - $49.99 per seat/month, $1 first month | anthonyai.com/pricing, June 2026 |
In-house math: BLS puts the mean wage for a computer user support specialist at $67,330 (May 2025) and benefits at 29.9 percent of total private-industry employer cost (Dec 2025 release). That works out to roughly $96,000 all-in for the hire, before tools, training, or coverage gaps when they are out. A network and systems administrator averages $103,680 in wages, about $148,000 loaded.
The same benchmarks, run for the team sizes people actually ask about. MSP column uses the $125 to $200 per user band where most 2026 quotes land. Anthony AI column is the Core plan at $19.99 per seat.
| Employees | MSP managed / month | Break-fix / year (est.) | In-house hire / year | Anthony AI Core / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $625 - $1,000 | $4,500 | Not cost-effective | $99.95 |
| 7 | $875 - $1,400 | $6,300 | Not cost-effective | $139.93 |
| 8 | $1,000 - $1,600 | $7,200 | Not cost-effective | $159.92 |
| 10 | $1,250 - $2,000 | $9,000 | Not cost-effective | $199.90 |
| 12 | $1,500 - $2,400 | $10,800 | Not cost-effective | $239.88 |
| 15 | $1,875 - $3,000 | $13,500 | Rarely pencils out | $299.85 |
| 20 | $2,500 - $4,000 | $18,000 | About $96,000 (1 specialist) | $399.80 |
| 30 | $3,750 - $6,000 | $27,000 | $96,000 - $148,000 | $599.70 |
Break-fix estimate assumes 6 hours of labor per employee per year at $150 per hour, stated as an assumption, not a survey figure. For reference, MSP operational data puts actual support demand near 1 hour per user per month under unlimited remote plans (SuperOps, 2026), so 6 hours per year is a conservative floor for businesses that only call when something is already broken.
A 15-person business should expect $1,875 to $3,000 per month for managed IT at 2026 per-user rates, or $299.85 per month on Anthony AI Core. The wide MSP spread comes down to what is bundled: a quote near $3,000 should include a full security stack, backup, and after-hours coverage, not just a helpdesk.
Four versions of the same question, answered against the published 2026 numbers.
At $200 per user per month, a 10-person office pays $2,000 monthly, the upper end of the 2026 benchmark of $100 to $250. It is fair only if it includes a full security stack and after-hours coverage. SerenIT's 2026 guide pegs typical small-business managed IT at $100 to $175 per user, so $200 for business-hours helpdesk alone is overpaying.
Three thousand dollars for 12 people is $250 per user per month, the very top of the published 2026 MSP range. Ask for the line items, and get competing quotes if the stack is thin. Top-of-range pricing is defensible for regulated industries or 24/7 coverage. It is not defensible for password resets and printer fixes.
$175 per hour is normal in 2026. Published break-fix rates run $125 to $250 per hour, with after-hours and emergency work at $250 to $500. The question is not the rate, it is the hours: at $175, ten hours a month is $21,000 a year with no proactive maintenance included.
$150 per user per month with a real security stack included is mid-range for 2026 and a fair price. Real means endpoint detection and response, patching, backup monitoring, and MFA enforcement, in writing. If the security line item is just antivirus, you are paying a premium for a commodity.
Benchmark against $100 to $250 per user per month; most 2026 small-business quotes land between $125 and $200. Red flags include business-hours-only coverage at top-of-range prices and bills that run 30 to 50 percent above the quote. Renewal increases above 10 percent with no scope change, and per-incident fees stacked on top of the management fee, belong on the same list.
$2,000 a month at typical 2026 rates covers 10 to 16 users with helpdesk, monitoring, patching, endpoint security, and backup monitoring. That is the standard inclusion list in published 2026 pricing guides. If your invoice covers fewer users or fewer services than that, ask your provider to walk you through the gap.
Hidden costs add 30 to 50 percent to many managed IT bills, according to Corsica Technologies' 2026 pricing guide. The quoted per-user rate is the start of the bill, not the end of it.
The usual suspects: onboarding fees, commonly about one month's bill up front. Seat or revenue minimums that make a 6-person company pay for 10. After-hours multipliers, with emergency rates published at $250 to $500 per hour in 2026. Project work billed separately, around $200 per hour for migrations and deployments. Hardware sold with markup. And 12-month-plus contracts that auto-renew unless you catch the notice window.
None of these are scams. All of them belong in your math before you sign, and most providers will put every one of them in writing if you ask directly.
A 10-person business pays roughly $16,250 to $26,000 in year one with an MSP at 2026 rates, versus $2,208.90 on Anthony AI Core with the $1 first month. Here is where those numbers come from.
| Option | Year-one math | Year-one total |
|---|---|---|
| MSP managed | 12 months at $1,250 - $2,000, plus onboarding near one month's fee | $16,250 - $26,000 |
| Break-fix | Estimated 6 hours per employee per year at $150/hour | About $9,000 |
| Anthony AI Core | 10 seats: $1 each in month one, then 11 months at $199.90 | $2,208.90 |
Anthony AI list price without the first-month promotion is $2,398.80 per year for 10 Core seats. Vision remote support overage, if you use more than the 20 included minutes per seat in a month, bills at $0.99 per minute on Core.
The honest caveat: Anthony AI does not replace hardware swaps, cabling, or on-site infrastructure work. Many teams pair Anthony AI with occasional hourly help for physical jobs, and the combined total still lands far below a managed contract.
A 20 percent increase deserves a benchmark check before you sign anything; most 2026 small-business quotes land between $125 and $200 per user. Three moves, in order.
First, ask what changed. A real scope increase, new security tooling, or a compliance requirement can justify the number. A letter citing inflation alone does not, since published per-user rates have stayed inside the same band.
Second, get two competing quotes. MSPs expect it, and a written competing number is the only negotiation leverage that consistently works. Counter with the benchmark and the quotes, not with frustration.
Third, check your contract before you negotiate: notice windows, auto-renewal dates, and offboarding terms. If you do switch, line up admin credentials, license ownership, and documentation handoff before you give notice. Our comparison page covers what an AI-native option looks like next to a traditional MSP.
A 7-person law firm typically pays $875 to $1,400 per month for managed IT at 2026 per-user rates, and more if formal compliance work is in scope. Regulated industries sit at the top of the published range, $200 to $400 per user in some 2026 benchmarks, because the provider carries audit and framework obligations.
The honest line: Anthony AI is not tailored for environments with HIPAA, FISMA, or GLBA obligations. A firm with those requirements should keep a compliance-specialized provider for that work. For the everyday troubleshooting that fills most support hours, the per-user math above still applies, and pairing the two is common.
Anthony AI is AI-powered IT support inside Microsoft Teams. Core is $19.99 per seat per month with 200 chats and 20 Vision remote support minutes, with overage at $0.99 per minute. Pro is $49.99 per seat per month with 400 chats and 60 Vision minutes at $0.89 per minute overage. The first month is $1 per seat, every Vision session is capped at 20 minutes, and there is no contract.
It replaces the day-to-day troubleshooting an MSP bills $125 to $200 per user for: frozen Outlook, printer drivers, sync failures, slow machines, password chaos. It does not replace physical infrastructure work or regulated compliance projects, and we say so on every page. Full plan details are on the pricing page.