Real pricing for the nine leading AP automation vendors. Per-invoice rates, per-supplier fees, platform tiers, implementation costs, and 3-year total cost of ownership — anchored to the four pricing models the market actually uses.
Every AP automation vendor uses one of four pricing models — or a hybrid. Knowing the model dictates which vendors quote cleanly against your volume profile and which will surprise you at year two.
Vendor charges per invoice processed. Simple, transparent — and scales linearly with volume, which becomes expensive at scale.
Vendor charges per active supplier per month. Decouples cost from invoice volume — ideal for orgs with high volume from few suppliers.
Tiered platform subscription with caps on invoice volume, users, or suppliers. Predictable — until you hit overage.
Base platform fee covers a threshold, then per-invoice rate above. Common at mid-market. Balances predictability and variable cost.
The single most important pricing question is not "what's the per-invoice rate?" It is "what is the all-in 3-year total cost of ownership at our projected volume, including implementation, integration, training, support, and overage?" Vendors who refuse to model this on paper are vendors whose pricing breaks at year two.
Pricing data is compiled from vendor websites, published RFP responses, customer disclosures on G2 / Gartner Peer Insights, and reference customer calls. Every vendor below has been asked to confirm the pricing band on this page — those who declined are flagged "Quote-only".
| Vendor | Primary Model | Pricing Transparency | Mid-Market Band | Enterprise Band (Annual) | Implementation Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tipalti | Hybrid (Platform + per-supplier) | Quote-only | £1,500–£4,500 / mo | £40K – £150K+ | 25–40% of Year-1 licence |
| Medius | Flat platform fee | Quote-only | £2,000–£6,000 / mo | £50K – £200K+ | 30–50% of Year-1 licence |
| Stampli | Per-invoice + per-user | Partial | £0.90–£1.80 / invoice | £25K – £90K | 15–30% of Year-1 licence |
| SAP Concur (Invoice) | Per-invoice + platform | Quote-only | £1.20–£2.50 / invoice | £35K – £120K+ | 30–45% of Year-1 licence |
| Yooz | Per-invoice | Published | £0.50–£1.20 / invoice | £15K – £60K | 15–25% of Year-1 licence |
| Kofax (Tungsten Network) | Hybrid (Platform + per-invoice) | Quote-only | £1,200–£3,500 / mo | £40K – £130K | 25–40% of Year-1 licence |
| ABBYY Vantage | Per-document (capture only) | Quote-only | £0.30–£0.80 / document | £20K – £80K | 20–35% of Year-1 licence |
| Airbase | Flat platform fee (per-user tiers) | Partial | £1,800–£5,000 / mo | £25K – £100K | 10–20% of Year-1 licence |
| Dext | Per-user + per-document | Published | £40–£90 / user / mo | £10K – £40K | 5–15% of Year-1 licence |
⚠️ Pricing bands are indicative ranges based on verified disclosures. Actual pricing depends on invoice volume, user count, ERP integration scope, contract term, and geographic deployment. All vendors should be asked to provide a written quote tied to a specific volume and 3-year term. Pricing matrix reviewed monthly.
Three vendor positions on this page. Featured vendors agree to disclose pricing model and band publicly — a signal of confidence in their commercial posture. Editorial coverage is unaffected by placement.
Tipalti's pricing model is hybrid — platform fee plus per-supplier rate, with separate payment-processing economics for cross-border transfers. For enterprises with concentrated supplier bases and high payment volume, this model often compares favourably to per-invoice pricing at scale. Implementation is on the higher end (25–40% of Year-1 licence) given the depth of ERP integration and payment-rails work, but the touchless rate and cross-border coverage often justify it for global organisations.
Medius prices on flat platform tiers rather than per-invoice — a deliberate posture that suits high-volume orgs whose costs would balloon under per-invoice models. Implementation runs 30–50% of Year-1 licence given the depth of AI training and exception-handling configuration the platform requires to hit its 70–85% touchless rate target. For mid-market and enterprise orgs with predictable volume, the 3-year TCO is often the lowest of the enterprise-class platforms.
This page is targeted by finance buyers actively comparing AP automation pricing — high-intent, late-stage evaluation traffic. Secure the final featured pricing-page slot.
Claim This Position →The vendor that wins on per-invoice rate frequently loses on 3-year TCO once implementation, integration, and overage are layered in. Use this framework for every vendor on your shortlist.
Annual licence + implementation + ERP integration + data migration + training + custom workflow dev. The 20–50% implementation add-on is where most vendors hide cost — insist it's quoted up-front.
Annual licence with renewal escalation (typically 5–10% above CPI) + ongoing support + any volume overage if you've grown past the contracted band. Watch for cap-overage cliff pricing.
Compound renewal escalation + customisations accrued over Year 1 and 2 + likely retraining as your AP team turns over. 3-year TCO is typically 230–270% of the Year-1 headline licence.
Cap-overage on invoices/users/suppliers · Per-user fees layered on platform fees · Custom report and workflow dev hourly rates · Renewal escalation above CPI · Premium support tier required for SLAs.
Pricing transparency is a confidence signal. Vendors confident in their commercial posture answer pricing questions directly; vendors hiding cost ambiguity deflect. Ask these five questions in writing during the RFP or shortlist call — and require written answers.
1. What is the all-in 3-year TCO at our projected volume? Most vendors quote Year-1 licence in the proposal and treat implementation, overage, and renewal as separate conversations. The vendor who models 3-year TCO on paper before contract is the vendor whose pricing doesn't break later.
2. What is the per-invoice / per-supplier / per-user overage rate if we exceed the contracted band? Cap-overage is where mid-contract surprise lives. The right answer is a published rate with a defined notice period. The wrong answer is "we'll negotiate that if it comes up".
3. What is the renewal escalation clause? The standard is CPI + 3–5%. Above that, the vendor is betting on your switching cost. Negotiate a cap (e.g. CPI + 3%, capped at 7%) before signing.
4. What is the cost to add an entity, subsidiary, or new business unit mid-contract? Multi-entity expansion is the most expensive amendment in AP automation contracts because it touches integration, master data, and approval routing. Get the rate published in the contract — not "subject to scoping".
5. What is the contractual SLA for support, and what does the premium support tier cost? Vendors often quote a standard SLA in the proposal then sell "premium support" as a separate line item. Confirm the standard SLA in writing and price the premium tier if it's a real need.
The most common pricing-model misfit is a high-growth org signing per-invoice pricing because the headline rate is low. As volume scales, per-invoice cost grows linearly while the vendor's actual delivery cost is largely fixed. By Year 3 you're effectively subsidising customers on flat platform pricing. Hybrid (platform + per-invoice above threshold) is usually the right shape for orgs with growth above 20% YoY.
The inverse misfit is a low-volume mid-market org signing flat platform fees because they fear per-invoice cost escalation that won't actually materialise at their volume. The platform fee dominates per-invoice cost dramatically — and the vendor's flat-fee tier was priced for the next size of customer up. The right diagnostic: model both pricing structures against your 3-year volume forecast and pick the curve with the lower TCO.
Implementation is frequently quoted as 15–25% of Year-1 licence in proposals but lands at 30–50% in reality. The gap is ERP integration scope creep — the customisations and field-mapping work that surface during configuration but were not in the original scope. Defend against this by insisting the proposal includes specific ERP-version integration scope, named field mappings, and approval-workflow configuration count. Vendors that scope this concretely deliver to budget; vendors that scope it vaguely run over.
The full pricing matrix — vendor × pricing model × mid-market band × enterprise band × implementation cost — plus the 3-year TCO calculator template used by finance teams running formal RFPs.