CTI and agentic SOC ROI calculator, 2026
Calculate the total cost of ownership for a commercial, hybrid, or OSS-first CTI stack. Inputs are based on April 2026 verified pricing - not vendor-provided ROI estimates.
What this calculator does
Compares three stack archetypes (Full Commercial / Hybrid / OSS-First) across five inputs: team size, endpoint count, alert volume, compliance tier, and AI automation level. Outputs year-1 and year-3 TCO, alert handling capacity, and estimated MTTR reduction vs fully manual. All cost assumptions are shown below the calculator - you can inspect every number.
This is an estimation tool. Real quotes depend on negotiation, existing vendor relationships, and contract length. For actual spend planning see securityoperationscost.com and databreachcost.com.
Your inputs
Cost breakdown (Year 1)
Sensitivity (Year 1)
Cost assumptions
Every number in the calculator is based on a documented source. If a vendor refuses to publish pricing, the estimate is sourced from Vendr reports, TopAdvisor benchmarks, or Cycognito research (all cited as “market estimate”). Verified April 2026.
| Line item | Cost |
|---|---|
| SOC analyst (fully loaded, US) | $140k / yr |
| Recorded Future Core | $75k / yr typical |
| Mandiant Threat Intelligence standalone | $60k / yr typical |
| CrowdStrike Falcon Adversary Intelligence Premium | ~$180/endpoint/yr + 30% add-on |
| OpenCTI + MISP + TheHive (Hetzner self-hosted) | $900 / mo ($10.8k / yr) |
| Claude API (Sonnet 4.5) at enrichment workload | $800 - $2k / mo per SOC |
| Dropzone AI mid-market tier | ~$50k / yr estimate |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 compliance overhead | +5-12% to total spend |
| FedRAMP compliance overhead | +20-35% to total spend |
When AI investment pays off
- +Teams of 5+ analysts see ROI breakeven on AI-augmented tooling in 12-18 months.
- +Alert volume above 2k/day: LLM triage compresses analyst queue faster than hiring.
- +Compliance-heavy environments (HIPAA, PCI): AI documentation assistance offsets audit overhead cost.
- +OSS-first shops with 1 FTE engineer: full agentic stack runs under $25k/yr in platform costs.
When it doesn't
- -Fewer than 5 analysts: agentic spend often exceeds savings; augmentation is sufficient.
- -Low alert volume (under 500/day): human triage is adequate; AI adds cost without proportional gain.
- -OSS-first without engineering resource: the 1 FTE ops cost erases the subscription savings.
- -FedRAMP environments: commercial-only stacks at ATO-authorised pricing can cost 40% more than the calculator shows.
What this calculator can't tell you
Cultural fit
A CrowdStrike-centric team will extract less value from a Splunk-first agentic stack, regardless of cost. Switching costs are real and not modelled here.
Vendor lock-in
Commercial stacks have 2-4 year contract cycles. The year-3 figure assumes flat platform pricing; renewals after large vendor funding events often run 20-30% above initial contract.
Analyst retention impact
Tooling quality affects analyst churn. Replacing one senior SOC analyst at $140k fully loaded costs 50-75% of salary in recruiting and onboarding. Good tooling reduces churn.
Legacy SIEM integration lift
Integrating an agentic layer onto legacy SIEM (on-prem Splunk, ArcSight) can add $50-150k in professional services that neither vendor nor this calculator surfaces upfront.