How Much Does OpenClaw Setup Cost?

Complete pricing breakdown — setup fees, ongoing costs, and DIY vs. professional deployment.

The short answer: Professional setup starts at $3,000 (one-time) with ongoing costs of $60–$210/month for hosting and AI API usage. OpenClaw itself is free and open-source — you're paying for expert deployment, security hardening, and configuration.

Setup costs (one-time)

Hosted Setup

Recommended

$3,000

Recommended for most teams. We deploy OpenClaw on a managed cloud VPS, configure your integrations, harden security, and provide 14-day hypercare.

•VPS provisioning and configuration
•Docker sandboxing and firewall hardening
•Composio OAuth middleware setup
•Email, calendar, and messaging integration
•Up to 3 custom workflows
•14-day hypercare with dedicated Slack channel

Mac Mini Setup (Remote)

$5,000

For teams that need iMessage integration or prefer local hardware. We configure the Mac Mini remotely and ship it pre-configured.

•Everything in Hosted Setup
•Mac Mini procured at cost (~$600)
•iMessage integration
•Local hardware configuration and hardening

Mac Mini Setup (In-Person)

GTA

$6,000

Greater Toronto Area. We come to your office or home, set up everything on-site, and make sure it's running before we leave. The original Collison Install.

•Everything in Mac Mini (Remote)
•On-site setup in the Greater Toronto Area
•In-person walkthrough and training

Additional Executive Agents

Add-on

$1,500 each

Deploy separate agents for your CFO, Head of Sales, EA, or other team members. Each agent gets its own identity, inbox access, and workflows.

Ongoing costs (monthly)

Cloud VPS hosting$5–$10/month

Anthropic API (Claude)$50–$200/month

Composio (integration middleware)Free tier available

Total ongoing$60–$210/month

API costs depend on email volume and how many workflows your agent runs. A typical CEO processing 100–200 emails/day spends around $100–$150/month on API calls.

DIY setup vs. professional deployment

OpenClaw is open-source — you can set it up yourself for free. Here's what that looks like in practice:

DIY Setup

Software cost

$0 (open-source)

Time investment

10–20 hours

Opportunity cost (at $200/hr)

$2,000–$4,000

Security hardening

Often skipped

Ongoing maintenance

You handle it

Support

Community (GitHub/Discord)

SetupClaw Professional

Setup cost

$3,000 (one-time)

Your time investment

~1 hour (kickoff call)

Security hardening

Included, production-grade

14-day hypercare

Included

Ongoing maintenance

Managed Care available

Support

Dedicated Slack channel

Most customers tell us the security hardening alone is worth the setup fee. DIY installs frequently have exposed endpoints, missing audit trails, and overly permissive access controls.

Total cost of ownership (Year 1)

Setup fee$3,000

Hosting (12 months × $10)$120

API costs (12 months × $125 avg)$1,500

Year 1 total~$4,620

Year 2+ (ongoing only)~$1,620/year

Compare this to a human executive assistant ($75K–$190K/year) or a virtual EA service ($24K–$96K/year). OpenClaw is roughly 3–5% the cost for the communication and scheduling workload.

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What is OpenClaw?→OpenClaw vs. hiring an executive assistant→OpenClaw for CEOs & Founders→

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