How the AI price calculator works
PlotonIQ's AI calculator isn't a simple markup tool. It combines three data sources: distributor prices for materials, regional economic data for location factors, and industry benchmarks for labour time.
10 product categories
Every calculation starts with a category, each with a specialised prompt:
Vehicle: Partial wraps to full lorry wraps. Knows vehicle surface areas, typical waste factors (1.15 for flat surfaces, 1.35 for curves), and distinguishes between printed wrap and colour-change film.
Window/Glass: Frosted film, privacy film, window graphics. Priced per m² including wet-application surcharge and cleaning time.
Sign: Aluminium composite, acrylic, Forex, stainless steel. Material per m² plus contour cutting or routing. For illuminated signs: LED modules and power supply separately.
Banner: Mesh, PVC, textile. Calculates eyelets, hems, pole pockets. Direct Teraprint pricing when available.
Channel letters: Most complex category. Material + electronics + installation + potentially planning permission.
Pylon/Totem: Foundations, structural calculations, crane installation.
Facade: Building wraps, murals. Automatically adds scaffolding costs above 3m height.
Exhibition: Display walls, roll-ups, pop-ups. Distinguishes purchase from hire.
Textile: Flags, feather flags, tension frames. Fabric printing per m² plus finishing.
Engraving: Plaques, door signs. Priced per character count or area.
Algorithm
The AI uses Claude (Anthropic) with an industry-specific system prompt containing: category, regional index, current material prices from the 6-month cache, and job description. Flow: (1) Free text → structured positions. (2) Per position: material + labour + installation. (3) Apply regional index. (4) Generate price justification. (5) Summary with VAT. Groq as automatic fallback if Claude is unavailable.
Credits
Each AI calculation uses 2 credits. Identical descriptions are served from cache (0 credits). The Starter plan with 50 credits/month covers ~25 calculations.