By Jatin Modi, founder of Renaissance Group · Published 22 October 2026 · Updated 22 October 2026
What does a hired SDR cost, and how long until productive?
The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of 351 B2B companies, published on 6 February 2025, puts median SDR on-target earnings (OTE) at $80,000, split into $55,000 base and $25,000 variable. Average ramp is 3.0 months and average tenure is 1.9 years. Median annual attrition was 40% in 2024, and 60% of SDRs were at quota, the lowest share the study has recorded (The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models and Metrics Report, read 22 October 2026).
| Measure | Figure | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly OTE for one SDR | $6,667 | $80,000 / 12 |
| OTE paid during the 3.0-month ramp | $20,000 | $80,000 / 12 x 3, if full OTE is paid during ramp |
| OTE over the 1.9-year average tenure | $152,000 | $80,000 x 1.9 |
| Quality conversations per day, median | 4.1 | Bridge Group |
| OTE per quality conversation | About $89 | $80,000 / (4.1 x 220 working days); the 220 days is our assumption |
| Median annual attrition, 2024 | 40% | Bridge Group |
These figures cover earnings only. Benefits, tools, data, management time and recruiting come on top, and the Bridge Group does not report a cost per meeting.
What does an AI SDR tool cost?
Pricing varies by vendor and some vendors publish no prices. Artisan's pricing page lists three plans sized by volume: Team at about 2,500 leads contacted a month, Scale at about 6,000 and Enterprise at custom volume, with no dollar prices and a Talk to sales button (Artisan pricing, read 22 October 2026). AiSDR publishes $1.50 per person prospected on pay as you go with no monthly fee, volume-based team plans without prices, and a fully managed service at $2,500 a month (AiSDR pricing, read 22 October 2026).
| Vendor | Published | Not published |
|---|---|---|
| Artisan | Plans by leads contacted a month (about 2,500, about 6,000, custom). Every plan includes the full platform. The AI dialer is a per-seat add-on. | Dollar prices and contract terms |
| AiSDR | $1.50 per person prospected on pay as you go. Fully managed service at $2,500 a month. Annual plans cost 20% less than quarterly. | Team plan prices |
To size a per-contact meter, apply AiSDR's pay-as-you-go rate to Artisan's tier volumes: 2,500 people at $1.50 is $3,750 a month and 6,000 people is $9,000. That mixes two vendors, so read it as the order of magnitude and not as a quote. One hired SDR at $80,000 OTE costs $6,667 a month.
Price per contact leaves out the number that decides the case, the cost per held meeting. Neither page reports meetings booked or held. Ask each vendor for held meetings per 1,000 contacts at a customer in your segment, and call that customer.
What limits how much an AI SDR can send?
Mailbox reputation sets the limit. Google defines a bulk sender as one sending close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts in 24 hours, and the status is permanent once assigned. Senders must keep the user-reported spam rate below 0.1% and never reach 0.3%, authenticate with SPF and DKIM, publish a DMARC record and offer one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail (Google Workspace Admin Help, read 22 October 2026; the page shows no update date).
At a few thousand leads a month a tool can stay far below the 5,000-a-day line, but each lead can receive several messages. Ask for the sending plan, who owns the sending domains, and what happens to the reputation if you cancel. The reputation a tool spends is your domain's.
What does independent evidence say about AI SDR results?
Little yet. The Bridge Group counted AI SDRs as a distinct category for the first time in 2025, at 1% of respondents (The Bridge Group), so no benchmark exists for AI SDR productivity at the scale of its human SDR data. Gartner expects more than 40% of agentic AI projects to be canceled by the end of 2027, citing rising costs, unclear business value and inadequate risk controls (Gartner, 25 June 2025).
Treat any vendor figure for meetings booked as a claim to verify with a reference customer.
Which should you choose?
| Situation | Fits better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Long cycles, buying committees, phone-led selling | Hired SDRs | The median SDR in the Bridge Group data makes 44 of 112 daily activities by phone (Bridge Group) |
| A defined list of thousands of similar accounts and a rules-bound message | AI SDR tool | A per-contact meter suits volume work |
| Few named accounts, relationships carry the sale | Hired SDRs | Volume does not matter, judgment does |
| Small team with no SDR manager | AI SDR tool or a managed service | No one is available to coach a new hire, but someone must review replies |
| Unsure | A 90-day split test | Your market decides |
How do you run a 90-day test?
Pick one segment of at least 1,000 accounts and split it in half. Give one half to a human SDR and the other to the tool. Agree three measures before the start: held meetings, opportunities created and total cost per held meeting, counting the SDR's full cost and the tool's fees. Track spam complaints every week against Google's 0.1% line.
The average SDR takes 3.0 months to ramp (The Bridge Group), so start the human arm with an SDR who is past ramp, or judge both arms on days 61 to 90 only.
Where does Hastings fit?
Hastings sells a managed service, so it has an interest in this question. It sits between the two options: a senior team runs agreed jobs, such as prospects worth calling and outreach drafts, and a person on your team approves everything before it goes out. It is priced by jobs, from €4,500 a month for a 90-day pilot with two jobs (Hastings pricing), and it does not replace a phone-first SDR bench.
Where to read next
Other Hastings comparisons: for a platform choice see Hastings and Salesforce Agentforce. For build-or-buy see Hastings and an internal AI team. Our panel data on what AI engines cite when buyers research these tools is in what AI engines recommend to sales teams.
Questions buyers ask
Can an AI SDR replace a human SDR?
For rules-bound, high-volume first touches a tool can carry the work. The evidence for replacing a full SDR role is thin: the Bridge Group counted AI SDRs as a category for the first time in 2025, at 1% of respondents (The Bridge Group).
How much does an SDR cost?
The Bridge Group's 2025 median SDR on-target earnings are $80,000, with $55,000 base and $25,000 variable. That is $6,667 a month before benefits, tools and management (The Bridge Group, read 22 October 2026).
How much does an AI SDR cost?
AiSDR publishes $1.50 per person prospected on pay as you go and $2,500 a month for a fully managed service. Artisan publishes plan sizes of about 2,500 and about 6,000 leads a month and no dollar prices (AiSDR, Artisan, read 22 October 2026).
How long does a hired SDR take to ramp?
3.0 months on average in the Bridge Group's 2025 data, the lowest since 2010 (The Bridge Group). Average tenure is 1.9 years.
Does an AI SDR hurt email deliverability?
It can when complaints rise. Google asks senders to keep the user-reported spam rate below 0.1% and never reach 0.3% (Google Workspace Admin Help, read 22 October 2026). Ask the vendor who owns the sending domains and how it monitors complaints.
What should we measure in a test?
Held meetings, opportunities created and total cost per held meeting, agreed before the test starts, plus spam complaints every week.
Sources
The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models and Metrics Report (published 6 February 2025; read 22 October 2026).
Artisan, pricing (read 22 October 2026).
AiSDR, pricing (read 22 October 2026).
Google Workspace Admin Help, email sender guidelines FAQ (read 22 October 2026).
Gartner, Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027 (25 June 2025).
Hastings, pricing (read 22 October 2026).
Disclosure: Hastings publishes this page and sells a managed service that overlaps with both options. Vendor names identify their products only. Prices change, so check each source before you buy. This page is rechecked each quarter against its research file.