Learning-design project estimator (ADDIE)
Estimate the hours and cost of a learning-design project across analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation.
For Learning designers, RTOs scoping a build, consultants quoting
How to use this calculator
Start with the worked example below. Replace the figures in Your numbers with your own inputs, then select Recalculate. Read the assumptions and limitations before using the estimate in your planning. Save report downloads the last calculated results and inputs.
Total cost
$68,978.77
All phases, reviews and contingency at the rate entered.
- Total project hours
- 726.09 hours
- Every phase, plus reviews, plus contingency.
- Development hours
- 320 hours
- Delivery hours multiplied by your development ratio: the core build.
- Analysis hours
- 73.85 hours
- Needs analysis and audience research.
- Design hours
- 110.77 hours
- Outcomes, structure, storyboarding and assessment strategy.
- Implementation hours
- 61.54 hours
- Pilot, platform setup and preparing whoever delivers it.
- Evaluation hours
- 49.23 hours
- Measuring whether it worked, and revising from what you find.
- Review and contingency hours
- 110.71 hours
- Stakeholder review cycles plus the contingency allowance.
- Cost per finished delivery hour
- $8,622.35
- Useful for comparing quotes across projects of different lengths.
This is an estimate to support your professional judgement, not a determination. Our tools draft. You validate.
Saves the last calculated inputs, results and assumptions to your device. Recalculate after changing inputs.
Your numbers
How long the finished programme takes a learner. The single biggest driver of build effort.
Build hours for each finished hour. Simple facilitator-led material is around 20:1; interactive elearning is commonly 80:1 or more.
Percentage of the project spent on needs analysis and audience research.
Percentage spent on outcomes, structure, storyboarding and assessment strategy.
Percentage spent on pilot, platform setup and train-the-trainer.
Percentage spent on measuring whether it worked and revising. The phase most often cut and most often regretted.
How many times work goes out for comment and comes back.
Collating feedback, reconciling conflicting comments and revising.
Internal cost including on-costs, or the contract rate.
Percentage added for what you have not thought of. Zero is not a realistic answer on a first project with a new stakeholder.
How this is worked out
Development hours = delivery hours × ratio. Development is treated as the remaining share after analysis, design, implementation and evaluation, so project hours = development ÷ development share. Reviews are added on top, then contingency is applied to the whole.
What it assumes
- The development ratio you entered matches the fidelity you are actually building. Choosing a ratio for simple material and then building interactive content is the most common way these estimates fail.
- The four named shares are percentages of the WHOLE project; development takes whatever remains.
- Review cycles are bounded. Open-ended stakeholder review is not estimable and is the second most common failure.
What it does NOT account for
- Subject-matter expert time, which is usually somebody else's budget and is frequently the scarcest resource.
- Media production: video, animation and professional audio are separate line items.
- Translation, accessibility remediation and platform licensing.
- Maintenance after launch. Content decays.
- Project management as a distinct role, if you have one.
What to do next
- Sanity-check your development ratio against something you have actually built and measured, not an industry table.
- Fix the number of review cycles in the agreement before starting. Unbounded review is what turns a quoted project into a loss.
- If evaluation was the first thing you trimmed, reconsider. A programme nobody measured cannot be improved or defended.
- Quote the contingency openly rather than hiding it in the rate. Stakeholders accept a stated contingency more readily than a surprise.
Sources
- ADDIE: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation: the standard instructional-design framework. Phase shares are entered as inputs because they vary greatly by project type. (reviewed 2026-08-27)
- Development ratios: Widely cited ranges run from about 20:1 for simple facilitator-led material to 80:1 or more for interactive elearning. Entered as an input; no single figure is defensible as a default. (reviewed 2026-08-27)