How to measure the ROI of AI coding tools.

Use first-year figures. These are the same inputs as the Waydev AI ROI calculator.

Total first-year investment = license cost + additional AI costs (tokens, usage overages) + AI infrastructure + training + J-curve cost

J-curve cost = engineers x loaded salary x productivity drop % x (drop duration in months / 12)

Capacity value = engineers x loaded salary x net time saved %

First-year value = capacity value + revenue from extra features shipped + downtime savings from a lower change failure rate

AI ROI % = (first-year value - total first-year investment) / total first-year investment x 100

Payback period (months) = total first-year investment / (first-year value / 12)

Cost per merged PR = total AI spend / merged pull requests in the period

Net time saved means time saved after the extra time spent reviewing, fixing and reworking AI-generated code. Use measured rework and review time, not survey estimates alone.

1. Set a baseline: cycle time, throughput, change failure rate and rework for each team over the 90 days before rollout.
2. Track true adoption: active users and accepted suggestions per developer, not seats assigned. Idle seats are pure cost.
3. Compare Copilot users with non-users on the same teams, and each team with its own baseline.
4. Measure quality: rework and reverts on Copilot-assisted pull requests versus others.
5. Apply the formula above with Copilot license and usage cost, and report cost per merged PR.

Cursor is worth it for a team when its cost per merged PR falls and cycle time improves without a rise in rework or change failure rate. It is not worth it where spend rises while cycle time stays flat, which usually signals low adoption or review bottlenecks.

• Compare Cursor teams with Copilot or Claude Code teams on the same metrics before renewals.
• Reallocate idle Cursor seats before the next renewal.
• Model expansion first: estimate token spend if seats double, and set a positive-ROI gate before scaling.

• Bring seat, token, model and agent costs from every tool into one ledger.
• Map users to teams from your identity provider or Git organization.
• Report per team: active seats, idle seats, spend, cost per merged PR and ROI.
• Roll spend up to features and initiatives so finance sees cost per outcome, not per tool.

1. Lead with one number per tool: cost per merged PR and ROI, against last quarter.
2. Show capacity gained in engineer-equivalents and where it was reinvested.
3. Show quality held or improved: change failure rate and rework.
4. Show decisions: seats cut, tools expanded, renewals renegotiated.
5. Give finance a view they can open without an engineering login.

Read more: How to prove AI coding ROI to the board, How to present engineering ROI to the CFO and Cost per accepted change is the right unit.