Once an audience is defined and feasibility assessed, Focaldata AI provides cost and timeline guidance. This gives realistic expectations early, supports quoting and planning, and surfaces risk before fieldwork begins. The emphasis is on consistency and feasibility rather than false precision.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.focaldata.com/llms.txt
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How costs are determined
For panel-based projects, cost is driven primarily by how easy or difficult it is to reach the specified audience at scale.Assess prevalence
Based on the audience definition and market, the system forms a directional view of how common the target group is on panel.
Map to a cost band
Rather than pricing every project from scratch, audiences are grouped into transparent CPI bands reflecting relative difficulty of recruitment.
Own-audience or universal-link projects behave differently: the feasibility agent is skipped and pricing follows a fixed per-respondent model.
How timelines are estimated
Timeline guidance uses the same inputs as cost, focused on how quickly the requested sample can realistically be completed. The system considers panel supply in the selected market(s), combines that with audience difficulty and requested sample size, and returns an indicative fieldwork duration (e.g. “1–2 days” vs “7+ days”).| Audience | Typical fieldwork |
|---|---|
| Broad (high incidence) | 24–48 hours |
| Moderate | 48–72 hours |
| Narrow (low incidence) | 72+ hours |
Interrogating cost and timing
Cost and timeline guidance is designed to be explainable, not opaque. You can:- Ask how a given cost or timeline was arrived at.
- Request clarification on assumptions or trade-offs.
- Explore how changing the audience, sample size, or market would affect delivery.