How Much Does It Cost to Fix a Broken AI App?

Why the answer is not one number

The cost to fix an AI-built app depends almost entirely on what is broken and how the codebase was put together. Two apps that look identical from the outside can be very different jobs to fix. A surface-level UI bug is cheap. A broken data model is expensive.

Anyone who quotes you a number without looking at the codebase first is guessing. The honest answer is a range, with the right number falling out of an audit.

The 4 buckets fixes fall into

1. Light fixes ($500 to $5k)

The codebase is mostly fine. A few isolated issues need attention. Usually one of these:

• Stripe webhooks are not firing or are misconfigured.
• Deployment is broken because of an env variable issue.
• Auth is missing one piece (password reset, email verification, or session handling).
• UI bugs that show up in specific states.
• Database query timing out under any real load.

These are scoped problems with clear answers. A few days of work, clean handoff, and the app is shippable.

2. Full Fix & Finish ($5k to $15k)

The codebase has multiple real problems and the app cannot be launched as-is. This is the most common bucket we see:

• Auth, payments, and backend all need real work.
• The data model needs rethinking or hardening.
• Codebase has organization and consistency problems.
• Deployment and environment management need to be rebuilt.
• Error handling and monitoring need to be added.

This is the “Fix & Finish” sweet spot. The app gets to launch-ready in 2 to 4 weeks. You keep most of what was built and end up with something solid.

3. Partial rebuild ($12k to $25k)

The frontend is worth keeping but the backend and data layer need to be rebuilt. This happens when:

• The data model is wrong enough that fixing it would touch everything.
• The API layer is too brittle to extend.
• Authentication has security gaps that cannot be patched cleanly.
• Performance problems are baked into the architecture.

At this point, replacing the parts that are broken costs less than continuing to patch them. The user-facing parts of the app stay the same, the engine gets replaced.

4. Full custom rebuild ($15k to $25k+)

The Lovable, Claude, or Cursor version served its purpose as a prototype. The real product is different enough that starting fresh is faster than untangling what is there.

This is less common than people expect. Most apps do not need a full rebuild. But it does happen, especially when the original prototype was built quickly without a clear product direction.

What changes the price within each bucket

• Codebase quality. A clean Lovable build is cheaper to fix than a messy one with unused code, broken imports, and tangled state management.
• Number of integrations. Stripe, email providers, CRMs, analytics, third-party APIs. Each one is additional work to verify and harden.
• Production requirements. A fix targeting an internal tool is cheaper than one targeting a public SaaS with paying customers.
• Data model complexity. Five tables is fast. Twenty tables with complex relationships is real work.
• Speed required. If you need it shipped in two weeks, that costs more than four weeks.

How to know which bucket you are in

The honest answer: get a real audit. A 30 minute look at the codebase tells an experienced engineer everything they need to know to give you a confident range.

That is what the $100 Quick Audit is for. You submit your repo or app, we review it, and you get back a clear breakdown of:

• What is actually broken vs what just feels broken.
• Which bucket the work falls into.
• The realistic price range for fixing it.
• Whether a fix or a rebuild makes more sense.

The cost of waiting

Here is the part most founders underestimate. Every week you do not fix the broken parts is a week you cannot launch, cannot charge customers, cannot get real feedback, and cannot iterate.

The real cost of a broken AI app is not the fix price. It is the opportunity cost of not having a working product. A $10k fix that gets you to launch in three weeks beats a $0 fix that keeps you stuck for six months.

How FinishLine AI handles this

We fix broken AI-built apps. Most engagements start with a $100 Quick Audit so we can look at the actual codebase and give you a real answer about what it will take and what it will cost. No guessing.