How Fair Price Atlanta Works

The purpose

Fair Price Atlanta exists so that Atlanta residents can understand what a service should cost before they agree to a quote. Getting a major repair or renovation done means trusting someone with a significant amount of money. Most people have no baseline.

The current preview demonstrates that workflow with public benchmark values checked against 2026 public price guides where available. It is not yet a source of verified Fair Price Atlanta quote-based market pricing.

How estimates are built

Estimates are produced by a deterministic pricing engine. That means the same inputs always produce the same output. There is no hidden guessing and no AI-generated numbers inside the formula itself.

Each formula is versioned. When data or a formula changes, the version changes too, so the model behind a result can be identified. The live release policy requires every variable to come from approved evidence with documented rights. The current variables are public benchmark assumptions awaiting quote-based validation.

The base formula

Every service estimate starts from the same structure:

In live mode, each variable will be sourced, documented, and versioned separately. Service-specific formulas extend this base with additional line items where the job requires them.

What “fair price range” means

Every estimate is returned as a range with three points.

• LowThe lower boundary produced by the current formula. A quote below it deserves a careful scope comparison, but is not automatically a bad or incomplete quote.
• Most likelyThe center point produced by the current formula for the answers provided.
• HighThe upper boundary produced by the current formula. Premium materials, complex access, or unusual scope can push a legitimate quote above it.

Confidence levels

Every estimate carries a confidence level: high, medium, or low.

• HighMultiple approved Atlanta sources agree on the variables. The formula is mature and has been validated against real local quotes.
• MediumSome Atlanta-specific data is present but one or more variables rely on national benchmarks or sparse local evidence.
• LowThe estimate is based on public benchmarks, sparse sources, or a formula that has not yet been validated against local quote submissions.

All results remain low confidence because no licensed Atlanta price source or verified Fair Price Atlanta quote dataset has been connected yet.

What AI does and does not do

The planned live system gives AI a narrow, well-defined role:

• Extracting and classifying data from uploaded documents and quote images
• Flagging anomalies in submitted quotes for human review
• Explaining what changed between estimate versions in plain language

AI will not supply unverified prices, change formula variables, or override confidence rules. In live mode, estimate inputs must come from sourced, approved data rather than a language model.

Benchmark data notice

Current numbers are public benchmark previews. No licensed Atlanta price source or verified Fair Price Atlanta quote dataset has been connected yet. The deterministic formula structure is ready for evidence validation, but the values inside it still need first-party quote review before they can be called verified market pricing.

Source approval process

Before any data source is connected to the pricing engine, it must pass a documented rights review. We record the source owner, the access method, the license or terms of use, what transformations are permitted, and what attribution is required. Sources that do not clear this gate are never used. See the Data Sources page for the full list of approved source classes.

Update cadence

Once live data sources are connected, we plan the following update schedule:

• Weekly: automated ingest pipeline for supplier and permit fee feeds
• Monthly: Producer Price Index (BLS PPI) for materials cost adjustments
• Annual: BLS occupational wage data for Atlanta labor rate updates
• As needed: permit fee schedule updates when jurisdictions publish changes