I looked into this some time back and, in current dollars, the 4004 was about $375. A small sampling of chips and prices over time showed that processors have tended to stay in that $400 to $800 price range, including several of the entry-level AMD Epyc-Rome versions. I suspect this reflects a marketing reality that a CPU can sell for roughly so many hours of labor and if it's much over that then sales are going to plummet.I can't find any mention of the 4004 price, to convert to today's dollars.
Computing in the 1970's was very very expensive for all of us that go back that far.
by Jake Hertz
by Duane Benson
by Aaron Carman
by Jake Hertz