The optimum design and preliminary cost estimations of air stripping towers (ASTs) with granular activated carbon adsorption (GAC) systems as the off-gas treatment were done and compared to liquid-phase GAC system. The optimum design and preliminary cost estimations were done for either single or multicomponent systems. A computer program was developed for this study. 15 single compounds and their multicomponent systems were studied. Even with off-gas treatment, AST was generally a less expensive process for treatment of volatile organics than liquid-phase GAC system. Treatment costs of small systems were sensitive to system capacity. Accumulative effect of treatment costs was found in multicomponent systems. The cost of a multicomponent system was highly dependent on the east strippable component in ASTs even with gas-phase GAC or the least adsorbable component in liquid-phase GAC system.