AI and automation
How Much Does an AI Chatbot Cost for a Small Business?
The short answer
A website AI chatbot costs from nothing on a free plan to about $400 a month on a mid-tier plan, or $0.99 for each conversation an agent resolves at Intercom. The model itself is the cheap part: our worked example prices 1,000 conversations at about $3 to $60 in model usage. What you really pay for is setup, upkeep and keeping its answers correct.
How much does an AI chatbot cost for a small business website?
On the vendors' own pages in November 2026, a website AI chatbot costs from nothing to a few hundred dollars a month, and the number that matters is not the headline price but what it counts as a "conversation". Tidio's free plan covers 50 billable conversations a month, Starter is $24.17 a month, and Chatbase's plans run $32, $120 and $400 a month billed yearly. Intercom charges $0.99 each time its Fin agent resolves a conversation. The pages that rank for this question are mostly written by chatbot vendors pricing their own products, so a business owner rarely sees the three pricing models side by side. This article does that, and prices the underlying AI model separately because it is far cheaper than the plans suggest.
What are the three ways chatbots are priced?
Chatbots are sold as a flat plan with a usage allowance, a fee per resolved conversation, or raw model usage that you build around yourself. Which one is cheapest depends on how many conversations you have and how much setup you can do.
| Model | Example | Published price (checked 3 Nov 2026) | You pay for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat plan with allowance | Chatbase | Hobby $32, Basic $120, Business $400 a month, billed yearly; 700 / 4,000 / 15,000 message credits | A fixed bundle, then top-ups |
| Plan plus AI add-on | Tidio | Starter $24.17, Growth from $49.17 a month; Lyro AI add-on from $32.50 a month for 50 Lyro conversations | Seats or conversations, plus AI conversations |
| Per resolution | Intercom Fin | $0.99 per outcome; helpdesk seats from $19 a month; a minimum commitment applies with an existing helpdesk | Only conversations the AI resolves |
| Model usage | Anthropic, OpenAI APIs | Claude Haiku 5.5 $0.10 / $0.50 per million input / output tokens; gpt-4o-mini $0.15 / $0.60 | Tokens, plus whoever builds and runs it |
Chatbase's yearly billing means the monthly figures are not what a month-to-month customer pays; its page shows a 20% discount on the yearly toggle. Intercom's page does not say whether seat prices are monthly or annual, so read it before you compare.
What does a free or cheap chatbot actually give you?
A free plan is a trial of the product. Tidio's Free plan includes 50 billable conversations and its first 50 Lyro AI conversations, free for the lifetime of the account, according to its pricing page. That is enough to see whether visitors ask real questions, and not much more. Chatbase's Hobby plan has 700 message credits, one agent, 40 MB of training content and no API access. Cheap plans are fine for answering opening hours, delivery terms and service areas. They are the wrong tool when the bot must look up an order or book into your calendar, because that needs the integrations the higher plans or a custom build add.
What does the AI model itself cost?
The model is the cheapest line in the bill. We priced one example so you can see it: 1,000 conversations a month, each with six model calls, and each call sending about 4,000 tokens in (your instructions, retrieved passages from your content, and the conversation so far) and getting about 200 tokens back. That is 24 million input tokens and 1.2 million output tokens a month.
| Model | Published price per million tokens (in / out) | Monthly cost for the example |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.10 / $0.50 | about $3.00 |
| gpt-4o-mini | $0.15 / $0.60 | about $4.32 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2 / $10 | about $60 |
These are our calculations from Anthropic's pricing page and OpenAI's pricing page, using our assumed conversation shape; your retrieval size and conversation length will move them. Haiku 5.5's price applies to prompts up to 100,000 tokens, which a support chat stays well under. The same 1,000 conversations at Intercom's $0.99 per outcome would cost up to $990 if the agent resolved every one, though the price covers the product around the model, not only the model. Seen this way, a $120 or $400 plan mostly pays for the interface, training tools, handoff and analytics, not the AI.
What are the costs people miss?
The recurring costs are almost never the subscription. They are the extras and the labor, and a plan's headline price leaves them out.
- Add-ons. Chatbase lists removing its branding at $99 a month and each extra agent at $25 a month, and its auto-recharge credits at $40 per 1,000 message credits.
- Seats. If a person takes over from the bot, they usually need a seat. Intercom's page shows seats from $19 to $132 a month, and requires at least one full seat.
- Overages. Plans count conversations or credits. Tidio explains that a Lyro conversation counts once even if the customer returns later; other vendors count differently, so read the definition, not the price.
- Content upkeep. The bot is only as right as the pages and documents it reads. Someone must update them when prices, hours or policies change. Budget a few hours a month, not a one-off.
- Setup. Connecting the bot to a calendar, CRM or helpdesk is where the time goes. Our guide to what an automation agency charges lists published per-workflow and hourly rates for that kind of build.
When is a custom build worth it?
A custom chatbot is worth it when it has to do something a plan cannot: look up an order, qualify a lead and write it into your CRM, or follow your own rules about when to hand over to a person. If the job is "answer questions from our website", buy a plan (and if the website itself is still to be built, our guide to website development cost in Pakistan covers that budget first). If the job touches your systems, the build is a workflow problem more than a chatbot problem, and the model cost above shows the AI is not what you are paying for. A custom build adds ownership of the prompts, the logs and the data flow, and costs you the build and upkeep time. If you are unsure which side you are on, start with the one task your team repeats most, as in what to automate first, and see whether a chat window or a plain lead follow-up automation solves it. Our AI and automation service begins by mapping that task before quoting, and the choice of automation platform is covered in n8n vs Make vs Zapier.
What rules apply to a website chatbot?
Tell people they are talking to an AI, and be careful what the bot collects. Article 50(1) of the EU AI Act, which its text says applies from 2 August 2026, requires that people are informed they are interacting with an AI system unless that is obvious to a reasonably observant person; see the Article 50 text. If the bot makes decisions that significantly affect a person based only on automated processing, GDPR Article 22 restricts that for people covered by it. Keep payment details and health information out of the chat, state in the chat window what happens to the transcript, and give people a way to reach a person. This is general information, not legal advice; check your own case with a qualified adviser.
How should you choose?
Run the numbers on your own conversation volume before you compare plans. Count the questions your team answers each week, mark the ones with a written answer, and test any vendor's free plan on those for a month. If the bot answers most of the marked ones correctly and visitors use it, pick the cheapest plan whose allowance covers your volume with room to spare and whose definition of a conversation you understand. If it needs your systems, get a quote for the workflow. 1920 Agency, based in Islamabad, quotes a fixed price after mapping the job, and does not publish prices of its own; subscriptions and model usage are billed to you directly by those providers.
Sources
- Chatbase pricing, Chatbase, checked 3 November 2026
- Tidio pricing, Tidio, checked 3 November 2026
- Intercom pricing, Intercom, checked 3 November 2026
- Anthropic API pricing, Anthropic, checked 3 November 2026
- OpenAI API pricing, OpenAI, checked 3 November 2026
- EU AI Act, Article 50, checked 3 November 2026
- GDPR Article 22, checked 3 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI chatbot cost for a small business website?
On published pricing pages in November 2026, from $0 (Tidio's free plan, 50 billable conversations) through $24.17 a month for Tidio Starter and $32 a month for Chatbase Hobby, up to $400 a month for Chatbase Business. Per-resolution pricing at Intercom is $0.99 per outcome. Check each page on the day you buy.
Is there a free AI chatbot for a website?
Yes, with limits. Tidio's Free plan includes 50 billable conversations, and its first 50 Lyro AI conversations are free for the lifetime of the account. Free plans are fine for a test, not for a busy site.
What does the AI model itself cost per conversation?
Very little. At Anthropic's published Claude Haiku 5.5 price ($0.10 per million input tokens, $0.50 per million output), our assumed 6-turn conversation costs about a third of a cent. The same conversation on Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2 and $10) costs about six cents. These are our calculations on stated assumptions.
Is a subscription chatbot or a custom-built one cheaper?
A subscription is cheaper to start and to leave. A custom build can be cheaper per conversation at volume or when it must connect to your own systems, but you pay for build and upkeep. Published automation-agency build rates are in our automation agency cost guide.
Do I have to tell visitors they are talking to an AI?
In the EU, Article 50(1) of the AI Act requires people to be informed they are interacting with an AI system unless that is obvious, and the article states it applies from 2 August 2026. Saying so plainly in the chat window is good practice everywhere. This is general information, not legal advice.
What are the hidden costs of a website chatbot?
Branding removal, extra agents or seats, message or conversation overages, and the staff time to write and update the answers it relies on. Chatbase lists branding removal at $99 a month and extra agents at $25 a month each.
How many conversations does my site need before a chatbot pays off?
There is no universal number. Count the questions your team already answers by email, phone and chat, and how many are repeats with a written answer. If that is a handful a week, a contact form and a good FAQ page are cheaper.
Does 1920 Agency publish chatbot prices?
No. We quote a fixed price after mapping what the chatbot must answer and which systems it connects to. Platform subscriptions and model usage are billed to you by those providers.