Table of Contents
- Key takeaways: chatbot cost by business size
- How much does a chatbot cost?
- Chatbot cost by business size
- Testing a chatbot: $0 a month
- Small business: $40 to $68 a month
- Growing team: $129 to $150 a month
- Service team with a helpdesk: $275 to $1,085 a month
- Enterprise: a custom quote
- Cheapest chatbot routes, ranked
- 1. Tidio Free: best for testing a chatbot at $0
- 2. SiteGPT Starter: best for a chatbot trained on your own website and files
- 3. Chatbase Hobby: best for under 700 AI replies a month
- 4. Zendesk Suite Team: best for teams that already need a helpdesk
- 5. Fin: best for paying only for resolved conversations
- 6. Custom build: best for a chatbot inside your own product
- Chatbot cost compared with hiring a customer service rep
- Hidden chatbot costs to budget for
- How to choose a chatbot at the right price
- Chatbot cost FAQ
- Cost basics
- How much does a chatbot cost per month?
- Is there a free chatbot?
- What is the average cost of a chatbot?
- Cost by business size
- How much does a chatbot cost for a small business?
- How much does an enterprise chatbot cost?
- Chatbot versus staff
- Is a chatbot cheaper than hiring an agent?
- How much does 24/7 customer service cost with people?
- Billing and hidden costs
- Is annual billing cheaper for a chatbot?
- What costs extra on a chatbot plan?
- Sources
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Oct 25, 2023 11:33 PM
A chatbot costs $0 a month to test, $40 to $68 a month for a small business and $129 to $150 a month for a growing team, billed monthly. A service team on a helpdesk pays $275 to more than $1,000 a month, and an enterprise gets a custom quote.
TL;DR
- Testing: $0. Tidio Free includes 50 Lyro AI conversations once, and Botpress Free includes 100 conversations a month.
- Small business: $40 to $68 a month billed monthly. SiteGPT Starter costs $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly ($468 a year), for up to 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages.
- Growing team: $129 to $150 a month billed monthly for integrations, API access and 3 to 4 seats.
- Service team on a helpdesk: 5 Zendesk Suite Team agents cost $275 a month paid yearly before AI resolutions. Fin with 5 seats and 1,000 outcomes costs $1,085 a month.
- Enterprise: a custom quote. A signed BAA or DPA is an Enterprise-only item on SiteGPT.
Key takeaways: chatbot cost by business size
The cost of a chatbot depends mostly on the size of the business that runs it. The table gives one typical plan for each size, with its monthly price and its yearly total.
Business size | Typical monthly cost | Example plan | Yearly total |
Testing a chatbot | $0 | Tidio Free or Botpress Free | $0 |
Small business | $40 to $68 billed monthly | SiteGPT Starter at $59 a month | $708, or $468 billed yearly |
Growing team | $129 to $150 billed monthly | SiteGPT Growth at $129 a month | $1,548, or $948 billed yearly |
Service team with a helpdesk | $275 to $1,085 | Zendesk Suite Team for 5 agents, or Fin with 5 seats | $3,300 to $13,020 |
Enterprise | Custom quote | Enterprise plans with SSO, a BAA or a DPA | Quoted per contract |
How much does a chatbot cost?
A chatbot costs $0 to about $68 a month for most small websites and $129 or more once a team needs integrations, seats and a higher message quota. The price you pay depends on three things: how many AI replies you need, how many people use the dashboard, and how the vendor bills.
Vendors bill in four ways. Most small-business plans charge a flat monthly fee with a message quota. Credit plans charge per AI reply. Helpdesk suites charge per agent seat. Fin charges per resolved conversation.
This page answers the price question by business size. The cost to build a chatbot yourself, with developer hours and API fees, is broken down in the chatbot cost guide. Vendor-by-vendor prices at fixed conversation volumes are in the AI chatbot pricing comparison.
Chatbot cost by business size
Chatbot cost by business size rises in steps, because each plan tier adds messages, seats and integrations together. The sections below give the price band for each size and the plans that set it.
Testing a chatbot: $0 a month
Testing a chatbot costs $0 on a free plan. Free plans cap AI usage hard, so they suit a trial run on a small site more than a live service channel.
- Tidio Free: 50 billable conversations a month and 50 Lyro AI conversations once, for the life of the account.
- Botpress Free: 100 conversations a month, 3 seats and 3 AI agents, with no top-ups or overages.
SiteGPT has no free plan. Its paid plans start with a 7-day trial that needs a credit card. More free options are listed in the guide to free chatbots for websites.
Small business: $40 to $68 a month
A small business pays $40 to $68 a month billed monthly for an AI chatbot on its website. Annual billing lowers that to $32 to about $57 a month. A small business still deciding between live chat, an AI chatbot or both can compare four low-cost tools in the small business chatbot guide.
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | AI usage included |
Chatbase Hobby | $40 a month ($480 a year) | $32 a month ($384 a year) | 700 message credits a month |
SiteGPT Starter | $59 a month ($708 a year) | $39 a month ($468 a year) | Up to 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages, or 400 GPT-4.1 messages |
Tidio Starter with Lyro | $68 a month ($816 a year) | $56.67 a month ($680.04 a year) | 50 Lyro AI conversations a month |
The Tidio row adds the Starter plan ($29 a month, or $24.17 billed annually) to the smallest Lyro AI Agent quota ($39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually). SiteGPT Starter on yearly billing costs $1.28 a day.
Growing team: $129 to $150 a month
A growing team pays $129 to $150 a month billed monthly for a chatbot with integrations, API access and room for 3 to 4 people.
- SiteGPT Growth: $129 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly ($948 a year). It includes 2 chatbots, up to 10,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages a month, 4 members, monthly auto refresh, the API and integrations with Slack, Crisp, Messenger, Google Chat, Freshdesk Messaging and Zoho SalesIQ.
- Chatbase Standard: $150 a month, or $120 a month billed yearly. It includes 4,000 message credits a month, 3 members, the Chatbase helpdesk inbox and API access.
Yearly billing saves $600 on SiteGPT Growth, which is 39% off the monthly-billed total of $1,548.
Service team with a helpdesk: $275 to $1,085 a month
A service team that already answers tickets in a helpdesk pays per agent seat, and the AI is billed on top. The examples below use 5 agents.
- Zendesk Suite Team: $55 per agent a month paid yearly. Five agents cost $275 a month, or $3,300 a year. AI agents are included in Suite plans. The pricing page prints no per-resolution AI rate.
- Fin with the Intercom helpdesk: $0.99 per outcome plus $19 per seat a month on the Fin pricing page. Five seats and 1,000 outcomes cost $95 + $990 = $1,085 a month, or $13,020 a year.
- SiteGPT Scale: $429 a month, or $259 a month billed yearly. It installs SiteGPT as the AI agent inside Zendesk Messaging and includes up to 40,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages a month.
Enterprise: a custom quote
An enterprise chatbot costs a custom quote, because contracts add SSO, security reviews, custom limits and signed agreements. SiteGPT, Chatbase, Botpress, Tidio and Zendesk all route their top tier through sales.
Compliance is often the line that moves a buyer to this tier. SiteGPT signs a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and a GDPR Data Processing Agreement (DPA) on Enterprise only. Chatbase lists HIPAA eligibility on its Enterprise plan. Healthcare buyers can compare terms in the guide to HIPAA compliant AI chatbots. Contract sizes and total cost of ownership are covered in the enterprise AI chatbot cost guide.
Cheapest chatbot routes, ranked
The six chatbot routes below are ranked for one scenario: a small business that wants a chatbot on its website to answer customer questions. Two criteria set the order.
- Cost to start. The lowest monthly price you can pay and still go live.
- Cost per AI reply. The plan price divided by the AI replies it includes, because a cheap plan with few replies runs out fast.
SiteGPT publishes this guide and is one of the six routes. Each route has a "best for" label, and no route is the best pick for every business.
1. Tidio Free: best for testing a chatbot at $0
Tidio is a live chat and helpdesk tool with an AI agent called Lyro, and its Free plan is the cheapest way to see a chatbot answer real visitors. The product is covered in the Tidio review.
- Price: $0 a month.
- Included: 50 billable conversations a month, 50 Lyro AI conversations once and 100 visitors reached with Flows.
- Next step up: Starter at $29 a month, or $24.17 billed annually. Lyro starts at $39 a month for 50 AI conversations, or $32.50 billed annually.
- Limits: the 50 free Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance. More AI conversations need a paid Lyro quota.
Best for: a business that wants to see a chatbot work on its own site before paying anything.
2. SiteGPT Starter: best for a chatbot trained on your own website and files
SiteGPT is an AI chatbot trained on your own website, documents and connected sources, and its Starter plan has the lowest cost per AI reply of the paid routes in this guide. It costs more to start than Chatbase Hobby, so it sits second.
- Price: $59 a month billed monthly, or $39 a month billed yearly. Yearly billing saves $240, or 34%.
- Included: 1 chatbot, up to 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages or 400 GPT-4.1 messages a month, 1,000 pages of training content, 10 files, 1 member and basic analytics.
- Content sources: website URLs, sitemaps, files, raw text, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub and YouTube.
- Costs extra: a pack of 5,000 extra messages costs $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly. Branding removal costs $39 a month billed yearly.
- Limits: no free plan. Starter refreshes content by hand and has no chat integrations. Integrations and monthly auto refresh start on Growth. SiteGPT has no Intercom or HubSpot integration today.
Per 1,000 messages, SiteGPT Starter costs $14.75 on monthly billing. Chatbase Hobby costs $57.14 per 1,000 credits. Each vendor counts a message in its own way, so treat the two figures as a rough guide. A feature comparison is in SiteGPT vs Chatbase.
Best for: a business whose answers already live on its website and in its documents, and that expects up to 4,000 messages a month.
3. Chatbase Hobby: best for under 700 AI replies a month
Chatbase is an AI agent builder priced in message credits, and its Hobby plan is the cheapest paid plan in this guide. The plans are covered in the Chatbase review.
- Price: $40 a month billed monthly, or $32 a month billed yearly ($384 a year).
- Included: 700 message credits a month, 1 agent, 2 members, access to advanced models and basic analytics.
- Costs extra: auto-recharge credits cost $40 per 1,000. Removing the Chatbase branding costs $1,188 a year.
- Limits: the helpdesk inbox, API access and auto-resync start on Standard at $150 a month.
Best for: a small site that expects fewer than 700 AI replies a month and wants to choose the AI model.
4. Zendesk Suite Team: best for teams that already need a helpdesk
Zendesk is a helpdesk suite billed per agent seat, with AI agents included from the Suite Team plan. The Zendesk vs Intercom comparison covers the two helpdesks side by side.
- Price: $55 per agent a month paid yearly. Support Team, without AI agents, costs $19 per agent a month paid yearly.
- Example: 5 agents on Suite Team cost $275 a month, or $3,300 a year.
- Costs extra: App Builder, Action Builder and voice are billed by usage above the plan allowance. Copilot costs $50 per agent a month paid yearly.
- Limits: the price grows with every agent, and the per-resolution AI rate is not printed on the pricing page.
Best for: a team of agents that needs ticketing, email and phone in one tool, with AI on the front line.
5. Fin: best for paying only for resolved conversations
Fin is an AI agent priced per outcome, and Salesforce now owns it. You pay only when Fin resolves a conversation. The product is covered in the Fin AI review.
- Price: $0.99 per outcome, plus $19 per Intercom helpdesk seat a month on the Fin pricing page. Fin also works with Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce and other helpdesks.
- Example: 1,000 outcomes a month cost $990. With 5 seats the bill is $1,085 a month, or $13,020 a year.
- Costs extra: the Pro add-on starts at $100 per workspace a month. Copilot costs $29 per teammate a month.
- Limits: the bill grows as Fin resolves more. At 3,000 outcomes a month the AI line alone is $2,970.
Best for: a team that wants the AI bill tied to resolved conversations and is ready to set a spending limit.
6. Custom build: best for a chatbot inside your own product
A custom build means a developer writes the chatbot and you pay for model usage. It fits a chatbot that must live inside your own app or follow data rules no vendor meets.
- Price: developer hours up front, then upkeep hours and usage every month.
- Example: the chatbot cost guide works out a first-year total of about $4,342 to $8,682 for an OpenAI API build at 140 freelance hours.
- Limits: every later change needs a developer.
Best for: a product team with a developer on hand for the build and for every change after it.
Chatbot cost compared with hiring a customer service rep
A paid chatbot costs 1.6% to 29% of one customer service rep's yearly pay in the examples on this page. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics lists median pay for customer service representatives at $44,770 a year, or $21.53 an hour, in 2025.
- SiteGPT Starter costs $708 a year billed monthly. That is 1.6% of the median wage.
- SiteGPT Growth costs $1,548 a year billed monthly. That is 3.5%.
- Fin with 5 seats at 1,000 outcomes a month costs $13,020 a year. That is 29.1%.
Round-the-clock coverage widens the gap. One seat staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, needs 8,736 hours a year. At $21.53 an hour that is $188,086.08 in wages, or about 4.2 full-time reps. The staffing math for after-hours cover is in the guide to the 24/7 customer service chatbot.
A chatbot does not remove the need for people. Complex questions, refunds and complaints still reach an agent. The SiteGPT iOS app on Growth and above sends a push notification when a visitor asks for a human, and an agent can take over the chat in one tap. The setup is in the human support guide.
Hidden chatbot costs to budget for
Hidden chatbot costs are the lines below the plan price. Five of them change the yearly total most.
- Extra messages or credits. SiteGPT packs of 5,000 messages cost $59 a month. Chatbase credits cost $40 per 1,000. Botpress Plus adds packs of 100 conversations for $65.
- Branding removal. SiteGPT charges $39 a month billed yearly. Chatbase charges $1,188 a year.
- More seats. Starter plans include 1 or 2 members. SiteGPT Growth includes 4 and Scale includes 10.
- Integrations and API access. These start on SiteGPT Growth and Chatbase Standard.
- Content upkeep. Someone has to fix wrong answers. Plans with a manual refresh need a person to resync content after each website change.
Annual billing is the simplest saving. It cuts SiteGPT by 34% to 40% and Chatbase by 20%. Tidio advertises 2 months free on annual billing. A wider list of what to automate first is in the guide to customer service automation.
How to choose a chatbot at the right price
Choose a chatbot at the right price by answering three questions: are you still testing, where do your answers live, and how do you want to pay.
If you need | Pick | Why |
To test a chatbot for free | Tidio Free or Botpress Free | $0 a month with a capped AI quota |
Answers from your website and files at a flat price | SiteGPT Starter | $59 a month, or $39 billed yearly, for up to 4,000 messages |
The lowest paid plan at very low volume | Chatbase Hobby | $40 a month for 700 message credits |
Slack, Crisp or Messenger plus a team of 4 | SiteGPT Growth | $129 a month, or $79 billed yearly |
Ticketing, email and phone for a team of agents | Zendesk Suite Team | $55 per agent a month paid yearly, with AI agents |
To pay only for resolved conversations | Fin | $0.99 per outcome plus helpdesk seats |
A signed BAA or DPA | An Enterprise plan | A custom quote on every platform in this guide |
A chatbot inside your own app | A custom build | Developer hours, priced in the chatbot cost guide |
A business with its answers already on its website can start a 7-day trial of SiteGPT and see the cost per answer before the first bill.
Chatbot cost FAQ
Cost basics
How much does a chatbot cost per month?
A chatbot costs $0 to $68 a month billed monthly for a small business. Chatbase Hobby is $40, SiteGPT Starter is $59 and Tidio Starter with Lyro is $68. Growing teams pay $129 to $150 a month.
Is there a free chatbot?
Yes. Tidio Free costs $0 and includes 50 Lyro AI conversations once. Botpress Free includes 100 conversations a month. SiteGPT has no free plan and offers a 7-day trial that needs a credit card.
What is the average cost of a chatbot?
The useful figure is the price band for your business size. Small businesses pay $40 to $68 a month billed monthly. Teams with a helpdesk pay $275 to $1,085 a month in the 5-agent examples on this page.
Cost by business size
How much does a chatbot cost for a small business?
A chatbot costs a small business $384 to $816 a year. The low end is Chatbase Hobby billed yearly. SiteGPT Starter costs $468 billed yearly or $708 billed monthly.
How much does an enterprise chatbot cost?
An enterprise chatbot costs a custom quote on every platform in this guide. SSO, custom limits and a signed BAA or DPA sit on Enterprise plans. The enterprise AI chatbot cost guide covers contract sizes.
Chatbot versus staff
Is a chatbot cheaper than hiring an agent?
Yes, for the questions a chatbot can answer. SiteGPT Starter costs $708 a year billed monthly. The BLS median pay for one customer service rep is $44,770 a year.
How much does 24/7 customer service cost with people?
One seat staffed around the clock needs 8,736 hours a year. At the BLS median of $21.53 an hour that is $188,086.08 in wages before benefits.
Billing and hidden costs
Is annual billing cheaper for a chatbot?
Yes. SiteGPT Starter costs $468 billed yearly against $708 billed monthly, a 34% saving. Chatbase plans are 20% off on yearly billing.
What costs extra on a chatbot plan?
Extra messages, branding removal, extra seats, integrations and API access cost extra on most plans. Branding removal alone costs $468 a year on SiteGPT and $1,188 a year on Chatbase.
Sources
All pages below were opened on 22 October 2026.
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