# AI Chatbot Pricing 2026: How Much Does a Chatbot Cost?

> AI chatbot pricing compared: what Chatbase, Tidio, Intercom Fin, DocsBot and others cost, how each pricing model works, and the fees to watch for.

Published: 2026-09-28


How much does an AI chatbot cost? Anywhere from nothing to several thousand dollars a month, and the sticker price is rarely the whole story. One tool charges per message, another per conversation, a third per resolved ticket. Some add a setup fee, and several charge extra to remove their logo from your site.

This guide puts the numbers side by side. Every vendor price below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on 28 September 2026, billed monthly unless stated otherwise. Prices change often, so treat this as a snapshot. A disclosure: we make Asktopus, one of the tools in the tables. We have tried to be fair, including where others are cheaper.

## The short answer

| Type | Typical cost | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Free plans and DIY | $0, plus your time. DIY on an LLM API adds usage fees and developer hours | Free tiers at Chatbase (50 message credits/mo), DocsBot (100 AI credits), Chatling (200 AI credits), Asktopus (30 conversations/mo) |
| SMB software (SaaS) | Roughly $25–$500/month | Chatling from $25, Chatbase from $40, DocsBot from $49, SiteGPT from $59, Asktopus from €39 |
| Per-resolution helpdesk AI | About $1 per resolved conversation, plus seat licenses | Intercom Fin ($0.99 per outcome), Zendesk AI agents |
| Agency and custom builds | Thousands up front, then a monthly retainer | Danish agency Snilld: 4,500–15,000 kr/month (approx. €600–€2,000) plus setup from 25,000 kr (approx. €3,350), excl. VAT |

For a small business that wants an AI chatbot on its website, entry-level paid plans start between $25 and $59 a month. What you actually pay depends on how the vendor counts usage.

## The five pricing models

### Per conversation

You pay for each visitor chat, no matter how many questions are asked in it. It's the easiest model to budget, because it tracks your traffic. Asktopus counts a conversation when the assistant delivers its first answer and allows up to 25 questions in it. Tidio counts a Lyro conversation when it has at least one reply from its AI agent.

### Per message or credit

You buy a monthly pool of credits, and each AI answer uses one or more of them. Chatbase, DocsBot, SiteGPT and Chatling all work this way. The catch is the multiplier: better models cost more credits per answer, so the same plan can mean very different volumes.

### Per resolution (outcome)

You pay only when the AI resolves a request. Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin "outcome", which counts when a customer confirms the issue is resolved, doesn't ask for more help after Fin responds, or when Fin completes a workflow, including handoffs. Zendesk bills its AI agents per automated resolution but doesn't publish the per-resolution price on its pricing page. This model is fair on paper and gets expensive at volume.

### Setup fees and retainers

Agencies and some smaller vendors charge a one-off fee to configure the bot, then a monthly fee. You get more hands-on help, and you pay for it up front.

### Bring your own API key

Some tools let you connect your own OpenAI key. DocsBot, for example, charges only 1× credit per answer on any model when you do, and you pay OpenAI separately for usage. That can cut costs for heavy users, but you now have two bills and need to watch both.

## AI chatbot prices compared (checked 28 September 2026)

| Vendor | Monthly price (billed monthly) | Included | Pricing unit | Branding removal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asktopus | €39 / €99 / €249, excl. VAT (DKK 299 / 799 / 1,999 in Denmark) | 300 / 1,500 / 5,000 conversations | Conversation, up to 25 questions | Included on Pro and Business |
| Chatbase | $40 / $150 / $500 | 700 / 4,000 / 15,000 message credits | Credit per AI answer, 1–6 by model | $99/month add-on |
| Tidio Lyro | From $39 | 50 Lyro conversations | Conversation with at least one AI reply | Paid add-on |
| Intercom Fin | $0.99 per outcome, plus seats from $39/month ($29 billed annually) | – | Outcome (resolution) | – |
| Zendesk | Suite Team $55 per agent/month, billed yearly | AI agents included; usage billed per automated resolution | Automated resolution (price via sales) | – |
| DocsBot | $49 / $149 / $499 | 5,000 / 15,000 / 60,000 AI credits | Credit, 1× to 50× by model | Business plan only |
| SiteGPT | $59 / $129 / $429 | Up to 4k / 10k / 40k GPT-4.1-mini messages | Message; GPT-4.1 costs 10× | $39/month add-on (billed yearly) |
| Chatling | $25 / $75 / $295 | 1,750 / 6,000 / 35,000 AI credits | Credit, varies by model | $35/month add-on; included on Scale |

At the ECB reference rate on 28 September 2026, €39 is about $44, €99 about $112 and €249 about $283.

## Hidden costs to check before you sign

**Setup fees.** None of the self-serve tools above list one. Agency builds are the opposite: in Denmark, Chat Intel charges a 5,000 kr (approx. €670) setup fee and Snilld's setup starts at 25,000 kr (approx. €3,350), both excl. VAT.

**Branding removal.** "Powered by" links are often the price of the cheaper plans. Chatbase charges $99 a month to remove its branding on every self-serve plan, which is more than double its $40 Hobby plan. SiteGPT charges $39 and Chatling $35 a month, and DocsBot only offers unbranded widgets on its $499 Business plan.

**Premium-model multipliers.** On Chatbase, an answer costs 1 credit on its standard models, 2–4 credits on several newer GPT, Gemini and Grok models, 3 on Claude Sonnet 4.5 and 4.6, and 6 on Claude Opus 4.7 and 4.8. SiteGPT counts a GPT-4.1 message as 10 GPT-4.1-mini messages. DocsBot's most expensive model uses 50 credits per answer. A plan with 700 credits can therefore mean 700 answers or about 116.

**Overage, and what happens at the limit.** Chatbase can auto-recharge at $40 per 1,000 credits. Without it, the agent tells visitors it is unavailable until your credits renew. DocsBot's bot stops responding when you hit your limit. Check whether overage is automatic, capped or a hard stop.

**Annual prepayment.** Chatbase takes 20% off yearly plans, SiteGPT up to 40%, and Intercom's lowest seat price requires annual billing. Many "from" prices on pricing pages are the annual rate shown per month.

**VAT and sales tax.** European B2B prices are usually quoted excluding VAT, though not always: Danish vendor NemChatbot quotes its prices including 25% VAT. SiteGPT states that its prices exclude taxes and that local tax may be collected. Compare like with like.

## Worked example: 400 conversations a month

Take a webshop with 400 chat conversations a month. We assume three questions per conversation on average (1,200 AI answers) and that the assistant fully handles 7 out of 10 conversations (280). Your numbers will differ, so swap in your own.

For a baseline, assume a person needs 5 minutes to answer a visitor's request by email, including the lookup, and costs $40 an hour fully loaded. That's $3.33 per request.

| Option | Monthly cost | Per conversation |
|---|---|---|
| DocsBot Personal, 1× model (5,000 credits) | $49 | $0.12 |
| SiteGPT Starter, GPT-4.1-mini (4,000 messages) | $59 | $0.15 |
| Chatbase Hobby plus auto-recharge, 1-credit model | $80 the first month, about $60 on average (recharged credits don't expire) | $0.15–$0.20 |
| Asktopus Pro (1,500 conversations) | €99 ≈ $112 | ≈ $0.28 |
| Chatbase Standard, Claude Sonnet 4.6 for every answer at 3 credits (3,600 credits) | $150 | $0.38 |
| Tidio Lyro, 500-conversation tier | $350 | $0.88 |
| Intercom Fin, 280 outcomes plus one seat | $277 + $39 = $316 | $0.99 per outcome |
| Staff answering every conversation by email | $1,333 | $3.33 |

1. **On raw price, credit-based tools running a small model are cheapest at this volume.** Asktopus is not the cheapest line here. At 400 conversations you'd also be paying for headroom, since there's no Asktopus plan between 300 and 1,500 conversations.
2. **Extras change the ranking.** Add branding removal and Chatbase comes to about $160–$180, DocsBot requires its $499 plan, and SiteGPT adds $39 a month (its listed add-on price on yearly billing). Move to a premium model and credit plans shrink fast. Asktopus includes branding removal on Pro and charges the same per conversation whichever model answers.
3. **Every AI option costs a fraction of staff time for routine questions.** The bigger risk isn't the subscription. It's paying for a tool that answers badly, so test it on your own content before you commit.

## Where Asktopus fits

Asktopus is an AI chatbot for websites, built in Copenhagen. You paste one script tag, it reads the sections of your site you choose, any PDF or Word documents you upload and, for a webshop, your product catalogue, and it answers visitors only from that content. That approach is called [retrieval-augmented generation](/en/blog/what-is-rag-for-chatbots). If your content doesn't cover a question, the assistant says so, and it can hand the visitor to your team by email, Slack or webhook.

Pricing is per conversation, in euros (Danish kroner for Danish customers), excl. VAT, billed monthly or yearly (a year costs ten months' price) with no binding and no setup fee. Simple questions go to a fast model and harder ones to a more advanced model. That routing is included in the price. There's a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, and after it a free plan with 30 conversations a month on one site.

Where others fit better: if you need WhatsApp, Instagram or voice, or AI actions that look up orders, Chatbase does more. If you already run Intercom or Zendesk, their built-in AI keeps everything in one inbox. We compare the most common cases in detail in [Chatbase alternative: Asktopus vs Chatbase](/en/guides/chatbase-alternative) and [Intercom Fin alternative: Asktopus vs Intercom Fin](/en/guides/intercom-fin-alternative), and cover the human side of support in [AI chatbot vs. live chat](/en/blog/ai-chatbot-vs-live-chat).

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does an AI chatbot cost per month?

For a small business, entry-level paid plans in our comparison cost $25–$59 a month (Asktopus: €39). Mid-tier plans run $75–$150. Per-resolution tools charge about $1 per resolved conversation plus seats, and custom agency builds cost thousands up front.

### Is there a free AI chatbot?

Yes, with tight limits. Chatbase's free plan includes 50 message credits a month and deletes agents after 14 days of inactivity. DocsBot's includes 100 AI credits and Chatling's 200. That's enough to test, but usually too little for a live business site. Asktopus has a free plan with 30 conversations a month on one site, which you move to after a 14-day trial without a credit card.

### Is it cheaper to build my own chatbot on the OpenAI API?

The model usage per answer can be cheap. But you also need crawling, a vector database, hosting, a chat widget, abuse protection, monitoring and developer time to keep it all running. Unless you have developers with spare time, a hosted tool usually costs less in total.

### What's the difference between a conversation, a message credit and a resolution?

A conversation is one visitor's chat, however many questions it contains (within the vendor's cap). A message credit is used for each AI answer, often multiplied for premium models. A resolution is billed only when the AI resolves the request, and each vendor defines "resolved" differently. Always read the definition before comparing prices.

Want to see what your own traffic would cost? The [pricing page](/en/pricing) lists every plan, and you can try Asktopus free for 14 days on your own site before you decide.