In this guide
The AI chatbot cost for a small business in 2026 runs from about $19 a month, with the vendor's logo left on, to several hundred dollars for thousands of answers with lead capture and no logo, going by the website chatbots we priced in October 2026. Where you land depends on three things: how many questions it answers, whether you want it to capture leads, and whether you pay to remove the vendor's logo. A custom-built bot costs thousands up front instead.
Price pages don't add those three things up for you, so we have. Below are three complete monthly bills, at 300, 1,000 and 5,000 answers, with lead capture on and no vendor logo, using each vendor's published prices as of October 2026. We're one of the vendors, so we've also marked every case where a cheaper tool wins.
The short answer on AI chatbot cost for small business
| Answers a month | Ours | Lowest other bill we found (leads on, no logo) | Highest in our set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 | $49 | $60 (Chatling) | $139 (Chatbase), or up to $326 on Intercom if most chats resolve |
| 1,000 | $49 | $60 (Chatling) | $249 (Chatbase), or up to about $1,019 on Intercom |
| 5,000 | $149 | $110 (Chatling) | $599 (Chatbase), or up to about $4,979 on Intercom |
All prices are as of October 2026 and come from each vendor's pricing page, linked below. Intercom figures assume one outcome per answer, which is the worst case. Chatling's pricing page doesn't make clear which plans include lead capture, so check before relying on it.
If you keep the vendor's logo and don't need lead capture, the order changes completely. Botsonic at $19 and Chatling at $25 both come in under our $49. We cover that at the end of each bill.
Our plans, for reference: Starter is $49 a month for 1,000 replies, Growth is $149 for 5,000, and Scale is $449 for 20,000. Lead capture is on every paid plan and there's no branding fee. Full details are on our pricing page.
Bill 1: 300 answers with leads and no logo
This is a typical small shop or service business: a few hundred questions a month, mostly about shipping, returns, opening hours or prices. The owner wants the bot to take a name and email when it can't help, and doesn't want another company's logo in the chat window.
| Vendor (as of October 2026) | Plan | Plan price | Branding removal | Monthly bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Us | Starter (1,000 replies) | $49 | $0 | $49 |
| Chatling (pricing) | 1,750 credits | $25 | $35 | $60 |
| Botsonic (pricing) | 1,000 messages | $19 | $49 | $68 |
| SiteGPT (pricing) | 4,000 messages, cheaper model | $59 | $39 | $98 |
| CustomGPT (pricing) | 1,000 queries | $99 | Not listed | $99 |
| Chatbase (pricing) | Hobby (700 credits) | $40 | $99 ($1,188/yr) | $139 |
| Intercom (pricing) | 1 seat + Fin | $29 | Not listed | Up to $326 |
How we got the harder numbers:
- Chatbase. On a 1-credit model, 300 replies use 300 credits, which fits Hobby's 700 at $40. A pricier model uses up to 5 credits per reply, and at 5 credits 300 replies would need Standard. Chatbase offers lead capture as one of its AI actions. Removing the logo is $1,188 a year, or $99 a month, for a total of about $139. Our Chatbase comparison has the line-by-line version.
- Intercom. Fin costs $0.99 per outcome, charged at most once per conversation. If every one of the 300 questions were its own resolved chat, that's $297 plus a $29 seat. Fewer resolutions or more questions per chat lower that.
- Lead capture elsewhere. Botsonic's pricing page lists lead capture forms on its lowest plan. SiteGPT's and Chatling's pages don't make clear which plans include it, so check before you count on it.
Where a cheaper tool wins: if you'll keep the vendor's logo, Botsonic is $19 and Chatling $25, and both cost less than $49. If you don't need leads either, Chatbase Hobby at $40 also comes in under us. That's the honest version of this bill. You'd be paying our $49 for no logo and included lead capture. Whether that's worth $24 to $30 a month is your call. Our Botsonic comparison sets out that trade in more detail.
What 300 answers costs over a year
| Option (as of October 2026) | Year one |
|---|---|
| Us, Starter paid yearly (12 months for the price of 10) | $490 |
| Us, Starter monthly with 30% off the first 3 months | $543.90 |
| Us, Starter monthly at full price | $588 |
| Chatbase Hobby paid yearly (20% off) plus branding | $384 + $1,188 = $1,572 |
| Chatbase Hobby monthly plus branding | $1,668 |
On Chatbase, the branding fee is the larger part of the bill.
Bill 2: 1,000 answers
A busier shop, or a service business whose site gets a steady flow of visitors with questions. Still with leads on and no logo.
| Vendor (as of October 2026) | Plan needed | Plan price | Branding | Monthly bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Us | Starter (1,000 replies) | $49 | $0 | $49 |
| Chatling | 1,750 credits (1-credit model) | $25 | $35 | $60 |
| Botsonic | 1,000 messages | $19 | $49 | $68 |
| SiteGPT | 4,000 messages, cheaper model | $59 | $39 | $98 |
| CustomGPT | 1,000 queries | $99 | Not listed | $99 |
| Chatbase | Standard (4,000 credits) | $150 | $99 | $249 |
| Intercom | 1 seat + up to 1,000 outcomes | $29 + up to $990 | Not listed | Up to about $1,019 |
At 1,000 answers, Chatbase moves up a plan. A thousand replies on a 1-credit model is 1,000 credits, past Hobby's 700. On a pricier model it climbs further: at 5 credits per reply it's 5,000 credits, which needs Pro.
A note on our own number: 1,000 replies is exactly Starter's limit. If you go over, visitors see the lead form instead of an answer until the month resets. Nobody is shut out, but it's a sign you need more room. If you're regularly near 1,000, Growth at $149 gives you 5,000.
Where a cheaper tool wins: with the logo kept, Botsonic ($19) and Chatling ($25) are again under $49. SiteGPT at $59 includes 4,000 messages on its cheaper model, which is more room than we give you for $49.
Bill 3: 5,000 answers
A shop with real traffic, or several sites. This is where per-message prices separate.
| Vendor (as of October 2026) | Plan needed | Plan price | Branding | Monthly bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatling | 6,000 credits (1-credit model) | $75 | $35 | $110 |
| Wonderchat (pricing) | 5,000 credits, billed yearly | ~$124 | Not listed | ~$124 |
| Us | Growth (5,000 replies) | $149 | $0 | $149 |
| SiteGPT | 10,000 messages, cheaper model | $129 | $39 | $168 |
| Botsonic | 12,000 messages | $299 | $49 | $348 |
| CustomGPT | 5,000 queries | $499 | Not listed | $499 |
| Chatbase | Pro (15,000 credits) | $500 | $99 | $599 |
| Intercom | 1 seat + up to 5,000 outcomes | $29 + up to $4,950 | Not listed | Up to about $4,979 |
Where a cheaper tool wins: Chatling is $110 against our $149, if a one-credit model answers your questions well and its plan includes the lead capture you need. Wonderchat's 5,000 credits come to about $124 a month, but only on a yearly commitment. SiteGPT is close to us in price and gives you twice the messages on its cheaper model.
We come out ahead of the vendors that charge more per answer. Chatbase reaches $599 because 5,000 replies is 5,000 credits even on a 1-credit model, more than Standard's 4,000, so it needs Pro. Growth also adds clickable quick questions and product suggestions from your own product feed.
Free tiers and DIY plugins (bring your own API key)
Free plans and trials
Free plans exist, and for a hobby site they can be enough. Before relying on one, check three things on the vendor's page:
- Whose logo shows. Expect the vendor's branding unless the plan says otherwise.
- How many answers you get, in that vendor's unit. A free allowance of credits on a multi-credit model can be very small.
- Whether lead capture is included. A free bot that can't take a name when it doesn't know the answer loses you the visitor anyway.
We don't have a free-forever plan. We have a 3-day free trial with every Growth feature and 100 replies, and no card required. That's enough to put the bot on your real site and see what customers actually ask.
Plugins that use your own API key
Some WordPress and Shopify plugins are free or cheap to install, and you connect your own account with an AI provider. You then pay that provider per token, at rates on pages like OpenAI's API pricing. On a small site the token bill can be small.
The costs that don't show up on that bill:
- Your time, setting up training, writing the instructions that stop it inventing policies, and keeping it current when your pages change.
- Guardrails. Out of the box, a raw model can answer from its general knowledge rather than from your pages. We cover why that matters in how to stop a chatbot making up policies.
- Lead capture, unanswered-question reports and widget design, which you either build or go without.
If you're technical and enjoy tinkering, this can be the cheapest option. If your time is worth more than about $49 a month, it usually isn't.
Custom builds
Paying a developer or agency to build a bot from scratch is a different budget. The only detailed public ranges we found come from a vendor: Quickchat's guide to chatbot costs, which sells chatbot plans and custom builds itself. Its figures, observed in July 2026:
| Build type | Quickchat's range (vendor-sourced) |
|---|---|
| Simple rule-based bot, one-time | $5,000 to $30,000+ |
| Custom AI bot, one-time | $75,000 to $500,000+ |
| Annual maintenance | $1,000 to $20,000+ |
Model and hosting bills come on top. For a small business answering questions from its own website, a custom build is very rarely the right call. Hosted tools exist so you don't have to fund one.
How to estimate your own volume
Every bill above depends on one number you may not know yet. Here's how to get a usable estimate in an afternoon.
- Count the questions you already get. Go through a typical week of emails, contact-form messages, DMs and phone calls. Count the ones a well-written page could have answered. Multiply by 4.3 for a month.
- Count questions, not people. One customer asking about shipping, then returns, then sizing is three answers on our plans, three messages on Botsonic, and one conversation on Tidio.
- Use a trial as a meter. Put a bot on your site for a few days and count the answers. Our trial gives you 3 days and 100 replies. Multiply the replies used by 10 for a rough month.
- Pick a plan with headroom. If your estimate is 800, don't budget for exactly 1,000. Seasonal peaks and promotions bring more questions.
- Add every fee. Branding, seats, and the credits per answer for the model you actually want.
Then put the number into our chatbot cost calculator, which costs it across vendors at October 2026 prices. To see how each vendor's billing unit works, read chatbot pricing models explained. For the full list of vendors we compare against, see our alternatives page.
When we're not the right choice
- You're happy with a vendor's logo and price is everything. Botsonic and Chatling cost less at low volume.
- You need thousands of answers on a budget model. Chatling and SiteGPT give you more per dollar at 5,000 and above.
- You want a live chat inbox for you or your staff. Tidio, Crisp and Intercom are built for that. We aren't.
- You need the bot to check orders or book appointments. Ours can't see orders and doesn't book.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a chatbot cost per month?
For a small business website, the hosted AI chatbots we priced in October 2026 started at $19 a month with the vendor's logo left on. Once you add lead capture and branding removal, 300 to 1,000 answers cost $49 to $249 a month, and helpdesks billing per resolution can cost more. The total depends on volume, whether you pay to remove the vendor's logo, and, on credit-based tools, which AI model you pick. Our plans start at $49 a month for 1,000 replies with lead capture included and no branding fee.
Is there a free AI chatbot for my website?
Yes, several vendors have free plans, and some plugins let you connect your own AI provider and pay only for usage. Check any free plan for the vendor's logo, the size of the allowance and whether lead capture is included. We offer a 3-day free trial with 100 replies and no card required, not a free-forever plan.
How much does it cost to build a custom chatbot?
Far more than a subscription. Quickchat, a chatbot vendor that also sells custom builds, puts a custom AI bot at roughly $75,000 to $500,000+ one-time, with annual maintenance of $1,000 to $20,000+. For a small business answering questions from its website, a hosted tool is almost always the better buy.
What hidden fees should I watch for?
The big three are branding removal, per-seat charges and credit multipliers. As of October 2026, removing the logo costs $35 to $99 a month at the vendors we checked. Helpdesks like Intercom charge per seat on top of usage, and credit-based tools can use two or more credits per answer depending on the model. Also ask what happens when you run out of answers.