Typical price ranges
| Project | Typical range | Typical timeline from approved scope |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant on your content A chat assistant that answers from your documents, site, or help center. | $4,000 to $12,000 | 1 to 3 weeks |
| AI feature in your product Search, summaries, classification, or drafting built into the software you have. | $8,000 to $18,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| AI agent connected to your systems An agent that reads, decides, and takes actions in your tools, with approvals. | $16,000 to $32,000 | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Custom model or AI platform Trained models, evaluation, and the platform to run AI across the business. | $40,000 to $100,000+ | 2 to 3 months |
The timeline starts once the scope is approved and we have what we need from you.
What moves the price
- Amount and quality of your data
- Systems the AI must connect to
- Accuracy and review needs
- Usage volume and running costs
How Much Does an AI Chatbot Cost to Build?
The range is wide because "chatbot" covers very different products. This guide breaks down what you pay for, so you can budget with confidence.
Three ways to get a chatbot
1. A ready-made chatbot platform. You sign up, upload your content, customize the look and paste a code snippet on your site.
- Setup cost: $0 to a few hundred dollars
- Monthly cost: about $0 to $300, depending on usage and features
- Best for: testing the idea, small sites, simple question and answer
2. A configured platform with professional setup. A specialist sets up a ready-made tool properly: structuring your content, writing rules, adding integrations and testing.
- Cost: about $4,000 to $12,000 setup, plus the monthly platform fee
- Best for: businesses that want a reliable result without a full custom build
3. A custom AI assistant. Built from scratch around your data, systems and rules, with your own design and logic.
- Cost: about $8,000 to $32,000 or more
- Best for: customer-facing chatbots with real business impact, heavy integrations, strict privacy needs or a need to own the technology
What affects the price
Knowledge sources. A bot trained on a few FAQ pages is simple. One that searches thousands of documents, product data and policies needs more engineering and more testing.
Integrations. Connecting to your CRM (customer relationship management system), calendar, helpdesk, ecommerce store or database takes time. Each integration is a mini project.
Actions. Answering questions is simpler than doing things. Booking appointments, creating tickets, checking order status or processing returns require careful logic and security.
Accuracy and safety controls. Good chatbots include rules about what to answer, what to decline, how to cite sources and when to hand over. These safeguards take design and testing.
Human handoff. Real-time alerts, transcript passing and agent dashboards add cost, and they are worth it.
Channels. A website chat is one thing. Adding WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or SMS multiplies the setup.
Languages. Multi-language support needs extra content work and testing.
Design. A branded, polished chat window takes more design time than a standard widget.
Compliance. Handling health, finance or personal data adds requirements for logging, consent, data location and review.
Sample price bands
These are general market ranges to help you plan. Your actual quote depends on the details above.
| Type of chatbot | Typical build cost |
|---|---|
| FAQ assistant on a website, ready-made tool | $0 to $1,500 |
| FAQ assistant with proper content setup and testing | $4,000 to $12,000 |
| Lead capture and booking assistant with CRM and calendar | $8,000 to $18,000 |
| Customer support assistant with helpdesk and order lookup | $16,000 to $32,000 |
| Multi-channel, multi-language assistant with deep integrations | $40,000 to $100,000+ |
Running costs
The build is not the full cost. Budget for:
Key points
- Platform subscription: if you use a ready-made tool, $0 to $300 a month, with higher tiers for more chats
- AI usage: custom bots pay the AI provider per use. For small and mid-size business traffic this is often $20 to $300 a month, but it grows with conversation volume.
- Hosting: typically $10 to $100 a month for a custom bot
- Maintenance: updating content, adjusting rules and fixing issues. Plan for 15 to 25 percent of the build cost per year, or a small monthly retainer.
- Review time: someone should read conversations weekly, especially in the first months
What you get back
A chatbot pays for itself in one of three ways.
To estimate the return, count how many routine questions you get each week, multiply by the minutes each takes and put a value on that time. Then add the value of leads you currently miss out of hours.
Key points
- Saved time: if it handles 30 to 50 percent of routine questions, your team gets hours back each week.
- More leads: answering visitors instantly, at any hour, captures inquiries that would otherwise be lost.
- Better service: faster answers and clean handoffs improve how customers feel about you.
How to keep the cost down
Start narrow. Launch with one job, like answering your top 30 questions, and expand later.. Clean your content first. Clear, current information makes a bot better and cheaper to set up.. Use a ready-made platform at the start, then go custom when you hit its limits.. Skip the extra channels until the website version works.. Plan the handoff early. Fixing a bot that traps visitors is more expensive than designing the exit from the start.
Hidden costs to watch for
Ask for a cost estimate at 1,000, 5,000 and 20,000 conversations per month. It exposes pricing surprises fast.
Key points
- Per-conversation fees that grow with success
- Extra charges for removing the vendor's branding
- Limits on stored conversations or knowledge size
- Paid add-ons for integrations you assumed were included
- Consultants needed later to fix poor setup
What a chatbot costs with DECHY
We price chatbots by what they have to do, not by the number of screens. An assistant that answers from your own content costs $4,000 to $12,000. That covers content preparation, the rules it follows, testing against real questions and a handoff to a person when it is unsure.
An assistant that sits inside your product, or captures leads and books calls, costs $8,000 to $18,000. An agent that acts in your systems, such as checking orders or updating records, costs $16,000 to $32,000. Large multi-channel or custom AI platforms start from $40,000.
AI usage and hosting fees are separate, and we estimate them with you before the build. We also set spending limits, so a busy month never produces a surprise bill. You see the usage in a simple monthly report.
If you are not sure which level you need, start with the cost estimator. It gives a range in a few minutes. Or talk to us and we will look at your questions, your systems and your traffic, then recommend the smallest version that does the job well.
Next step
Tell us what you want your chatbot to do. We'll recommend the simplest approach, give you a clear range and show you how we'd keep it accurate and safe. Talk to DECHY.