You’ve heard so much about chatbots.

They can do this; they can do that. You’ve been told chatbots can improve ROI; chatbots can reduce churn rate, they can improve customer retention and so many other things.

You get it.

It’s a technology trending globally, so it has some merit behind its popularity. But so do many other technologies that come at an eye-watering price.

Yes, price. For many small to medium-sized enterprises, the price of acquiring new tech plays a determining factor in its adoption. In this regard: one question we often get is: how much does a chatbot cost? 

And just as you’d guess, our answer is ‘it depends.’  A chatbot could cost as high as $15000/month to as low as $0/month.

Don’t throw anything at us yet, because we have compiled this highly relevant post exploring the ballpark chatbot prices to help you arrive at a decision faster.

Top 5 Factors Affecting the Chatbot Cost

Multiple factors influence chatbot pricing, such as the category of chatbots,  integrated features, functionalities, and more. Furthermore, chatbot installation is a lengthy process that adds to the cost.

Also Read: How Can Conversational AI Solve Your Customer Experience Woes?

The following are the key factors that affect chatbot cost:

1. Customization

Whether you build the chatbot or hire a third party to build it for you—in both cases, the chatbot’s cost depends on what you intend to accomplish. Depending on the level of customization, the chatbot’s cost will increase.

2. Type of integration 

Pricing for chatbots can differ depending on where you want to integrate them: on the website or within the app, or both. You can opt to incorporate chatbots into emails, analytics, CMR, etc., as well, of course, at added chatbot cost.

3. The complexity of AI-based data analysis

AI-powered chatbots can analyze data, learn from past experiences, chat like humans and improve over time.

As you can guess, such a tech needs many complex technologies, including machine learning (ML), data analysis algorithms, and predictive analytics. Unsurprisingly, implementing all these tools will also increase the overall chatbot cost.

4. Processes the chatbot will handle

As the complexity of customer support increases, the chatbot’s cost increases with it. For example, a chatbot that can handle customer databases and automate routine processes will be costlier than a standard chatbot that can give predefined responses.

5. Number of platforms supported

Chatbot pricing is fundamentally influenced by the number of platforms you want to cover with the bot. For instance, orgs install chatbots on social media platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc., depending on the business requirements and where most of their clientele is active.  Therefore, depending on your required chatbot coverage, the price of acquiring one will depend.

Different Chatbot Pricing Segments

There are various segments in chatbot pricing, such as:

• Free Chatbots

• Agency-provided chatbots

• Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVA)

• Deeply Integrated Intelligent Virtual Assistants

Let’s explore these segments in more detail:

1. Free chatbots

Many platforms offer free chatbot services with a limited number of contacts. For a more significant number of customers, they charge between $50 – $500/month.

These platforms require your time investment to understand and create the best-suited chatbot service for your business. However, these chatbots are good enough for a personal website or small business. In addition, you can opt to connect these chatbots to Facebook Messenger.

But due to the limited number of users and features, free chatbots are not recommended for a mid or large-scale business.

2. Agency-provided chatbots

Many agencies provide chatbot services, and they charge either monthly or one-time. The one-time setup fee ranges between $500 – $3000.

If you choose monthly payments, the cost could be $100 and $2000. In such packages, the agency maintains and upgrades your bot once in a while. The higher the setup cost, the lower the monthly fee.

3. Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVA)

IVA is a machine learning (ML) system capable of understanding human language and intent and answering their queries. This system is widely used in customer service automation.

This is a lot smarter chatbot than the others mentioned above in the list. The chatbot can transfer the customer’s query to your CRM via a live chat system. But for this setup, the chatbot cost usually goes up.

A provider of IVA software can charge anywhere between $1000 and $10000 for the setup; monthly fees for using the platform can range anywhere from $1000 to $5000.

4. Deeply-Integrated Intelligent Virtual Assistants

This chatbot type can chat with the user like a human rather than a bot. It is deeply integrated with the latest technologies, and it can route calls to human agents for seamless support and reduced burnout. Enterprises can incorporate such chatbots into the website and other messenger apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., for added customer support.

The setup cost for this type of chatbot can range between $10000 – $50000, and the monthly charges of the platform could be expected between $5000 – $15000.

Also Read: 15 Best Live Chat Apps for Shopify in 2024

The cost of building a chatbot can still vary from the figures provided in this post, depending on your customizations. Of course, the more innovative your customization is the more money it will take to build the chatbot.

As you brainstorm to build your first chatbot or upgrade an existing one, you can consider outsourcing current live chat support for your org. Be it your 24×7 emails or chat via other real-time conversational channels, Helplama extends expert customer support across domains. 

Every day, we at Helplama handle 100,000+ interactions and provide 14500+ support hours. Your business could be the next to reap the benefits.

Join the Helplama family to get fully managed customer support services, including live chat, voice, emails, and analytics. Try Saufter – the customer service software that can help you automate and scale your customer support.