The Short Answer: What a Chatbot Costs
An AI chatbot costs $0–$750 a month on a builder you set up yourself, such as Chatbase or Botpress, and $0.99–$2.00 for each conversation it resolves as an AI agent inside a help desk like Intercom or Zendesk. Having one built for you starts at about $470–$5,000 in setup plus $79–$499 a month to keep it running, on the price pages of studios that publish them.
Those are other companies' published prices, checked November 1, 2026, not ours. Mark Studios quotes each chatbot build as its own project, so there is no Mark Studios price on this page.
Chatbot Prices by Route
| Route | Published price | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Builder you set up yourself | $0–$750 a month | Chatbase $40, $150 or $500 a month (20% less billed yearly), plus $40 per 1,000 extra message credits; Botpress free for 100 conversations, Plus $150 and Team $750 a month billed annually; Tidio's Lyro AI Agent starting at $32.50 a month |
| AI agent in a help desk | $0.99–$2.00 per resolution, plus seats | Intercom Fin starting at $0.99 per outcome, with seats starting at $29 a month, or no seats on the help desk you already use; Zendesk $1.50 per committed automated resolution or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, with Suite plans starting at $55 an agent a month billed yearly |
| Fiverr gig | $10–$1,500 to start, median $100 | The 39 chatbot and AI agent gigs on page one of Fiverr's "ai chatbot" search |
| Upwork freelancer | $30–$61 an hour | Upwork's median rates for chatbot developers |
| Small studio, custom build | $470–$1,500 setup, $79–$220 a month | QuickSetupAI $499 for a custom GPT plus $79 a month; CognaNova $470 plus care starting at $220 a month with normal AI usage included; Melos Technologies $1,500 plus $149 a month, with model and hosting fees separate |
| Agency, custom build | $2,500–$6,500+ setup, $290–$1,999 a month | AI Guy in LA $2,500–$5,000 plus $300–$1,000 a month; SEOKRU $2,800 plus $290 a month, or $6,500 plus $580 for its Pro tier; Houston IT Developers $5,000 plus $499 a month, up to $1,999 a month for its enterprise tier |
Some Fiverr links on this page are affiliate links: Mark Studios may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you.
A gig's starting price is its smallest package, often a basic bot on one channel. Fiverr files the search under AI mobile app development, so we counted only gigs whose titles say they build a chatbot or AI agent and left out seven that sell an AI app, a website or coaching, plus four personalized recommendation cards. Marketplace fees come on top; our comparison of Fiverr, Upwork and an agency runs that math.
The Monthly Fee Is Most of the First Year
Add 12 months of care to each setup fee and the monthly line is more than half of the first-year bill at every studio above (our calculation). That is the number to compare, not the setup price. The studios explain why the fee exists. AI Guy in LA notes that the AI models a bot runs on change every few months, so prompts that worked last quarter can start behaving differently. SEOKRU writes that a bot nobody maintains will degrade "within two to three months" as your prices and policies change.
What 500 Conversations a Month Costs
Per-resolution pricing grows with your volume. At 500 resolved chats a month, Fin's $0.99 comes to $495 and Zendesk's $1.50 to $750 ($1,000 pay-as-you-go), before seats (our calculation). Botpress Plus includes 250 conversations, and the next 250 arrive as three packs of 100 at $65, about $345 a month.
The units differ, so read the definitions before you compare. Zendesk bills only requests the AI agent resolved "without any escalation to a human agent". Botpress counts any exchange with at least two messages from your customer, whether a person or the bot answers. Chatbase sells message credits. Pull last month's chat and email count first, then price each plan on the same number.
What Else Moves a Chatbot's Price
- Actions. A bot that only answers is the cheap tier. Booking, CRM updates and order lookups are integrations: Houston IT Developers' $999-a-month tier adds booking and CRM sync, and Melos quotes a bot that takes actions as an integration project.
- Channels. SEOKRU's Starter covers one channel, website or WhatsApp; its Pro covers up to three.
- Who pays for the AI. Melos bills model and hosting usage separately, CognaNova includes normal small-business usage, SEOKRU passes the AI cost through at cost, and Botpress covers $0.10 of AI usage per conversation.
- How much it has to know. SEOKRU's Starter is trained on up to 50 FAQs or documents, its Pro on up to 500.
- Languages. One language on SEOKRU's Starter, up to three on its Pro.
- Change hours. CognaNova's care tiers run from 2 hours of changes a month at $220 to 15 hours at $1,470.
Before You Pay for a Chatbot: A 6-Point Check
- Count your repeat questions. Last month's chats and emails tell you the volume that per-resolution and per-conversation plans will bill.
- Ask what one billable unit is. A resolution, an outcome, a conversation or a message credit, and whether a chat that ends with a person still counts.
- Ask who pays for the AI usage and what happens to the bill in a busy month.
- Write down what the bot may do. Answer only, or also book, qualify leads and look up orders. Each action is an integration someone has to build and keep working.
- Make sure you can leave. SEOKRU says its clients keep the bot code and knowledge base if they cancel. Get the same promise in writing from anyone you hire.
- Test the handoff to a person. Every route above offers one. Try it from your phone before launch.
Where Mark Studios Fits
Mark Studios builds custom AI agents and chatbots for businesses and creative studios, trained on your own content to answer questions, qualify leads, book calls and handle intake. Each one starts with a discovery call about the use case, then a written quote and scope before the build, with testing and revisions before launch. For workflows behind the bot, such as repurposing, dubbing or inbox triage, see our AI and automation work.
Mark Studios has delivered 8,000+ orders for 4,500+ clients, holds a 4.9★ rating and Top Rated status on Fiverr and delivers 99% on time. If the bot is going on a new site, our breakdowns of what a small business website costs and what a landing page costs price the page around it.
The Bottom Line
A chatbot costs $0–$750 a month if you build it on a platform yourself, $0.99–$2.00 per resolved conversation inside a help desk, and $470–$5,000 to have one built, plus $79–$499 a month to run it. Compare first-year totals on the same monthly volume, because the monthly line is most of the bill.
