AI chatbot cost in 2026: what you pay monthly and up front

An AI chatbot for your website costs a fixed monthly fee in 2026 on a standard plan; at Chatwize that is €149, €249 or €549 a month excluding VAT, with a free plan to start on (prices as of 18 October 2026). On top of that you mainly pay in time: getting your information in order, testing with real customer questions and fine-tuning in the first weeks.

What is an AI chatbot, and what are you paying for?

An AI chatbot is an assistant on your website that answers customer questions with the information you give it: your product pages, your delivery terms, your lead times and your price list. Unlike an old button-based chatbot, it understands a question in plain language and writes the answer itself. So you pay for three things: the software that runs the conversation, the computing power behind every answer, and your own time to teach the assistant what you sell.

Picture a wholesaler of fasteners. The same questions arrive every day: which wall plug fits this screw, what is the lead time if I order before 3pm, from what order value is shipping free. The answers are already on the site or in the price list. An AI chatbot pulls them from there, at ten in the evening too.

How much does an AI chatbot cost per month?

How a vendor charges decides what you end up paying more than the number on the pricing page. There are five common pricing models:

For an online shop, wholesaler or rental business a fixed monthly fee usually fits best. You know up front what you will spend, even in the week of your big sale when questions about delivery and returns pour in. With per-conversation pricing, that is exactly when you get the highest bill.

What does Chatwize cost per month?

We charge a fixed monthly fee. Below are the amounts as of 18 October 2026, with Dutch VAT worked out separately, so you can see what actually leaves your account.

If your business is VAT-registered, you can usually reclaim that VAT. For your budget, the amount excluding VAT is what counts.

What one-off costs come on top?

On a standard plan the vendor's one-off invoice is often small or zero. The real one-off costs are your own hours, in three parts:

1. Getting your information in order. The assistant is only as good as what you give it. If your lead time is stated differently on three pages, it will quote three different lead times. Cleaning up takes time, but it also helps the customer who simply reads your site.
2. Testing with real questions. Take the twenty questions you received most often this month, from your inbox or the phone, and ask them to the assistant. If an answer is wrong, fix the source, not just the answer.
3. Putting it on your site. Usually that is a small snippet of code in your website or online shop. If your web developer does it, ask what it costs beforehand.

If you go for a custom build, add a build fee. That mostly depends on the number of connections to your own systems, such as your stock or your planning. Ask for the quote to show the build cost and the monthly cost separately.

A trailer rental company that mostly gets questions about driving licence categories, the deposit and opening hours is fine on a standard plan. If it also wants the assistant to read live availability from its planning, it needs a connection. Then ask whether that is included or built separately.

What is included in the monthly price, and what isn't?

Two vendors with the same price can deliver very different things. Ask these questions on every quote:

Which costs are not on the quote?

Once the assistant is live, it still takes some time. You won't see this on any invoice:

• Fine-tuning in the first weeks. You read back conversations and see where customers asked something other than you expected. Block fixed moments for it in your calendar during the first month.
• Updating when something changes. A new collection, different shipping costs, a public holiday when you are closed: put it on your site and check that the assistant knows.
• The questions passed on to your team. A good handover saves time because your colleague sees the whole conversation, but it is still work.

A bike parts shop that puts its spring collection online in March should also check that month whether the assistant quotes the right sizes and lead times. That is an hour of reading, not a project.

When does an AI chatbot pay for itself?

Work it out with your own numbers. You need three: how many questions you get per month, how many minutes one question takes, and what an hour of your employee costs. For that last one you can use Statistics Netherlands: in 2024 a worked hour cost a Dutch employer €45.0 on average, including employer costs such as holiday pay and contributions (CBS, provisional figure, October 2025).

1. Count the questions that keep coming back: where is my order, does this size run small, what does shipping to Belgium cost, is this in stock.
2. Estimate how many minutes one such question takes, from reading it to sending the answer.
3. Calculate: number of questions × minutes ÷ 60 × hourly cost. That is what those questions cost you per month today.
4. Put that next to the monthly price excluding VAT.

An example with round numbers. An online shop gets 300 of these questions a month and each takes 4 minutes. That is 20 hours of work, at €45 an hour about €900 a month. A €149 plan excluding VAT pays for itself once the assistant takes over a little over 3 hours of that work: roughly 50 of those 300 questions.

How many questions the assistant handles for you, you only know once you measure it. And there is a second side: questions that arrive in the evening or at the weekend. Someone who wants to know at ten at night whether something can be delivered tomorrow won't wait until you open your email the next morning. You count that in orders, not hours, and you only see it in your own numbers.

What should you check on privacy and the GDPR?

An AI chatbot reads what customers type, and that sometimes includes names, addresses and order numbers. If a vendor processes that data on your behalf, the GDPR (Article 28) requires a data processing agreement with them. Ask for it before you sign, and ask where the data is stored. With us, your data is stored in the EU.

When a customer asks about their order and types the order number, that number is in the conversation. So mention the chatbot in your privacy statement as well.

Frequently asked questions about AI chatbot cost