How much does a website chatbot cost for a small business?
A website chatbot for a small business costs anywhere from nothing to a few hundred dollars a month: free plans exist, self-serve AI chatbots mostly run about $25 to $100 a month, and done-for-you or automation bundles cost more. What you pay depends on how many conversations you expect and what else is bundled.
Want to try it as you read? Start free and follow along.
The figures below come from each company’s own pricing page in November 2026. Plans and prices change, so check before you buy.
The price ranges
| Type | Typical monthly price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free plans | $0 | Limited conversations or messages a month |
| Self-serve AI chatbot | About $25 to $100 | An AI bot you set up, with a monthly allowance of replies or credits |
| Bigger self-serve plans | About $100 to $300 | More bots, domains, agents, channels and replies |
| Done-for-you or agency bundles | A few hundred and up | Setup, marketing and follow-up automation included |
Examples we checked: Tidio has a free plan with 50 conversations a month, then paid plans from about $24. Boei starts at $25 a month. Hyperleap lists $40 for 3,000 AI replies. Footbridge Media lists its contractor chat at $79 a month. AcquiChat has a free plan with a monthly message limit; paid plans are not final yet, so we do not quote them here.
What drives the price
- Volume. Most plans cap replies or conversations. Know your monthly traffic first.
- Channels. A website chat is cheap; WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS cost more.
- People. Live chat seats for staff raise the price.
- Services. Done-for-you setup, marketing and follow-up add hundreds.
- AI usage. Some tools charge per AI conversation or “credit”.
Hidden costs to ask about
- What happens when the allowance runs out? The bot may stop replying.
- Is there a setup fee?
- Do you pay per lead? Some services do.
- Is your time part of the cost? Writing answers and reading chats takes an hour a week.
How to judge value
Work out what one extra lead is worth to you using this lead-value guide. If a $50 plan produces one extra job in a quarter, it paid for itself. If it produces none, even a free plan costs you the time.
Start small
A chatbot does not have to live on your site. With AcquiChat, publishing gives you a hosted chat page you can share instantly, so your first month can cost nothing and need no code.
Try a free plan first, with your ten most common answers. Compare it with the others in our guide to the best AI chatbots for home service businesses.
Start with AcquiChat’s free plan.
Coming soon. We are adding analytics, unanswered-question summaries, app integrations and an MCP server for asking ChatGPT or Claude about leads. Paid plans are not final yet, so we do not quote them here.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free chatbot for small business?
Yes. Several tools have free plans with limits, including AcquiChat and Tidio. Limits are usually conversations or messages per month.
Why do some chatbots cost hundreds a month?
They usually bundle other services, such as lead follow-up automation, managed marketing or human agents.
