Prices on 25 October 2026
We read every price below on the vendor's own pricing page on 25 October 2026 and kept the currency the page showed. Vendors are in alphabetical order, ChatterLab among them. These pages change often, so check the vendor's page before you sign.
| Vendor | Price as listed | Included | What is counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boei | Starter $25 a month ($19 billed yearly) | 2,000 AI credits a month | AI credits; how many a reply uses depends on the model |
| Botpress | Free $0; Plus $189 a month ($150 billed yearly) | Free: 100 conversations. Plus: 250 conversations a month and $25 of AI usage | Conversations with at least two messages from the visitor, plus AI usage |
| Chatbase | Hobby $40 a month ($32 billed yearly); Standard $150; Pro $500 | 700, 4,000 and 15,000 message credits a month | Message credits per request to the AI model, by model |
| ChatterLab | Free €0; Starter €29 a month (€23 paid yearly); Studio €79; Agency €249 | 100, 1,500, 4,000 and 12,000 credits a month | Answers: 1 credit on most models, a few on the largest |
| Crisp | Free; Mini €45 a month; Essentials €95; Plus €295, per workspace | €5, €25 and €75 of AI credits, which the page puts at around 90, 450 and 1,350 automated conversations | A flat price per workspace, plus an AI allowance in money |
| Intercom Fin | $0.99 per outcome | With another helpdesk, a $49 monthly minimum that includes 50 outcomes; with Intercom's own helpdesk, a price per seat on top | Outcomes, at most one per conversation |
| Landbot | Free €0; Starter €40 a month (€32 billed yearly) | Starter: 500 chats and 100 AI chats a month; each extra AI chat €0.10 | Chats and AI chats, counted apart |
| Lime Connect | Pro from €105 a month (€87 billed yearly), at least 3 seats; AI Agent from €99 a month on top | AI Agent: 100 conversations a month | AI conversations, one per server session, against a yearly quota |
| Tidio, Lyro AI Agent | From €39 a month (€32.50 billed yearly); a free plan | 50 Lyro AI conversations a month; on the free plan, 50 once | Conversations with at least one reply from the AI |
Read the currencies with care. Boei, Botpress, Chatbase and Fin list US dollars, and we have not converted them. Tidio and Crisp showed euros to our browser in Belgium and the same figures with a dollar sign in their page source, and Boei's page swaps the sign the same way for visitors in euro countries. Where the vendor says so, the prices exclude VAT: Boei, Crisp, Landbot ("Prices before tax"), Lime Connect and ChatterLab.
A credit, an AI conversation and an outcome measure different things, so the rows do not compare at a glance. The rest of this article turns your own traffic into each of them.
What you pay for
The subscription is the visible part. A chatbot that answers well has six more costs, and most of them are hours rather than invoices.
| Cost | What it covers | How it is charged | Check before you sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | The software: widget, dashboard, hosting | A monthly or yearly plan, per workspace or per seat | Who needs a seat. Lime Connect, for example, asks for seats for admins who never chat |
| Usage | The AI's replies | Credits, conversations or outcomes, usually with an allowance in the plan | What one unit is, and what happens when the allowance runs out |
| Setup and content | Gathering pages and PDFs, writing the answers your site lacks, testing | Your hours, or an agency's project fee | How many real customer questions are tested before launch |
| Integrations | Links to booking, CRM, shop or helpdesk systems | Higher plans, add-ons or development time | Whether you need one at launch at all. Landbot puts HubSpot, Salesforce and webhooks in Professional and up |
| Maintenance | Reading weak answers, updating content after changes on your site | Your hours, or a monthly retainer | How a new price on your site reaches the chatbot |
| Compliance work | Privacy notice, data processing agreement, AI notice | Your hours, or your adviser's | Whether the vendor offers a data processing agreement and names where data is processed |
| Handover to people | The questions the bot cannot answer | Staff time, and at some vendors a seat or a charge per human conversation | How a visitor reaches a person, and who answers |
When a vendor processes your visitors' conversations on your behalf, the data processing agreement is not optional paperwork: Article 28(3) of the GDPR requires processing by a processor to be "governed by a contract or other legal act". Ask every vendor for theirs before real conversations come in, and budget time with your adviser if you have never read one. What the chatbot paragraph of your privacy notice should say is in our chatbot privacy notice template, and our GDPR page covers the rest.
Three ways the AI is billed
Behind every plan price sits a meter. There are three common ones, and each raises the bill in a different kind of month.
Per answer or message. Boei, Chatbase, ChatterLab and SiteGPT count replies, in credits or messages. Chatbase's pricing page says that "each request made to the AI model costs a certain number of message credits depending on your chosen model", and that with actions enabled "the agent might make multiple requests". SiteGPT states that "GPT-4.1 messages are 10 times costlier than GPT-4.1-mini messages". On ChatterLab most models cost 1 credit an answer and the largest a few, whatever the answer's length. With this meter a long conversation costs more than a short one, and the choice of model shows on your bill.
Per conversation. Botpress, Landbot, Lime Connect and Tidio count conversations, so in that unit a long conversation costs the same as a short one. Botpress also meters AI usage, of which it covers $0.10 per conversation. The definitions of a conversation differ, and they matter. Botpress counts "any exchange with at least two messages from the end user", adds that a conversation spanning two months "counts in both months", and that "multiple anonymous sessions each count as separate conversations". Tidio counts an interaction with "at least one reply from our AI Agent". Lime Connect counts all messages "innerhalb einer einzigen Server-Session" (within one server session) and lets a yearly quota absorb busy months.
Per resolution or outcome. Intercom's Fin charges $0.99 per outcome, counted when "a customer confirms their issue is resolved", when "they don't ask for more help after Fin responds", or when Fin completes a workflow, "including handoffs". It charges at most once per conversation and nothing if the customer asks for a person. Tidio lists "pay-per-resolution billing" on its Premium plan. This meter ties the bill to results, but a visitor who simply stops asking also counts as a result, and the bill rises as the bot improves. Botpress, which bills per conversation, uses that as its argument: resolution pricing "raises your bill when your bot gets smarter". That is a competitor's view, not a neutral finding.
Crisp sits outside all three: a flat price per workspace "regardless of the number of conversations", with the AI paid from a money allowance in each plan.
Worked example: a garden furniture webshop
This is an example with assumed numbers. Replace each one with your own.
- 6,000 visits a month, from the shop's analytics
- 2 in 100 visits start a chat: 120 conversations
- 4 answers per conversation, the greeting included: 480 answers
- 60 test questions in the Playground while setting it up
- Sources: 150 product pages, the delivery and returns pages, and four PDFs with care guides and the warranty
The same month, in each vendor's unit:
| Billing unit | This month |
|---|---|
| Answers, on a model that costs 1 credit | 480, plus 60 test questions: 540 |
| Conversations | 120 |
| Outcomes, at most one per conversation | at most 120 |
On ChatterLab. 540 credits is more than Free's 100, so Free is where you build and test, not where this shop runs. Starter's 1,500 credits cover the month with room to spare, at €29 a month or €23 a month paid yearly, VAT excluded. Taking the "Powered by ChatterLab" badge off adds €49 a month. The 150 product pages should fit easily: the documentation's rule of thumb is that 1 MB of plain text is roughly 500 pages of a book, and Starter holds 10 MB per agent. A PDF counts at its file size, though, so check the size of the four PDFs.
Elsewhere, on the prices in the table. Fin would charge for at most 120 outcomes, so at most $118.80, plus Intercom's seats or your own helpdesk. The 120 conversations fit inside the 250 of Botpress Plus. At Landbot, if each conversation is one AI chat, Starter's 100 are 20 short, which is €2.00 at €0.10 each. Tidio's entry Lyro tier covers 50 AI conversations, fewer than 120. What 480 answers cost in Boei or Chatbase credits depends on the model you choose.
Estimate your own volume in five minutes
- Visits. Take last month's visits from your analytics, and the visits in your busiest month of the year.
- Share that will chat. If you run a live chat or a contact form, start from its numbers. If not, pick a cautious share, such as the 2 in 100 above, and replace it after the first month with what the chatbot's own statistics show.
- Conversations. Multiply visits by that share.
- Answers per conversation. Read ten recent customer e-mails and count the back-and-forth. Add one for the greeting: a "Hello" gets an answer too, and on credit-based platforms it is charged.
- Each vendor's unit. Answers for credit-based vendors (times the credits the model takes), conversations for per-conversation vendors, at most one outcome per conversation for per-outcome vendors. In the first month, add the questions you ask while testing.
Then compare plans on your busiest month, not your average one, and read what each vendor does past the allowance: stop answering, sell more, or add it to the next invoice.
Having a chatbot built: agencies and freelancers
An agency or freelancer either sets your chatbot up on a platform like those above or builds one from scratch. On a platform you pay three things: their project fee, the platform's subscription and usage, and often a monthly retainer.
Published figures are wide apart. Upliora, a Spanish AI consultancy, lists indicative ranges on a page last updated on 31 March 2026: 500 to 2,000 EUR for a basic web chatbot with FAQ, form, prompts and handoff, 2,000 to 6,000 EUR for one connected to a CRM, a knowledge base or tickets, and 8,000 EUR and up for an omnichannel assistant. It adds that recurring costs usually come from software, API and continuous improvement. Boei, a chatbot vendor from Utrecht, writes in its cost guide, updated on 16 October 2026, that custom-built solutions run "€5,000 to €200,000+ upfront", which describes building from scratch rather than setting up an existing platform. These are a consultancy's and a vendor's own figures, not a market survey.
Most of the work is content, not code. On a platform the installation is small: on ChatterLab it is one script tag, as adding a chatbot to your website shows step by step. The hours go into gathering your pages and PDFs, writing answers to the questions your site never answered, and testing with the questions your inbox actually gets. What a chatbot can learn from is on training a chatbot on your own data. A quote should show how those hours are split.
What to ask for in a quote:
- Whose account. In whose name is the platform account, and can it be moved to you?
- The platform's own bill. Which plan, at what price, who pays it, and what happens at its usage limit?
- Content hours. How many pages, documents and missing answers are included, and how many real questions are tested before launch?
- The retainer. What the monthly fee covers: reviews of weak answers, content updates after site changes, a report.
- Handover. Who answers when the bot cannot, through which channel, and how quickly.
- Data protection paperwork. A data processing agreement with the agency, and the platform named as a sub-processor. Under Article 28(2) GDPR a processor may not engage another processor without the controller's prior specific or general written authorisation.
- The exit. Whether you can export the content and the conversations if you leave.
Red flags: no content review or test plan, no handover plan, no data protection paperwork, one "price per bot" without usage terms, and a promise that the chatbot makes you compliant. It cannot: the privacy notice and the way you use it stay with you. If you are the agency, how to price chatbot services covers the other side of this quote.
Hidden costs and billing traps
- Paying per resolution. At $0.99 per outcome, Fin also counts a conversation in which the visitor simply does not ask for more help, so the bill follows your traffic, not only the problems solved. Fin lets you set spending limits and alerts: set them before launch.
- Overage you cannot switch off. Botpress adds a pack of 100 conversations automatically at 95% of the quota ($65 on Plus), keeps it in the following months until you remove it in the billing settings, and answers "No" to "Can I turn off auto-recharge for conversation packs?". Landbot bills extra chats in packs of 500 for €25 (€0.05 a chat) and charges €0.10 per extra AI chat, with alerts at 80% and 90%. Boei and ChatterLab stop the bot instead: no surprise on the invoice, but no AI answers until you buy credits or the next month starts.
- Seats. Lime Connect starts at 3 seats and counts admins who never chat. Landbot sells extra seats at €25 a month. Chatbase's plans include 2, 3 or 5 members. On ChatterLab 1 person can sign in on Free, Starter and Studio and 5 on Agency, with no extra seats to buy.
- The vendor's badge. Removing it costs $1,188 a year at Chatbase and $14 a month on Boei's Starter and Growth. Botpress removes it from Plus, Landbot from Professional and Crisp on Plus. On ChatterLab it is €49 a month on any paid plan, for every agent in the workspace.
- Extra agents. $300 per agent a year at Chatbase, €19 per agent a month at ChatterLab.
- Testing. ChatterLab charges a Playground question like a visitor's, and Botpress counts "emulator conversations". Chatbase gives separate test credits: 200, 500 or 1,000 a month.
- Training data limits. Chatbase includes 40 MB of training content per agent and sells extra storage at $300 per 10 MB a year. ChatterLab counts storage per agent and does not limit the number of sources. Chatbase measures the text it extracts, ChatterLab a file at its uploaded size, so a designed PDF takes more of ChatterLab's allowance than its words suggest.
- A yearly commitment. Landbot's annual plan "is a 12-month commitment". Read what a yearly discount commits you to before you take it.
Where ChatterLab fits
ChatterLab is a self-service platform with a flat plan per workspace and credits per answer, in euros and excluding VAT; a business in an EU country other than Belgium can enter its VAT number at checkout, and the VAT is then reverse charged. The free plan costs nothing, asks for no card and gives one agent 100 credits a month on the models that cost 1 credit. The badge stays on Free, and Free cannot buy more credits. Starter (€29) adds every model, a contact form and tickets. Studio (€79) adds your own domain, the API and files from visitors. Agency (€249) adds clients, monthly reports and a re-read of your site every 7 days. Paying yearly saves about 20%.
Nothing is charged beyond the plan unless you buy credits. When the month's credits are used up, the agent stops answering until the next month. On a paid plan you can buy packs of 1,000 credits for €30, or switch on auto recharge, which is off until you turn it on.
What it does not do, so you can price it honestly: no WhatsApp and no voice; no live chat, though a visitor can open a ticket that your team answers by e-mail; no connection to your order system, and no booking system other than Calendly, which takes bookings inside the chat on every plan (a button can open any other booking page); and below Agency, no scheduled re-read of your site. Conversations, sources and files are stored in the EU. Two steps run in the United States: turning text into search vectors (OpenAI) and sending e-mail (Resend). The data processing agreement is sent on request.
If one of those gaps matters to you, another vendor in the table fits better: Tidio, Crisp and Boei include a live chat inbox for your team, Landbot (from Professional), Botpress (Plus) and Crisp (Essentials) connect WhatsApp, and Fin and Chatbase (from Standard) list voice.
Every plan is on the pricing page. Plans and credits and models and credits explain the meter in full, and if you are weighing Chatbase, our comparison goes plan by plan.
Questions about chatbot costs
How much does a chatbot cost per month?
On the vendor pages we read on 25 October 2026, the first paid plan with AI cost $25 a month at Boei, €39 for Tidio's Lyro, $40 at Chatbase, €40 at Landbot, €45 at Crisp, $189 at Botpress and from 204 euros at Lime Connect, counting its Pro plan and AI Agent together. ChatterLab's Starter is €29. What you pay in the end depends on how many answers, conversations or outcomes you use.
Is there a free chatbot for a website?
Yes, with small allowances. On 25 October 2026, Tidio's free plan included 50 Lyro AI conversations once, Botpress Free 100 conversations with "no top-ups or overages", and ChatterLab Free 100 credits a month for one agent, with no card. The free plans of Landbot and Crisp include no AI chats or AI credits. Expect the vendor's badge on a free widget.
How much does it cost to have a chatbot built?
Published figures vary widely. Upliora, a Spanish AI consultancy, lists 500 to 2,000 euros for a basic web chatbot and 2,000 to 6,000 euros for one connected to a CRM, a knowledge base or tickets, on a page updated on 31 March 2026. The platform's monthly price comes on top, and so does any retainer. Most of the hours go into content and testing, not code.
What is a credit, and how many do I need?
A credit is a vendor's unit for the AI's replies, and its value differs from vendor to vendor. On ChatterLab one answer costs 1 credit on most models and a few on the largest, whatever its length, and greetings and test questions count. Multiply your monthly conversations by the answers per conversation, add your test questions, and you have your credits on a 1-credit model.
Is paying per resolution better than paying per answer?
It depends on your volume and on the vendor's definition. Per outcome, as with Fin at $0.99, you pay only when the bot is counted as successful, but a visitor who simply asks nothing more also counts, and the bill grows as the bot improves. Per answer or per conversation gives a meter you can predict. Price your busiest month in both units before you choose.
Sources
- Boei pricing: AI chatbot from $19/month, Boei, read on 25 October 2026.
- AI Chatbot Cost in 2026: Pricing, Fees & Full Breakdown, Boei, read on 25 October 2026.
- Botpress Pricing, Botpress, read on 25 October 2026.
- Pricing - Chatbase, Chatbase, read on 25 October 2026.
- Pricing and plans - Crisp best deals - Crisp, Crisp IM SAS, read on 25 October 2026.
- Fin AI Agent Pricing | Free 14-day Trial, Intercom, read on 25 October 2026.
- AI Agent & Chatbots Pricing for Web & WhatsApp: from €0 | Landbot, Landbot, read on 25 October 2026.
- Preise für Lime Connect: Lime Connect (ex Userlike), Lime Connect, read on 25 October 2026.
- SiteGPT - Make AI your expert customer support agent, SiteGPT, pricing page, read on 25 October 2026.
- Tidio Pricing: Find the Best Plan for Your Business Needs, Tidio, read on 25 October 2026.
- Precio de un Chatbot IA para Web o WhatsApp en Empresa (2026) | Upliora, Upliora, read on 25 October 2026.
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation, EUR-Lex, Article 28, read on 25 October 2026.
How this was made: drafted with AI, then checked against how ChatterLab actually works and against the sources listed in the article. Spotted an error? Write to management@sri-group.eu.