Ask three companies what an AI chatbot costs and you get three answers between €690 and €60,000. The difference is not magic — it is the market segment. Let us clear it up, with real figures: what an AI chatbot actually costs in 2026, how it works technically and why the price varies so much.
How a good AI chatbot actually works
A modern AI chatbot is no longer the “answer tree” of ten years ago, with fixed buttons and limited options. It works on the principle of RAG (retrieval-augmented generation): the language model reads your real content — website pages, price lists, return policies, FAQs — and formulates natural answers anchored strictly in your information, not in what the model “knows” from general training. In practice, the chatbot does not invent prices or deadlines — it takes them from the data you give it.
On top of that base layer you can add actions: taking a booking straight into the calendar, writing a new lead into the CRM, checking a product’s stock in real time. This is where complexity — and with it, the price — climbs.
The three price levels
1. International SaaS platforms (Tidio, Intercom, ResolveAI) — €50–500/month, a perpetual subscription. Easy to start, but English-first, limited customisation and, most importantly: it is not your chatbot, you rent it indefinitely. If you leave, you leave empty-handed.
2. Custom chatbot for SMEs (this is where PowerCart sits) — from €690 setup + €49/month. Trained on your business, in your language, with local integrations (WhatsApp, CRM, calendar). You own it — if you drop the monthly subscription, the code and configuration stay with you.
3. Enterprise projects — €20,000–60,000 and above, for corporations with compliance requirements, huge conversation volumes and complex “agentic” flows (a chatbot that makes multi-step decisions, not just answers). Not the small-company market, but it explains why you see such large figures in search results.
What drives the price
- Does it only answer, or also act? A chatbot that answers questions is cheaper than one that takes bookings, checks stock and writes into your CRM.
- How many channels? Website, WhatsApp, Messenger — each extra channel adds integration work, because each has its own API and its own limitations.
- How large is the knowledge base? A 10-page site vs. a catalogue with thousands of products and variants — setup time grows with the volume of content to “learn”.
- Conversation volume. The AI model’s API has a cost per message; at high volumes it is reflected transparently in the subscription, not hidden in the price.
Tenant or owner — why it matters
The real difference between a SaaS platform and a custom chatbot is not just price, it is control. With a SaaS platform, your conversation data stays on the provider’s servers, customisation stops where their configuration interface stops, and the price can rise at any renewal. With a custom chatbot you hold the code and the configuration — you can switch AI model provider, export the conversations, add a new function without waiting on someone else’s roadmap.
What we charge, concretely
| Package | What it includes | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Website chatbot | FAQ + lead capture, trained on your content | €690 + €49/month |
| Business chatbot | + bookings, CRM/calendar integration, WhatsApp | €1,490 + €99/month |
| Custom chatbot | + stock/orders/ERP, sales workflows | from €2,900 |
All prices are public on the pricing page. No “request a quote”.
Frequently asked questions
Does the chatbot answer incorrectly if it does not know something? A well-configured RAG chatbot says “I don’t have that information, let me put you in touch with someone” instead of inventing an answer — provided it is configured properly from the start, not left on defaults.
Does it write naturally, not robotically? Yes — current models write fluently; the quality difference comes from how well it is trained on your specific content, not from the language.
What happens if I drop the monthly subscription? With a custom chatbot, the configuration and integrations stay yours; the subscription covers hosting, updates and the cost of the conversation API.
The conclusion
For a small company, a custom chatbot realistically starts at €690 + €49/month — below the average subscription of international SaaS platforms and several times cheaper than agency offers or enterprise projects. Want to see exactly what it would cost in your case? Request the free audit or test our chatbot directly on the chatbot page.