With growing demand for chatbots across all platforms from WhatsApp, many companies are asking themselves: how much does one actually cost to make? In this article, we break down the different kinds of costs associated with making a chatbot or conversational bot.
Understanding Chatbot Costs
As is often the case, when people discuss chatbot creation, they are comparing very different things. We are trying to answer the question of, “What does a chatbot really cost?”
Just like fruits—apples, pears, melons—are all within the same group but each is different in features, so too are chatbots. Each will be unique, requiring different amounts of time, technology, and cost. Let’s analyze the major cost categories for developing a chatbot:
- Initial development and creation of the chatbot
- Technology and software costs
- Channel deployment cost
Why Develop a Chatbot?
Meeting Customer Expectations
Chatbots improve the customer experience through instant responses, which lead to greater satisfaction.
24/7 Availability
Chatbots work 24/7, which is not the case with humans, and offer service day and night without any human resource problem.
Reducing Operational Costs
AI-powered bots reduce the need for a massive support team, which saves costs by a significant amount.
Data Collection and Branding
Chatbots can even gather user data like names, interests, and behavior to generate user profiles and improve interaction.
Continuous Optimization
Today’s chatbots are built to be iteratively tested and optimized, to continually enhance UI/UX and conversational quality.
Building the Chatbot Cost
Building a chatbot entails:
- Conversation design: defining tone and interaction type
- System development and integration
- Bot training to address various user inputs and languages
Costs vary on:
- Number of questions and complexity
- Response complexity
- Number of integrations (e.g., databases, APIs)
- Number of languages supported
- Number of platforms it will operate on
Technology Costs
Platforms like Xenioo, Google Dialogflow, and IBM Watson offer functionality for intent recognition, dialogue management, and multi-platform deployment. These kinds of services typically charge monthly per unit of interaction volume.
Example: 2,000 users x 5 sessions/month x 10 interactions = 100,000 interactions/month.
- At €0.002 per interaction, that’s €200/month for NLP alone.
- Add hosting, system administration, and integration fees.
Scale-larger apps (e.g., 20,000 users) may have tech monthly costs of €2,000 or more.
Channel-Specific Costs
Need your chatbot to reside on WhatsApp, Messenger, or Alexa? Some channels have zero deployment cost, while others like WhatsApp require paid API access via official providers.
WhatsApp: Additional costs are API access charges and usage-based fees according to WhatsApp Business policies.
Voice Chatbot Costs
Voice features add to cost:
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text APIs (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Amazon)
- Per-use fees (transcription, processing)
- Additional development for speaker recognition or noise reduction if required
Summary of Costs
Depending on the level of complexity, chatbot cost can vary greatly:
- Basic prototype: €5,000 – €20,000
- Advanced chatbot: €25,000 – €60,000
- Technology fees: €150 – €400/month (low volume)
- Maintenance and support: €300 – €1,000/month/language
In high-volume projects, separate teams will do training, conversation design, and integration. Quality as well as cost is added to these roles.
Overall, chatbot pricing depends heavily on your app, your user base, and your tech needs. Simple bots are cheap, but sophisticated multi-language bots with custom integrations are an investment—but one well worth it.