AI Chatbot cost
How much does an AI chatbot cost?
An AI chatbot answers customer or staff questions from your own documents and systems, using models like Claude, GPT or Gemini. Cost depends on how many data sources it reads, where it plugs in, and how much testing the answers need.
- Typical cost
- $12,000 - $19,500
- With AI agents
- 6-9 weeks
- Traditional build
- 9-13 weeks
We've filled this in with a typical ai chatbot scope. Change anything you like and the estimate updates as you go. You can download it as a PDF at the end.
What drives the cost
- Knowledge sourcesThe documents, websites and databases the bot reads from (RAG).
- IntegrationsWhatsApp, a website widget, or hand-off to your CRM or helpdesk.
- Guardrails & evaluationWe test answers for accuracy, tone and safety before launch.
What a typical ai chatbot includes
- Document ingestionPDFs, web pages, FAQs and help articles are split, indexed and refreshed on a schedule, so answers come from current content.
- Retrieval with sourcesEach answer is built from the most relevant passages and can show the document it came from, so users can check it.
- Website widget & WhatsAppThe same assistant answers in a chat widget on your site and on WhatsApp, keeping each user's conversation history.
- Hand-off to staffWhen the bot isn't confident or the user asks for a person, the chat passes to your team with the full conversation attached.
- Conversation reviewYour team reads conversations, marks wrong answers and adds missing content from one screen, without touching code.
- Evaluation test setReal questions with expected answers, rerun before every change, so an update to prompts or content doesn't quietly break what worked.
How we usually build it
- 1 Answers from your contentDocuments, retrieval and a test set of real questions come first, because answer quality decides whether the bot is worth launching.
- 2 Channels and hand-offThen the website widget, WhatsApp and hand-off to your team, opened to a small group of users before everyone.
- 3 Live data and monitoringLast, the bot reads live systems such as order status or bookings, and we add reports on unanswered questions and wrong answers.
Common questions
Which AI model will it use?
We compare models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini on your test questions, cost per conversation and data policy. The model sits behind one layer of code, so you can switch later without a rebuild.
How do you stop it making things up?
The bot is told to answer only from your content and to say when it can't find an answer. We test questions it should decline as well as ones it should answer, and log every conversation so mistakes get fixed. No setup removes made-up answers completely, which is why hand-off to a person matters.
Will our data be used to train the AI?
The paid API plans we use don't train on your data by default, and we confirm the current terms for your project. Your documents and chat logs stay in your own database.
How much does an AI chatbot cost?
A typical first version of an AI chatbot costs about $12,000 to $19,500 with Eaquirs Tech. That assumes user accounts & roles, ai chatbot / assistant, ai document parsing, third-party integrations. Your exact price depends on scope, and we'll send you a written plan with a fixed estimate at no charge.
How long does it take to build an AI chatbot?
Around 6 to 9 weeks with our AI-assisted delivery. A traditional build would take roughly 9 to 13 weeks. Either way, you see working software every week.
Why is it faster with AI agents?
Our AI agents draft the boilerplate, tests and documentation, which takes about 35% of the hours off. Senior engineers own the architecture and review every release.