How Much Does an AI Agent or Custom Chatbot Cost for an SMB?
From €300 for a basic chatbot to €30,000+ for an AI agent wired into your tools: here are the real 2026 price ranges, and what actually drives the bill.
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The honest answer: it depends on scope
It's the first question every business owner asks, and the honest range runs from €0 to over €50,000. The gap? A ChatGPT widget glued onto a contact page is not the same job as an AI agent connected to your CRM, your ERP and your inbox. Here's how to make sense of it.
2026 price ranges
Rule-based chatbot (guided FAQ): free in self-service, or €300 to €1,500 to have a provider configure your scenarios.
Generative AI chatbot (understands questions, draws on your content): setup, then .
€1,500 to €8,000
€50 to €300/month
Custom AI agent (connected to your tools, able to act — draft a quote, update a record, trigger a follow-up): €8,000 to €30,000+ depending on integrations.
Below €25,000–30,000 you stay on standardized solutions. An agent that truly understands your business and holds up in production takes real integration work.
What drives the price up (or down)
Scope and integrations: 60–70% of the budget. Cleanly connecting your CRM or billing tool costs more than the AI "brain" itself.
Your data quality: a good agent needs a clean corpus. Scattered documents mean extra prep time.
Level of autonomy: answering a question is easy. Triggering an action without error is much harder.
Maintenance: an AI agent is not a one-shot project. Budget for monthly upkeep.
Subscription or custom-built?
To test a specific use case (customer support, FAQ), a subscription solution is often enough and limits risk. For a lasting edge and processes you own, custom build pays off as soon as the time saved exceeds a few hours per week.
The right reflex: think return on investment
Price alone means nothing. A €12,000 agent that saves 8 hours a week for 5 people pays for itself in months. That's exactly what you should quantify before signing. We break down the method in our article on how to calculate the ROI of an AI agent.
Our approach at Propulse Solutions
We always start with a free audit to frame the scope, then a prototype before any heavy development. You know what you're paying for and what it returns. Book your assessment.