How much does a chatbot cost?

It’s hard to talk about the cost of a chatbot without a specific task, but I’ll try to explain it using examples from our cases. Each chatbot is an individual project that isn’t limited to just the first iteration. To achieve a quality result, it’s important to go through several key development stages.

There’s usually a dilemma here: clients want to minimize the budget, but expect perfect functionality with the maximum number of features. This issue is resolved with a quality technical specification and prototypes — a mandatory stage for every project.

Example 1: “FAQ Chatbot”

Task (from the client): Create a chatbot to reduce the number of requests to the support department.

Product requirements (agreed with the client): One messenger — Telegram, admin panel for editing content, analytics for question views.

Backlog (task list):

• Telegram chatbot
• Project management
  • Preparing the technical specification
  • Prototyping
  • Task assignment and execution control
• Development of the Telegram chatbot
• FAQ functionality
  • Displaying questions in Telegram
  • Create/edit/delete categories
  • Create/edit/delete questions and answers
  • Ability to add images to answers
• Mailing function
  • Text
  • Images
  • Button with link or text
  • Video
  • Emoji
  • Files
• Admin panel
  • Admin login
  • FAQ statistics
  • Edit message texts with the ability to add photos
• Testing
• Deploying the project on the client’s server

Cost: $1620

Timeline: 5-7 days

This will be a modern product that can be used long-term, with all the features needed for quality communication with your clients or employees.

I would also add the option to send surveys for more active audience engagement — this would increase the cost by $600.

Chatbot instead of a plastic store/supermarket card

Task (from the client): Create a chatbot for supermarket clients to view purchase history and use a loyalty card.

Product requirements (agreed with the client): As described in the task.

Backlog (task list):

• Viber chatbot
• Project management
  • Preparing the technical specification
  • Chatbot prototyping
  • Task assignment and execution control
• Viber chatbot development on partners.viber.com
• Chatbot design (2 options for approval)
• Registration functionality
  • Two-way integration with the client’s CRM
  • Name change
  • Change confirmation via SMS
  • Phone number change
• “My Card” function
  • View card number (text)
  • View card barcode
  • Generate barcode by phone number or other data
• Purchase history
  • Last 5 purchases from this card number: store, date and time, amount, bonus points.
  • Details for each purchase
• “Find a store” function
  • List of stores in a convenient