AI Chatbot Pricing Comparison 2026: What 7 Platforms Really Charge, and When

The real question: what are you being charged for?

Most pricing comparisons rank platforms by their cheapest plan. That ranking hides the important difference, because two tools with the same sticker price can bill you for completely different events. Every AI chatbot on the market today uses one of five billing triggers.

Flat subscription. You pay the same amount whether the bot handles ten conversations or ten thousand, until you hit a usage cap and must upgrade. LiveChatAI and SiteGPT work this way.

Metered credits or messages. Your plan includes an allowance. Every AI reply consumes credits, and running out means buying more or upgrading. Chatbase and SiteSpeakAI work this way.

Per seat. The bill scales with the number of human agents. Tidio's higher tiers and Intercom's suite pricing include this component.

Per resolution. You pay each time the AI successfully closes a conversation. Intercom Fin charges $0.99 per resolution. It is the closest thing to outcome pricing among the big platforms, but the outcome being priced is a closed support ticket, not revenue.

Revenue share, or pay per sale. You pay a base fee plus a percentage of sales the agent actually produced. SparkGPT is the only platform in this comparison that uses it: $49 per month plus 5% of attributed sales. We wrote a full explainer on this model in our guide to performance based AI chatbot pricing.

The large comparison articles ranking well for this topic, including SiteGPT's own eleven platform roundup, cover the first four models and stop there. None of them lists a revenue share option, which is worth knowing when you evaluate what alignment between your bill and your results is even possible.

Seven platforms side by side (verified September 2026)

All prices below were checked against official pricing pages or vendor published documents in September 2026. Monthly billing unless noted.

Three details from the fine print deserve a callout.

First, SiteGPT's message quota is model dependent. A reply from the premium model costs ten times a standard reply, so the Starter plan's 4,000 messages become 400 if you want top quality answers on every conversation. That is a real and clearly disclosed tradeoff, and SiteGPT deserves credit for publishing it plainly.

Second, Tidio's headline plans do not include AI answers. Lyro, Tidio's AI agent, is a separate add on starting at $39 per month for 50 AI conversations. A store wanting Tidio's polished live chat suite plus meaningful AI volume should budget for both lines.

Third, Intercom's Fin for Sales prices a qualified sales lead at $10 while a support resolution costs $0.99. Intercom's own pricing says a sales outcome is worth roughly ten times a support outcome. That ratio is useful context for every platform on this list that bills sales conversations at the same rate as password resets.

What happens to your bill when traffic grows

The sticker price describes month one. The billing trigger describes month twelve. Here is what each model does when your store goes from 200 conversations a month to 2,000, for example after a holiday spike or a viral product.

The per resolution row explains a criticism that SiteGPT's comparison article calls the growth trap: as the AI improves and resolves more conversations, the bill grows even if revenue does not. The metered rows have a milder version of the same problem, since browsing traffic consumes credits whether or not anyone buys.

A revenue share bill also grows, but it is mathematically pinned to sales. Five percent of attributed revenue cannot outrun the revenue itself. If SparkGPT attributes $4,000 in sales in a month, the bill is $49 plus $200, and the ROI dashboard shows every order behind that $200. If the agent attributes nothing, you pay $49. SparkGPT also bills through prepaid credits, where 1 credit equals $1 and the agent pauses when the balance runs out, so there is no surprise invoice at the end of a strong month.

Hidden costs to check before you commit

Whatever platform you pick, five line items routinely surprise buyers in this category.

Branding removal. The "Powered by" badge costs extra almost everywhere: $99 per month on Chatbase, $39 on SiteGPT, $20 on Tidio, and on LiveChatAI white labeling is reserved for the $389 Expert tier. SparkGPT includes it in the Growth plan.

Annual versus monthly framing. Several vendors advertise the annual rate. SiteGPT's $39 Starter price requires paying $468 up front; the monthly price is $59. LiveChatAI's annual billing works out to two months free. Always confirm which number you are looking at.

AI as an add on. With Tidio, the AI agent is a second subscription on top of the plan. Check whether the AI you are evaluating is actually included in the advertised price.

Model quality tiers. SiteGPT's 10x multiplier for premium model replies is the clearest example. If answer quality drives your purchase, price the premium tier, not the base allowance.

Attribution, or the absence of it. Most platforms report conversations handled and tickets deflected but cannot tell you what revenue they produced. If the point of the chatbot is sales, a dashboard that cannot show attributed orders makes ROI a guess. This is the measurement gap we covered in depth in the Chatbase comparison on this site: see SparkGPT vs Chatbase.

Where SparkGPT fits, and where it does not

SparkGPT is built for one job: turning website visitors into buyers. You paste your URL, the platform reads your site, and about 10 minutes later you have a sales agent you can deploy with one line of code. It runs on Anthropic's Claude. The Free plan lets you build and test one agent with no credit card and no expiry, the Growth plan is $49 per month plus 5% of attributed sales with unlimited conversations, and a Done-For-You tier covers custom builds. Attribution is strict by design: a visitor talks to the agent, and only orders placed within the next 24 hours count toward the 5%.

If your primary need is a support desk with ticketing, human handoff at scale, and omnichannel inboxes, Tidio and Intercom are more complete suites, and Chatbase has the largest ecosystem in the build your own chatbot category. If your primary need is revenue from existing traffic, SparkGPT is the only option on this page whose pricing depends on producing it. You only pay when SparkGPT makes you a sale.

FAQ

How much does an AI chatbot cost in 2026?

Self serve plans run from $29 to about $500 per month. Typical entry points are $29 to $59: Chatbase Hobby is $40, SiteGPT Starter is $59, Tidio Starter is $29 plus a $39 AI add on, SiteSpeakAI Starter is $29, LiveChatAI Basic is $39, and SparkGPT Growth is $49 plus 5% of attributed sales. Intercom Fin instead charges $0.99 per resolved conversation.

Which AI chatbot has the cheapest paid plan?

Tidio and SiteSpeakAI share the lowest entry price at $29 per month, but neither includes much AI volume at that price. Tidio's Lyro AI costs from $39 extra, and SiteSpeakAI's $29 plan includes 1,000 credits. The cheapest advertised price is rarely the cheapest working configuration, so compare the plan you would actually need at your traffic level.

What is the difference between message credits and conversations in chatbot billing?

A conversation is one visitor session, while credits are consumed by every AI reply inside it, sometimes at different rates per model. One long conversation can consume dozens of credits. Credit based platforms like Chatbase and SiteSpeakAI meter replies, Tidio meters conversations, and SparkGPT meters neither, since Growth includes unlimited conversations.

Do any AI chatbot platforms charge based on sales instead of usage?

Among the platforms compared here, only SparkGPT does. Its Growth plan is $49 per month plus 5% of sales attributed to the agent, counted when a visitor orders within 24 hours of a conversation, with every attributed order listed in the ROI dashboard. Intercom Fin is outcome priced but the outcome is a resolved support conversation at $0.99, not revenue.

Why do chatbot bills go up as the AI gets better?

Under per resolution pricing, a smarter AI closes more conversations, and each closure is a billable event, so improvement raises the invoice. Under credit pricing, better engagement burns the allowance faster. Under revenue share pricing the bill also rises, but only in proportion to sales, since 5% of attributed revenue cannot grow faster than the revenue it comes from.

Is a free AI chatbot plan enough to launch on my website?

Usually not. Free tiers are sized for evaluation: Chatbase's free plan has a small credit allowance, Tidio's covers 50 conversations, SiteSpeakAI's includes 30 credits per month, and SparkGPT's free plan lets you build and test one agent without a credit card but not deploy it live. Free plans are the right way to test answer quality on your real product catalog before paying.

Try the only pricing model on this list that starts at zero risk

Every platform above will charge you on schedule whether or not it sells anything. SparkGPT charges $49 per month plus 5% only on sales it can show you in the ROI dashboard, attributed within 24 hours of a conversation. Build your agent free at www.sparkgpt.ai. It takes about 10 minutes, no credit card, and it stays free until you decide to put it in front of customers.

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