Pricing guide · Updated October 2026
How much does an AI chatbot or AI assistant cost in the UK?
Short answer: Basic FAQ bots start around £1,500; assistants that answer from your own documents or connect to your CRM usually cost £3,000 to £15,000 to set up, plus monthly running costs. Mine start from £3,000.
What the market charges
One UK agency publishes setup prices from £1,500 for configuring an existing chatbot platform, £5,000 for a custom chatbot and £6,000 for a knowledge assistant that answers from company documents, with monthly fees from £99 to £399. Industry guides put most SME custom chatbots between £5,000 and £20,000.
What you are paying for
- Which information it may use, and keeping that information current.
- Answers that cite their source, and a clear handover when it cannot help.
- Connections to your CRM, calendar or helpdesk.
- Testing on real questions, including ones it should refuse.
- Monthly AI usage, which grows with the number of conversations.
The questions to ask any supplier
Ask what information the assistant can see, who checks its answers, what happens when it is wrong, and who owns the accounts. If the answers are vague, the price is not the problem.
Want to see what automation could save you? Try the savings calculator, or read about Automation & AI.
Common questions
- Can an AI assistant use my own documents?
- Yes. It works from an agreed set of documents, with access rules, and should say when it cannot support an answer rather than guess.
- What are the running costs?
- Mainly AI usage and hosting, which depend on how many conversations it handles. I estimate them before you commit.
Sources
Market figures are from suppliers’ own published pages, checked on 25 October 2026, and may have changed. Agency prices are usually shown before VAT. Prices in GBP. RightCyber is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added. Scope and price are confirmed in a written proposal before work starts.