Chatbot builders charge in five main ways: a plan with a usage allowance, a price per resolved conversation, a price per contact, prepaid credits, or free tools with paid seats. The model decides what makes your bill grow, so two products with the same monthly price can cost very different amounts for the same traffic.
The short version
- Find the meter first: the thing the bill grows with. It is different at almost every vendor.
- Do not compare a price per conversation with a price per resolution or per contact. They count different things.
- Read what happens at the limit: some bots stop, some buy more for you automatically.
- Add seats, onboarding fees and channel fees. They are often larger than the usage line.
The five models, with one example each
| Model | You pay for | Example | What the vendor publishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan plus meter | A monthly plan with an allowance, then overage | Landbot | Starter at €40 a month with 500 chats; extra chats at €0.05 each |
| Per resolution | Each conversation the AI settles | Intercom Fin | US$0.99 per outcome, on top of helpdesk seats from US$39 per seat a month |
| Per contact | Each person you message in a month | Manychat | Essential at US$17 a month for 250 Active Contacts; US$0.10 per extra contact |
| Credits | A pool spent on messages, model tokens or minutes | Voiceflow | Pro at US$60 a month with 12,000 credits; 1 credit per user message |
| Free tool plus paid seats | People on the team, and AI usage on top | HubSpot | Free tools at US$0; Professional at US$100 per seat a month plus US$1,500 onboarding |
Plan plus meter is the most common. You know the base price, and the risk sits in the overage rate. Botpress and Typebot work this way too.
Per resolution ties cost to results, which sounds fair. The catch is the definition. Fin bills an assumed resolution when a customer stays silent for 24 hours after its last answer, and HubSpot judges resolution 72 hours after the visitor's last message. Silence is billed.
Per contact suits marketing bots, where one person may get many messages. Manychat counts a person once a month, but receiving a broadcast is enough to count.
Credits turn different kinds of usage into one currency. Voiceflow publishes a credit table: a user message costs 1 credit, a phone minute 10 credits, and model tokens cost credits at rates that depend on the model. Chatfuel uses a dollar wallet instead, US$20 of credits on Business, and does not publish what one AI reply costs.
Free tool plus paid seats gives you a bot at no charge and bills the people who use the platform. HubSpot's free chatflows cannot branch; if/then logic and its AI agent need Professional seats, and the agent then uses credits at US$0.50 per resolution.
Some vendors mix models. Tidio runs separate meters for human-answered conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors. Its smallest Lyro tier is US$39 a month for 50 Lyro conversations.
Why comparing unlike meters misleads
A price per unit only means something next to its definition. Botpress counts every conversation with at least two messages from the user, including chats a person handles and tests in its emulator. Fin counts only outcomes, and not the chats it escalates by default. Manychat counts people, not chats. Voiceflow counts messages and model tokens. So US$0.65 per conversation at Botpress and US$0.99 per outcome at Fin cannot be ranked by looking at the numbers alone.
The fix is to price one month of your own traffic under each vendor's definition. Our pricing pages do this with worked examples at set volumes, and what counts as a conversation lists every vendor's unit side by side.
Auto-upgrades and overages to look for
These behaviours are written into the vendors' own pricing pages or help centres:
- Botpress adds a pack of 100 conversations when you reach 95% of the allowance. The pricing page says this cannot be turned off, and the pack stays on the bill each month until you remove it. A separate AI credit grant of US$10 is bought automatically too.
- Typebot upgrades a paid workspace's chat limit to the next tier after the 100% warning email.
- Tidio documents automatic upgrades to a higher tier at 95% of a quota. Check whether this is switched on for your account.
- Intercom Fin has no cap by default. You can set alerts and a hard limit, but you have to do it yourself.
- Manychat bills each extra Active Contact on the next invoice. You can set an overage threshold or allow none.
- Landbot charges overage per chat, but its fair-use policy caps chats per plan and says repeated breaches can get the bot deactivated.
- HubSpot's agent stops taking new conversations when credits run out, unless you switch on pay-as-you-go overage.
- Chatfuel stops the bot at a zero wallet balance unless you set automatic top-ups.
How to compare two quotes
- Write down each vendor's meter and its exact definition, with a link.
- Estimate one month of your traffic in each unit: chats, people, resolutions or credits.
- Add seats, onboarding fees, add-ons and channel fees such as WhatsApp messages.
- Note the limit behavior: hard stop, overage, or automatic upgrade.
- Compare the total, not the headline price. The chatbot finder can narrow the list first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common chatbot pricing model?
Among the nine builders we review, a monthly plan with a usage allowance and overage is the most common: Landbot, Botpress and Typebot work this way. Intercom Fin charges per outcome, Manychat per contact, Voiceflow and Chatfuel through credits, and HubSpot through paid seats with AI credits on top.
Is per-resolution pricing cheaper than per-conversation pricing?
It depends on your traffic and on the definition. A per-resolution price only applies to chats the AI settles, but vendors like Intercom Fin and HubSpot count silence after an answer as a resolution. Price one month of your own traffic under each vendor's rules before deciding.
Can a chatbot bill go up without warning?
Yes, on some plans. Botpress documents automatic conversation packs that cannot be turned off, Typebot upgrades a paid workspace to the next chat tier at the limit, and Intercom Fin has no spending cap unless you set one. Most vendors send usage alerts, so check the alert levels and limit settings before launch.
Keep reading
- What is the difference between a chatbot and an AI agent?guide
- Rule-based or AI chatbot: which should you build?guide
- What counts as a conversation in chatbot pricing?guide
- How do you write a knowledge base for a chatbot?guide
- Best chatbot buildersbest list
Researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on this page. We have not built or tested bots on these platforms yet. Method: How we review