What an AI Chatbot for a Website Costs (and What Drives It)
The price of a chatbot for a website is rarely one number. It is a plan price plus whatever grows with use: the number of people on your team, the number of conversations, how much AI each answer uses, and how many chatbots you run. Knowing which of these a vendor charges for tells you more than the headline price.
The three ways chatbots are usually priced
Per seat. You pay for each team member who answers chats. This fits a support desk with many agents. It is a poor fit for a small site where one person checks in now and then.
Per conversation or per resolution. You pay as visitors use the chat. The bill follows your traffic, which is fair, but harder to predict.
Flat plan with a usage allowance. You pay a fixed monthly price that includes an amount of AI usage. This is the easiest to plan, as long as you know how far the allowance goes.
When you compare offers, ask three questions: what is counted, what happens when you reach the limit, and what is included in the first price you see.
What actually drives the cost
AI usage per answer. Every answer reads part of your content and writes a reply. Longer answers and more capable models use more. A chatbot that answers only from your own pages keeps answers short, which keeps usage low.
Number of conversations. More visitors starting a chat means more answers. A small site with little traffic uses far less than a busy store.
Number of chatbots (agents). A second chatbot for another site or language is usually an extra charge.
Your team. Whether you pay per person who answers, and how many people you can add.
Whose AI account is used. Some chatbots let you connect your own key from an AI provider. Then the provider bills you its own rates, and the chatbot plan covers the product itself.
What OneType charges (as shown on the live pricing page, 27 October 2026)
OneType has a free plan and monthly Premium sizes. Prices are in US dollars, before taxes.
- Free: $0. 50 AI credits a month (up to 10 a day), 1 agent, and the OneType badge on the chat. You can use it on your live site, and no card is needed.
- Premium sizes (monthly): 8k credits for $39, 20k for $79, 60k for $179, 150k for $399 and 400k for $899. For bigger volume there is an Enterprise option that you talk to the team about.
- Current offers: Current offers are on the pricing page.
- Extra agents: every plan includes 1 agent; on Premium each extra agent is $20 a month. There is no per-seat price. Premium includes up to 10 team members.
- Yearly billing: up to 25% less on Premium. Credits are still added every month.
- Your own AI key: $10 a month less than the AI-credits plan. Your AI provider bills you for model usage at its own rates, and each answer counts once toward your plan, whatever the model.
- Credit pack: when credits run out on Premium you can add a pack of 5,000 credits for $25. Pack credits do not expire, while unused monthly credits do not roll over.
How far do the credits go?
One credit is $0.001 of AI and search usage. The pricing page describes a typical answer as about 3,000 tokens read and 300 written, plus one knowledge search, and says longer answers use more. On the default model, the 8k plan covers about 9,400 answers a month. The page's own planning estimate is that about 5 in 100 visitors start a chat, with 3 to 4 messages each. At those rates, a site with a few thousand visitors a month stays well inside the smallest Premium size.
At 80% and at 100% of your credits you get a notice. At 100% your agents stop answering until your credits renew or you upgrade.
Ways to keep the cost down
- Start with the free plan. It runs on a live site, so you can see real questions before you pay for anything.
- Keep the knowledge focused. Add the pages and files that answer real questions. Short, grounded answers use fewer credits than long ones.
- Pick the size from your traffic, not your hopes. Use the estimate above, then watch real usage for a month.
- Use your own key if you already have an AI account. It lowers the plan price and moves model usage to your provider's bill.
- Compare what is counted. Check whether a plan counts seats, conversations or usage, and what happens at the limit.
What to compare before you buy
- What the first price includes, and what is added later
- Whether answers come only from your own content, and whether each answer shows its source
- What happens when you reach the limit
- Whether the badge can be removed, and on which plan
- Whether you can leave without a long contract
See what it would cost you
Start on the free plan and watch real questions come in: See OneType pricing.