SANIK Blog
How much does an AI chatbot cost for a small business in 2026?
The real cost of an AI chatbot for small and medium businesses: setup, subscription, hidden costs and a simple way to calculate ROI.
1. What the price consists of
In practice you pay for two things: a one-off deployment and monthly running costs. Deployment covers preparing the knowledge base, configuring the assistant, testing and launch. The subscription covers hosting, care and updates.
2. Typical ranges
For a small business you will most often see a model of roughly PLN 990-3,500 for the start and PLN 199-800 per month, depending on the number of channels, integrations and the scale of traffic.
3. The hidden costs of cheap DIY
A low tool price is not everything. On top come the owner's time, maintaining the content, testing answers and fixing mistakes. That cost of work is usually the biggest, even though it does not show up on the invoice.
4. How to calculate ROI in 10 minutes
Take the number of enquiries per month, the average customer value and the current share of contacts lost after hours. If the assistant saves even some of those conversations, the investment usually pays back faster than you expect.