AI chatbot cost in Australia: 5 options priced in AUD

How much does an AI chatbot cost in Australia?

An AI chatbot costs an Australian small business from $0 to about $150 a month to start: Shopify Inbox is free, do-it-yourself tools like Tidio and Chatbase start at about $57 a month, and a custom chatbot built for you by Matey is a flat $149 a month.

What you pay after that depends on how the chatbot charges. Per-conversation and per-answer plans grow with your traffic, so a busy store can pay $300 to $700 a month on a plan that started under $60. Flat plans stay put. Here are five AI chatbots Australian businesses actually use, with each starting price in Australian dollars.

Prices are from each company's own pricing page, on monthly billing. Tidio, Chatbase, and Gorgias charge in US dollars, converted here at the Reserve Bank's rate of about A$1.45 to the US dollar (RBA). Matey builds custom AI chatbots for Australian businesses, so we're one of the five, and we'll say when a cheaper one is the better call. For who each one suits beyond price, see our guide to the best AI chatbot for small business.

1. Shopify Inbox

Shopify Inbox is Shopify's own chat app, and it's the AI chatbot that costs nothing. Its AI agent answers from your catalogue and policies, then hands the chat to your staff when it gets stuck.

Best for: quiet Shopify stores with someone around to pick up the chats the AI hands over.

Drawbacks: it only works on Shopify. You set it up, and your staff answer whatever it can't, so the real cost is your time.

Price: free with a Shopify plan, Basic or higher.

2. Tidio

Tidio is a live chat app with an AI agent called Lyro, and it's the cheapest paid AI chatbot you set up yourself. You point Lyro at your website and FAQs, and it answers from them.

Best for: small businesses with a short list of common questions and an owner happy to set it up.

Drawbacks: Lyro charges per AI conversation, so the bill climbs with your traffic. A Lyro conversation is any chat it replies in, useful or not.

Price: Tidio's free plan includes 50 Lyro conversations, once. After that, Lyro is US$39 a month (about $57) for 50 AI conversations, US$75 (about $109) for 100, and US$210 (about $305) for 300.

3. Chatbase

Chatbase is a do-it-yourself AI chatbot builder. You load in your website and documents, pick which AI model answers, and write its instructions yourself.

Best for: tinkerers who want to build and adjust their own bot.

Drawbacks: Chatbase charges in message credits, not conversations, and the better AI models use more credits per answer. A long chat can burn through a small plan quickly.

Price: Hobby is US$40 a month (about $58) for 700 message credits. Basic is US$150 a month (about $218) for 4,000, and Business is US$500 a month (about $725) for 15,000.

4. Gorgias

Gorgias is a helpdesk for online stores with an AI Agent on every plan. You pay a monthly helpdesk fee for a set number of tickets, plus a fee for each question the AI resolves.

Best for: busy Shopify stores with a support team and lots of "where's my order?" questions.

Drawbacks: two meters run at once, tickets and AI answers, so it's the hardest bill here to predict. It's built for support teams, which is more than a one-person shop needs. Weighing it up? Here are the Gorgias alternatives for Australian stores.

Price: Starter with AI Agent is US$40 a month (about $58) for 50 tickets and 30 AI answers. Basic with AI Agent is US$90 a month (about $131) for 300 tickets and 30 AI answers. Past the 30, each AI answer is US$1.50 (about $2.18).

5. Matey

Matey is the AI chatbot that's built for you, around the way your business actually runs, for a flat monthly price. A matey knows your whole catalogue, your prices, and your policies, and it answers from them.

• Built and installed free. We build it from your own website, products, and policies, and put it on your site. A first version is usually ready within 24 hours.
• Flat price. The bill is the same in your busiest month as your quietest, with unlimited conversations.
• Looked after for you. Tell us what's wrong and it's usually fixed within a few hours. You don't train anything.
• Priced in Australian dollars. No exchange rate to watch.

Best for: businesses with lots of "which one do I need?" questions and no time to set up or train a bot.

Drawbacks: Matey isn't the cheapest way to start. A quiet store with 50 chats a month pays less on Shopify Inbox or Tidio. A matey isn't a helpdesk either: it doesn't look up or refund orders, and it passes those to your team.

Price: a flat $149 AUD a month, or $1,490 a year. The build and the install are free, the first month is free, and you cancel with an email. Custom AI agents and bigger builds are quoted on the job. It's all on Matey's pricing page.

How much does an AI chatbot cost per month once you're busy?

An AI chatbot that handles 300 conversations a month costs an Australian business from $0 on Shopify Inbox to about $718 on Gorgias, with Matey at a flat $149. The starting price tells you little. The busy-month price is the one to compare.

These are each company's listed monthly prices, converted at about A$1.45 to the US dollar. Chatbase's figure depends on how long your chats run and which AI model you pick. Gorgias' figure assumes the AI resolves all 300.

Per conversation, per resolution, or flat: which AI chatbot pricing is cheaper?

Flat AI chatbot pricing is cheaper once you're busy, and per-conversation pricing is cheaper while you're quiet.

• Per conversation (Tidio's Lyro): you buy a monthly bundle of AI conversations. At 50 a month, Lyro costs about $57 against Matey's $149. At 300, Lyro costs about $305.
• Per message credit (Chatbase): every answer uses credits, and better AI models use more. Good value for short chats, harder to predict for long ones.
• Per resolution (Gorgias): you pay each time the AI resolves a question, on top of the helpdesk plan. Fair when volumes are low, and the dearest of the three when they're not.
• Flat (Matey): one price whatever the month brings. You overpay in a dead month and come out ahead in a busy one.

A store doing 100 chats a month or fewer usually pays less on a per-conversation plan: 100 Lyro conversations cost about $109. Somewhere between 100 and 300 chats a month, flat becomes cheaper, and Black Friday stops being a billing event.

What makes an AI chatbot cost more in Australia?

Five things push an AI chatbot's cost up for an Australian business: how many conversations you get, which AI model answers, seats and tickets, your own time, and the US dollar.

• How many conversations you get. Per-conversation plans grow with your traffic, so your busiest month costs the most. Tidio's Lyro goes from US$39 a month for 50 conversations to US$210 for 300.
• Which AI model answers. Credit plans like Chatbase's charge more credits per answer for the better models.
• Seats and tickets. Helpdesks like Gorgias charge for tickets on top of the AI. Gorgias adds US$0.40 for each ticket past your plan's limit.
• Your time. Do-it-yourself tools are cheap because you do the setup, the training, and the fixing. Count those hours at what your time is worth.
• The US dollar. Tidio, Chatbase, and Gorgias all bill in US dollars, so an Australian bill moves with the exchange rate, even when the plan doesn't change.

How much does AI chatbot development cost in Australia?

AI chatbot development in Australia costs either a one-off project fee or a flat monthly price, depending on who builds it. Australian software consultancy SSW advertises AI chatbot development from $3,990 plus GST. With a one-off build, ask what hosting, AI usage, and later changes cost on top, because someone has to keep the chatbot accurate after launch.

Matey does it the other way round. We build and install your custom chatbot free, then charge a flat $149 AUD a month that covers the hosting, the AI, and every change. Bigger jobs, like custom AI agents that work inside your own systems, are quoted on the job. Here's how custom chatbot development works with us.

Here's a matey on a made-up outdoor store, putting a first camping kit together for a family on a budget:

How much does ChatGPT cost in Australia?

ChatGPT costs A$0 on Free, A$13 a month on Go, A$30 a month on Plus, and from A$155 a month on Pro, according to ChatGPT's own pricing page. Those prices are in Australian dollars.

A ChatGPT plan isn't an AI chatbot for your business, though. It's for a person asking questions and getting work done. It doesn't sit on your website, it doesn't know your products or prices, and it doesn't answer your customers at 9pm. For that you need one of the five AI chatbots compared here.

Is a free AI chatbot good enough for a small business?

A free AI chatbot is good enough for a small business with few chats and someone around to answer the ones the AI can't. Shopify Inbox is free on any Shopify plan from Basic up, and Tidio's free plan includes 50 Lyro AI conversations, once.

Free stops being free when the chatbot gets it wrong or goes quiet. You set it up, you fix its answers, and your staff pick up every chat it hands over. If you're already on Inbox and it isn't keeping up, these Shopify Inbox alternatives are the next step up, with AUD prices.

How do you work out what an AI chatbot will cost your business?

Use the Matey busiest-month sum: five steps that turn any AI chatbot's pricing page into the bill you'd actually get.

1. Count your busiest month. Use Black Friday, Christmas, or EOFY, not an average week. If you don't know your chat numbers, count the customer emails and calls you got that month.
2. Find what the plan counts. A conversation, a message credit, a resolution, a ticket, or a seat. Read the fine print on what uses one up.
3. Price that month on the plan. Include the fees for going past your allowance.
4. Convert it to Australian dollars. Most pricing pages are in US dollars. Use today's rate, and remember it moves.
5. Add your own hours. Setup, training, and fixing answers, at what your time is worth.

Do the sum for two or three options and the cheapest one for your business is usually obvious. If it's still close, ask each one a question only your staff would know, and see who gets it right.

Want to see what you'd get for a flat price? Try a matey on the homepage, or send us your website and we'll build a free demo from your own products and policies.