How Much Does an AI Chatbot Cost to Build?

Custom AI-powered chatbots with retrieval-augmented generation, intent routing, and seamless handoff to human agents.

Project type: AI Chatbot

Feature Breakdown

FeatureHoursDescription
Conversational UI14Chat widget with message bubbles, typing indicators, rich cards, and quick-reply buttons.
LLM Integration & Prompt Engineering18OpenAI/Anthropic API integration with system prompts, context windows, and response formatting.
RAG Pipeline & Knowledge Base20Document ingestion, vector embeddings, semantic search, and context-aware answer generation.
Intent Detection & Routing12Classify user intents to route conversations to the right workflow or human agent.
Admin Dashboard & Analytics16Conversation logs, satisfaction metrics, knowledge base management, and prompt tuning interface.
Human Handoff & Escalation10Seamless transfer to live agents with full conversation context and priority queuing.

Total estimated hours: 90

Pricing Tiers

  • AI PM: $2/hr — Total: $180
    • AI-managed project execution
    • Automated milestone tracking
    • Daily progress reports
    • Quality assurance checks
  • Live PM: $3/hr — Total: $270
    • Dedicated human project manager
    • Weekly strategy calls
    • Priority support channel
    • Prompt engineering consultation
    • Knowledge base curation support
  • Live PM + Dev: $5/hr — Total: $450
    • Dedicated PM and senior developer
    • Real-time pair programming sessions
    • Code review on every pull request
    • LLM performance benchmarking
    • Post-launch support included

Agency Comparison

ApproachTypical CostTypical TimelineBookuvai CostBookuvai Timeline
Traditional Agency$20,000 – $70,0002 – 5 months$180 – $4502 – 4 weeks
Freelancer$6,000 – $20,0001 – 3 months$180 – $4502 – 4 weeks
In-House Team$40,000 – $120,0002 – 5 months$180 – $4502 – 4 weeks

Frequently Asked Questions

What LLM providers do you support?
We integrate with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and open-source models via Ollama. The architecture is provider-agnostic so you can switch later.
Does the cost include LLM API usage fees?
No. LLM inference costs are billed directly by the provider (e.g., OpenAI). Bookuvai covers the build — the integration, RAG pipeline, and UI.
Can the chatbot learn from new documents over time?
Yes. The admin dashboard includes a knowledge base manager where you can upload new documents, and the RAG pipeline re-indexes automatically.