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What does an AI chatbot cost, and how do you work out the return?

In short: The real cost of an AI chatbot is the monthly fee, any setup or usage-based charges, and your own team's time. Neuwon has a fixed price of €295/month (€3,540 a year), including a generous allowance of 100 AI credits a month, enough as it stands for almost any website. Installation and onboarding are free. To estimate the return, look at three things: the margin on extra sales, customer service time saved and the value of enquiries.

What makes up the cost of an AI chatbot?

Whatever solution you're evaluating, look at the total cost rather than the headline monthly price. Typical cost items include:

  • Subscription. The base monthly or annual fee.
  • Onboarding. Installation, integration and preparing your material.
  • Usage-based charges. Some pricing models scale with the number of conversations or messages, which makes costs hard to predict.
  • Integrations. A connection to your store may cost extra or be limited to higher tiers.
  • Your own time. Gathering material, testing, reading conversations and handling requests passed to people.

The last item is easily overlooked, yet it's often the biggest. A good solution should reduce your team's workload, not add to it.

What Neuwon's €295/month includes

Pricing for Neuwon, JR Soft's AI shopping assistant, is deliberately simple: a fixed €295/month. Included in the price:

  • free installation and onboarding
  • a generous allowance of 100 AI credits a month, enough as it stands for almost any website
  • an AI shopping assistant and chatbot for your store or website
  • product, availability and attribute data from the agreed integration
  • store-approved guidance and agreed external data
  • a private preview before going live
  • controlled updates to data and guidance.

Data sources, usage needs and integration scope are agreed for each site. An ordinary website doesn't need an ecommerce platform. Current details are on the pricing page.

What do 100 AI credits mean in practice?

AI credits are the usage included in the price. The allowance is sized generously and is enough as it stands for almost any website, so your costs don't creep up every time visitors get chatty. If your site is unusually busy or has special requirements, usage is discussed during onboarding.

Why free onboarding simplifies the maths

When onboarding has a price tag, you need a payback period: how many months until the initial outlay is recovered. With free installation and onboarding, the calculation gets simpler. You just compare a month's benefit with a month's cost.

Onboarding runs in three steps: your data is connected, you test the assistant in a private preview, and it goes live only once you approve. The preview is also a good moment to estimate the return in advance. Ask the assistant the questions your customer service team actually receives and see how many it can answer from your own data.

Three ways to estimate the return

The return from a chatbot usually comes from one or more of these:

  1. Extra sales. Customers find a suitable product, get answers on availability or delivery costs, and don't abandon the purchase. Measure this as gross margin, not revenue.
  2. Time saved. Repetitive questions such as order status, delivery guidance or manual details are handled in the conversation.
  3. Value of enquiries. On ordinary websites and in B2B stores, the chatbot collects contact and quote requests, some of which turn into business.

Worked example (illustrative)

Note: The figures below are invented to illustrate the method. They are not results, averages or benchmarks from Neuwon customers, and they are not a promise of returns. Use your own figures.

Assumptions (example only):

  • Chatbot cost: €295/month
  • Average order value: €120
  • Gross margin: 30% → €36 margin per order
  • Time spent on a routine question: 5 minutes
  • Fully loaded customer service cost: €35/hour

A. Extra sales only: €295 / €36 ≈ 8.2. In this example store, about 9 extra orders a month would cover the fee.

B. Time saved only: €295 / €35 per hour ≈ 8.4 hours ≈ 506 minutes. At 5 minutes per question, that's roughly 100 routine questions a month.

C. A combination: In practice the benefit tends to come from several sources at once. If the example store gained 4 extra orders (4 × €36 = €144) and saved the time of 60 questions (60 × 5 min = 5 h × €35 = €175), the benefit would be €319 a month, slightly more than the fee.

D. Ordinary website and leads: If a new client brings, say, €2,000 of margin a year, the annual cost of €3,540 would be covered by just under two new clients a year that came in through the chatbot.

It's worth flipping the calculation around: how many orders, questions or enquiries would it take for the solution to pay its way? If that number looks realistic for your business, a trial is justified.

Notice how sensitive the result is to your assumptions. With a higher order value or better margin, the number of extra orders needed drops quickly. If products are inexpensive and margins thin, saved time and better-structured enquiries may matter more than extra sales.

How to measure the return in your own store

The example tells you what needs to happen; only measurement tells you whether it does. A few practical tips:

  • Record a baseline. How many emails and calls come in each month, and which questions keep repeating? Do this before going live.
  • Read conversations. They're available in the admin and show where customers need help and where your product data has gaps.
  • Count contact and quote requests. Note which ones turned into sales.
  • Watch the customer service load. Have routine emails dropped?
  • Interpret carefully. Seasons, campaigns and pricing all affect sales. Don't credit the chatbot with everything.

When a chatbot probably won't pay off

If your site has few visitors, questions are rare and products are simple, the thresholds in the example may be hard to reach. In that case, a clear FAQ and better product pages could be the better first step. An honest assessment saves everyone time.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Neuwon cost?

Neuwon costs a fixed €295/month. Installation and onboarding are free, and the price includes a generous allowance of 100 AI credits a month.

Are 100 AI credits enough?

The allowance is sized generously and is enough as it stands for almost any website. Usage needs are agreed for each site.

Is there a setup fee?

No. Installation and onboarding are free, and you test the service in a private preview before going live.

How do you calculate the ROI of an AI chatbot?

Estimate the margin from extra sales, the customer service time saved and the value of enquiries, then compare them with the monthly cost. Also work out how many extra orders or saved hours it would take to cover the cost.

Does Neuwon cost the same without an online store?

Yes. The price is the same €295/month for an ordinary website without ecommerce.

Next step

Want to see what the numbers would look like for your own store or website? Get in touch and we'll go through your figures together and assess whether Neuwon makes sense for you.