A website chatbot: one-time payment or monthly fee?
A chatbot for your website costs €450 as a one-time payment plus €19/month covering the AI provider's API costs. Finnish chatbot services are priced differently: they charge a monthly fee alone. BottiPojat states €49.90 + VAT per month on its own site, and Serviceform's own comparison lists Finnish services running up to €799 per month. Leadoo, Videobot and Booosted publish no price at all.
The difference is structural, not just a price tag. With a subscription the cost continues for as long as the bot is on your site. With a one-time payment the only recurring cost is the part that genuinely gets consumed in use.
What does the law require of a chatbot from 2 August 2026?
The visitor has to be told they are talking to an AI. The requirement comes from Article 50 of the EU AI Act, whose transparency obligations have applied since 2 August 2026. The information must be given clearly and distinguishably, at the latest at the time of the first interaction. The only exception is where it is obvious from the situation.
Responsibility splits in two. The obligation in the regulation falls on the provider of the system: the bot has to be designed so that the visitor is informed. According to Traficom's guidance, the deployer — the company whose website the bot runs on — is responsible for the information actually reaching the visitor. In Finland the transparency obligations are supervised by Traficom, which published guidance on 20 August 2026. We opened up the whole obligation on its own page: the EU AI Act and chatbots — who is responsible for what, the exceptions, the penalties and a checklist.
In the bots we deliver this means two things. The chat header states that this is an AI assistant, and the bot says so in its first message as well. You do not have to do anything about it — it is built in. You can check it in the bottom right corner of this page: Aleksi introduces itself exactly that way.
It is worth checking this with other providers too, before you sign. Ask how their bot states that it is an AI, and at what point in the conversation.
What does a chatbot cost over three years?
A monthly price looks small, but a chatbot is not a three-month purchase. Below is the same thing over 36 months, calculated from prices published on 8 September 2026.
| Solution | Published price | 36 months | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProfitSite chatbot | €450 one-time + €19/month | €1,134 | Our own price list |
| BottiPojat | €49.90 + VAT/month (€62.62 incl. VAT) | €2,254 | bottipojat.fi, 8 Sept 2026 |
| Leadoo, Videobot, Booosted | Not published | — | Quote on request |
These are straight multiplications of published prices, not estimates. We state no price for services that do not publish one — a quote may well land below this or above it. Our other add-on prices are on the add-on services page.
When is a subscription service the better choice?
In three situations, and they are worth saying out loud.
When you want the bot live today. A ready-made service can be switched on yourself in a couple of hours. Ours takes days, because it is built around your information.
When you need live chat with a human. The larger Finnish platforms combine the bot and human coverage in one tool. We build the bot, not the staffing.
When you need heavy CRM or e-commerce integrations. That is what the platforms are built for, and the monthly fee pays for itself when volume is high.
If instead you need a bot that answers about services, prices and opening hours and nothing else, a monthly fee is a permanent cost for features you never use.
What does a chatbot actually answer?
The value is not in the AI but in removing repeated work. In a service business the same three questions come back week after week:
- "What does this cost?" — the bot gives the price or the range and points to a calculator when the price depends on the job.
- "Are you open on Saturday?" — opening hours, exceptions, location.
- "Do you even do this?" — the list of services, and if you do not do it, the bot says so straight away instead of leaving the person waiting.
The third is the most underrated. A wrong enquiry costs you time and costs the person a day of waiting. The bot filters those out immediately.
Can the bot be seen in action?
This site runs our own bot, Aleksi. It answers in Finnish, English and Russian, knows the package and add-on prices, and moves to the form once the conversation reaches that point. You can ask it anything on this page right now.
Aleksi is also a technical example of how we build bots. The instructions sit on the server rather than in the browser, so nobody can send the bot their own instructions or burn through the API key. The bot is also told what it does not do: it takes no bookings, handles no health data, and does not invent answers it does not have.
How does the bot know the right answers?
The bot is given your own information in writing: services, prices, opening hours, service area and the most common questions with their answers. It does not look things up on the internet and does not guess. Its instructions state explicitly that an unfamiliar question is answered with "I don't know" and handed over to a person — that single line separates a usable bot from one that invents services your company does not sell.
When your prices change, the bot's information is updated. It is small work, but it has to happen: an outdated price from the bot's mouth is worse than no answer at all.
What does a chatbot not do?
It takes no bookings and no payments. Bookings belong in the booking system and payments with the payment provider. The bot points to both but handles neither.
It handles no health data or other sensitive information. A massage therapist's or dental clinic's bot talks about services and prices, but symptoms are not told to it — that is a data protection decision, not a technical limit.
It does not replace a person. The bot handles the repetitive part and brings the rest to you already structured. Anyone promising a bot that runs your whole customer service is selling you a disappointment.
How ordering a chatbot works
The first step is free. You tell us what your business does, and you get a link to a working bot trained on your own information — you can ask it the same questions your customers would. You see it working and decide only then. We make 3–4 free previews a week.
If you take the bot, we finalise its knowledge, embed it on your site and go through how you update prices later. Invoicing starts only once you have approved the implementation.
Ask Aleksi — or request a bot trained on your own information
Aleksi sits in the bottom corner of this page and answers in three languages. If you want the same with your services and your prices, we build a free preview of it before you order.
Frequently asked questions
Does a chatbot have to say that it is an AI?
Yes. The transparency obligations of Article 50 of the EU AI Act have applied since 2 August 2026: the visitor must be told clearly and distinguishably, at the latest at the time of the first interaction, that they are talking to an AI. The obligation falls on the provider of the system, and according to Traficom the deployer is responsible for the information actually reaching the visitor. In Finland it is supervised by Traficom. In the bots we deliver, the information is in the chat header and in the bot's first message.
How much does a website chatbot cost in Finland?
With us a chatbot costs €450 as a one-time payment plus €19/month covering the AI provider's API costs. Finnish chatbot services are normally priced on a monthly fee alone: BottiPojat states €49.90 + VAT per month on its own site (checked 8 September 2026), and according to Serviceform's own comparison, Finnish services run up to €799 per month. Leadoo, Videobot and Booosted publish no price and ask for an enquiry instead.
What does the €19/month consist of, and can it be dropped?
It covers the API usage generated by every question put to the bot. It is not optional, because without the API the bot does not answer. It applies to the bot only — the website itself carries no monthly fee.
Can a chatbot be added to a site you did not build?
Yes. The bot is embedded into an existing site with a single snippet, regardless of who built the site. The site is not rebuilt and your URLs do not change.
How does the bot know the right answers?
The bot is given your own information: services, prices, opening hours and the most common questions. It does not search the internet and does not invent answers, and its instructions tell it to reply 'I don't know' to anything unfamiliar and hand the person over to you.
Does the bot take bookings or payments?
No. The bot answers questions and collects enquiries, but bookings belong in the booking system and payments with the payment provider. It also does not handle health data or other sensitive information.
Can I see the chatbot working before I order?
Yes, in two ways. This site runs our own bot, Aleksi, in three languages — you can ask it anything right now. On top of that we build a free preview trained on your own information before you order.