On this page
Three routes, by what it must do
| Route | What you do | Time | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| A chatbot tool | load your FAQ and pages into a tool and paste a snippet on your site | an afternoon | fixed questions: hours, prices, delivery |
| Your own assistant | an AI chatbot that reads only your documents, shielded per user | one to three weeks | a team searching procedures and files |
| A chatbot with integrations | it looks up an order, books an appointment or puts an enquiry in your CRM | two to six weeks | customer service that actually handles things |
The first route you do yourself, without coding. The other two take build work; what that involves is in AI chatbot development and custom ChatGPT for business. If it carries out tasks in your systems instead of only answering, it is an agent: see AI agents explained. If it answers from your own documents, it uses the technique called RAG.
A chatbot is as good as what it may read
The model knows nothing about your opening hours, prices or delivery times; you hand it that with every question. So most of the build time goes not to technology but to your knowledge: the questions customers really ask, with a correct and current answer to each. The FAQ on your site is a good start, like the one on the site we built for a law firm, but it is rarely complete. Then you write the limits: what it never promises, which questions it passes on, and how it says so. Since 2 August 2026 visitors in the EU must also know they are talking to AI; see EU AI Act transparency obligations.
Six steps, and what the model costs a month
- Step 1Collect questionsThe fifty questions customers really ask.
- Step 2Prepare knowledgePrices, terms, hours, correct and current.
- Step 3Write limitsWhat it never promises, when a person takes over.
- Step 4TestA hundred real questions, the odd ones too.
- Step 5Live with noticeSay it is AI in the first message.
- Step 6Follow upRead conversations, update knowledge.
Model cost a month, 1,500 conversationsConversations of ten messages; build and upkeep not included
- Small model3.20 dollar
- Large model63.75 dollar
What a chatbot costs a month
For the bike shop in the chart the model costs a few dollars a month on a small model and just over sixty on a large one. The big item is your own time: reading conversations and updating knowledge easily takes two hours a month, at 50 euro an hour 100 euro. A chatbot tool adds its own subscription. Start with a small model and switch only when answers really need to be better. What it brings in, work out with the AI cost calculator; the full costs are in AI chatbot cost.
To keep data in Europe, read which chatbot is European; if your team works with ChatGPT, is ChatGPT safe for business. What goes in your policy is in do I need a privacy policy; what a WhatsApp conversation costs, in WhatsApp Business pricing.
ChatGPT on your site, and learning
Can I put ChatGPT on my site as a chatbot?
Not the app itself. You build a chatbot on the models of OpenAI or another provider through their API, or use a tool that does it for you.
Does a chatbot learn by itself?
No. It learns nothing from conversations unless you update its knowledge. That is why you read conversations and fill the gaps where it hesitated.