# AI customer service chatbot cost — trained on your company's own data

> Published prices for an AI chatbot that answers with your prices, policies and FAQs. From website consultation to lead capture — SaaS from ₩700K + ₩490K/mo. How to build a chatbot that doesn't make things up.

- Published: 2026-08-24 · Category: AI · Automation
- Canonical (HTML): https://maeum.io/en/blog/customer-chatbot-cost/ · Korean original: https://maeum.io/blog/customer-chatbot-cost/
- Author: MAEUM — an AI engineering company that publishes its prices · https://maeum.io

Whether an AI chatbot works depends not on the model but on **a design that makes it say only your company's facts**. MAEUM organizes your prices, policies and FAQs into a knowledge base, builds a **chatbot that doesn't make things up**, and connects the conversation to lead capture and booking — **SaaS (managed) = build from ₩700K + ₩490K/mo** (AI running costs included), **SI (ownership) = from ₩2.5M**. The consultation chatbot on our own site is built the same way and runs in production.

## Chatbots fail for one reason

A customer asks about pricing and the chatbot hedges — or worse, **invents a policy that doesn't exist**. That chatbot is now a device for losing trust. The cause is almost always the same: the company's facts (prices, terms, process) weren't organized, and a model was bolted on anyway.
So half of our build isn't AI at all — it's **knowledge organization**. We design the boundary: what it answers, and what it hands off with "we'll confirm by email."

## Build scope — from answers to lead capture

- **Knowledge base design** — prices, policies, FAQs and processes organized into a form the chatbot can cite.
- **Fact-only rules** — a rule layer in the prompt: don't invent; hand unknowns off to an inquiry.
- **Consultation → conversion** — when the conversation matures, it flows naturally into booking, intake or a quote. Every conversation is logged.
- **Operations dashboard** — what people ask and where they get stuck accumulates as real question data. That becomes raw material for improving your offer.
For very high AI usage, we can connect your own API key (BYOK) so you control AI costs directly.

## Cost — from the price list

The **₩250K** scoping pass (5 sessions) looks at your most common questions and consultation flow to set the scope. A website consultation chatbot is typically **₩490K/mo (Light)**; connecting intake, booking and customer management is **₩990K/mo (Standard)**. Start the build after one scoping session and ₩200K comes off. VAT excluded.
The monthly fee includes baseline AI running costs and continuous improvement — tuning answer quality against real conversation logs is part of operating it.

## MAEUM list prices (VAT excluded · starting prices · final price confirmed after scoping)

- Scoping pass (5 sessions): ₩250K (up to 90 min each, working demo included)
- SaaS · managed (recommended): build from ₩700K + ₩490K / ₩990K / ₩1.49M/mo — servers, AI, improvements, new features and a monthly report included; no per-seat pricing
- SI · ownership: build from ₩2.5M (full build from ₩7M+) — no monthly fee afterwards; care passes when needed
- KRW is authoritative (USD ≈ at ~₩1,400/$). SEO and AI-search visibility work included free. The demo is free.
- Machine-readable prices: https://maeum.io/facts.json · Rate card: https://maeum.io/rates.json

## Frequently asked questions

**Q. We don't have documentation — can you still do it?**
A. Yes. We start by extracting your most common questions together during scoping and drafting the knowledge base. Even if your material is scattered, organizing it is part of the build.

**Q. What if the chatbot gives a wrong answer?**
A. Fact-only rules (answer only from organized knowledge; hand off unknowns to an inquiry) are built into the design layer, every conversation is logged, and we keep correcting during operation. On SaaS, that correction is included in the monthly fee.

**Q. Can it connect to messaging channels?**
A. Integration specs differ by channel and platform, so we confirm during scoping. A website widget has the fewest constraints and is what we recommend by default.

**Q. Won't AI costs run high?**
A. Baseline AI running costs within your plan are included in the monthly fee. For unusually high usage, you can connect your own key (BYOK) to control costs directly, and we discuss that with you in advance.

**Q. Can it hand off to a human?**
A. Yes. Inquiries the chatbot can't resolve collect contact details and go into an inquiry queue, with a notification to the person responsible.

## Related guides

- [Outsourcing Workflow Automation — 7 Criteria for Choosing a Vendor](https://maeum.io/en/blog/work-automation-outsourcing/)
- [Web App Development Cost 2026 — From a Company That Publishes Its Prices](https://maeum.io/en/blog/webapp-development-cost/)
- [Custom CRM Development Cost — How It Differs From Per-Seat SaaS](https://maeum.io/en/blog/crm-custom-build-cost/)

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MAEUM · Free demo: https://maeum.io/en/start/ · Pricing: https://maeum.io/en/price/ · Contact: support@maeum.io