How much does an AI assistant cost for a Belgian SME's website?

What are the public prices of AI assistants on 30/10/2026?

Self-service AI assistant tools show entry plans at the prices below, in dollars and excluding tax. These are the public rates checked on 30/10/2026, with their billing unit:

These subscriptions give access to tools: the documents, settings, tests and follow-up are still yours to organize. The table is there to compare price structures, not to pick the cheapest automatically. A conversation, a credit and an outcome do not mean the same thing. Prices in dollars are not a quote in euros either.

Vendors change their price lists regularly. Before any decision, open each tool's pricing page, note the date and keep a copy of the plan you choose. The detailed comparisons cover these tools one by one, with their strengths.

What makes up the real cost of an AI assistant?

The real cost adds up five items: the subscription, AI usage, the set-up, the team's time and any connections to your tools. Pricing pages mostly show the first two. The other three often weigh as much in the first year.

AI usage: understanding what is counted

Behind every answer, a language model reads the question, the passages from your documents and the instructions, then writes a text. Model providers bill this work in tokens, fragments of words. Tools for SMEs turn this technical cost into more readable units: a conversation, a message credit or a resolution.

Each unit has its pitfalls. A conversation can count one message or thirty. A credit can be worth one answer with a simple model and several with a more powerful one. A resolution depends on the vendor's definition: a conversation closed without handover, a customer who does not come back within a set time, or explicit confirmation. Ask for the exact definition in writing.

The team's time, the item most often forgotten

A document-based assistant answers from what you give it. It therefore takes time to gather documents, remove outdated versions, write missing answers and review the first conversations. For an SME, this time is counted in hours rather than days if the scope is limited, but it never disappears entirely: every change of rate or procedure calls for an update.

Put this time in your budget, even roughly. A low-cost plan that leaves you all the preparation and review work can cost more over a year than a higher plan that includes it.

What makes the bill of an AI assistant vary?

The bill varies mostly with the billing method, the volume of requests and the time spent preparing and then maintaining the assistant.

• The billing method: per agent, per conversation, per credit or per resolution, it determines what increases when activity grows
• The volume: a busy period can consume more automated answers, even if the team stays the same size
• The preparation time: gathering, sorting and reviewing documents can take more work than setting up the tool

Also ask what happens when the chosen plan is no longer enough: blocking, extra purchase or a change of subscription. Check the exact meaning of "resolution" and how reopened requests are handled. A pricing model you can understand lets the person in charge of the budget explain an increase without examining every exchange.

The five billing models compared

No model is better in absolute terms. A business with very seasonal volume may prefer a flat fee to smooth its budget. A business that receives few questions but wants many colleagues in the tool will avoid per-seat billing.

An illustrative calculation over a year

Take a fictitious SME that receives 400 conversations a month on its website, with two people taking over the requests passed on. Suppose the assistant settles 60% of conversations on its own, so 240 a month. The calculation below applies the public prices checked on 30/10/2026, excluding tax; it is there to understand the mechanics, not to predict your bill.

• With per-seat and per-outcome billing (Intercom Essential and Fin): 2 seats at 29 USD, plus 240 outcomes at 0.99 USD, about 296 USD a month and about 3,550 USD a year
• With credit billing (Chatbase): 400 conversations of a few messages each go beyond the 700 credits of the Hobby plan; the Basic plan at 150 USD for 4,000 credits becomes necessary, so 1,800 USD a year, or 1,440 USD billed yearly, not counting any extra agents or add-ons
• With a flat fee: the monthly price stays the same as long as the included volume is not exceeded; check that volume and the price of the next tier

This calculation includes neither set-up, nor team time, nor connections. It mainly shows that the same activity can produce very different bills depending on the unit used, and that a busy month changes the bill of a usage-based model more than that of a flat fee.

What does the price of an accompanied set-up include?

An accompanied set-up covers content preparation, settings, testing and organizing the follow-up, within the agreed scope. The provider prepares the knowledge base with you and tests the assistant on your real cases. The price then includes an upfront amount and a subscription whose content must be explicit.

The quote should state who removes old terms, who approves the answers and who handles unanswered questions. Hosting and AI usage may be included or billed separately. The monthly review also deserves a definition: spotting gaps, suggesting corrections and having new information approved by your team.

A sales document loaded into the assistant does not automatically become a reliable procedure. If your colleagues interpret a condition differently, that condition must be clarified first. This work produces a reference that is as useful to the team as to the assistant.

The steps of a set-up, and what they cost in time

A serious set-up usually follows these steps, whatever the provider:

1. An audit of the questions received, the existing documents and the team's tools
2. Sorting the documents: what can be published, what is current, what is missing
3. Writing the instructions: the assistant's role, tone, topics it does not cover, moments when it hands over
4. Testing on a list of real questions, with the expected answer written down in advance
5. Going live on the website, with visitors told that they are talking to an AI
6. The first month of follow-up: reviewing conversations, correcting, completing

Your team is involved mostly in steps 2, 4 and 6. Plan for one person available for a few hours during the first two weeks, then a regular review.

Build your own assistant or use a platform?

Building a custom assistant with direct access to a language model is possible, but the price of the model is only a small part of the work. You have to build document search, the conversation interface, handover to the team, data retention and deletion, logs, security and updates when providers change their models.

The models themselves change quickly. Providers release new versions several times a year and retire old ones on a schedule they set alone. An in-house build has to follow these changes, rerun the tests and sometimes adapt the instructions, because two models do not react in the same way to the same instruction. This monitoring and testing work repeats for as long as the assistant stays online.

For an SME, this route is rarely justified unless the assistant is part of the product being sold. A platform shares that work across several customers. The useful question then becomes: does the platform let you take back your content and conversations if you leave? Ask before signing.

Is a free AI assistant enough for an SME?

A free plan can be used to test a limited need, but its value depends on its limits and on the work your team can take on. As checked on 30/10/2026, Tidio offers 50 billable conversations a month for free and Crisp a free plan without AI; Chatbase has replaced its free plan with a 7-day trial. These offers do not necessarily give access to the same features.

For a trial, use a frequent request and documents that have already been approved. Check whether the answer cites the right passage, whether the team can take over the conversation and whether the visitor understands the limits of the service. The comparison with Chatbase helps you look at the differences between an assistant fed with documents and a broader handling of conversations.

The human cost counts from the trial onwards: who watches for mistakes, answers the requests passed on and updates the information? A free plan can work if these tasks already have an owner.

How do you compare quotes without mixing up their scopes?

Compare quotes on the same customer journey, from the first question to its handling by the team. Ask for a written answer to this list before choosing:

• Content: which documents are taken in, cleaned and approved before publication?
• Languages: are answers in French, Dutch and English tested?
• Team: which accesses and which inbox are included?
• Usage: which unit is billed and what happens beyond the plan?
• Follow-up: who reviews conversations and corrects incomplete answers?
• Data: where is it hosted, how long is it kept and who can access it?
• Exit: how do you get back your content and the useful conversations?

If customer relations are your priority, the comparison with Intercom lets you look in particular at the cost per seat and the per-outcome billing of the AI. Keep immediate needs and merely desirable features apart: a connection to an internal tool can wait if no one yet knows what information to pass to it.

Which Belgian points should you check?

Several administrative points weigh on a Belgian SME's budget, beyond the price shown:

• VAT: the standard Belgian rate is 21%. For a service bought from a supplier based outside Belgium, VAT is often reverse-charged by the customer business; your accountant will confirm the exact treatment
• Currency: many tools bill in dollars. The amount in euros varies with the exchange rate and the fees of the bank or the card
• Languages: an SME serving Brussels or several regions receives questions in French, Dutch and often English. Check that the plan covers these languages at no extra cost and that answers are tested in each one
• Hosting and the GDPR: hosting in Europe simplifies documenting your processing; a supplier outside the Union calls for a review of data transfers. Our article on AI assistants and the GDPR covers these points
• Regional support: schemes such as the kmo-portefeuille in Flanders or the chèques-entreprises in Wallonia may, depending on their current conditions, support part of the guidance or consulting. Their rules change: check eligibility with the regional body before counting on them

Which costs should a Belgian SME expect?

The costs to expect depend on the requests entrusted to the assistant and on the quality of the available documents. The following situations are fictitious examples of Belgian SMEs, not customer references.

A plumber in Namur wants to explain their service area and collect call-out requests. They need to prepare their travel conditions and a procedure for urgent requests. The assistant can gather the useful information; confirming availability remains the team's job if no up-to-date schedule is accessible.

A Brussels property manager receives questions about service charges, documents and common areas. The work is mostly about separating general information from private files. An accounting firm in Liège, for its part, has to tell instructions for submitting documents apart from advice that requires reviewing a file. In these examples, counting messages alone hides part of the preparation work.

How do you know whether the subscription brings real value?

The subscription brings visible value when visitors get answers they can check and the team handles the requests that reach it better. Before launch, note the repetitive questions, the information that is often missing and the reasons for call-backs. After launch, use the same categories to compare the quality of the service.

A quick answer that creates an extra complaint is not a gain. A well-prepared handover can, on the other hand, be useful even if the assistant did not resolve the request. The human handover method should therefore be part of the evaluation.

A simple estimate of time saved

To estimate value, start from your own figures and keep the calculation modest. Count the number of repetitive questions received each month, estimate the average time to answer them, then apply the share the assistant actually settles, measured by the resolution rate after a month.

Fictitious example: 200 repetitive questions a month, 5 minutes each, about 17 hours. If the assistant settles half of them, the team gets back about 8 hours a month, minus the review time. Add the less visible value: requests arriving in the evening that would otherwise have been lost, and requests passed on with all the information, which saves a call-back.

What the status quo costs

The cost of an assistant should also be compared with the cost of the current situation. It is often invisible because it is spread over several people: a colleague answering the same e-mails every morning, a manager calling back prospects who have meanwhile gone to a competitor, a request received on Saturday and handled on Tuesday. Before deciding, note for two weeks the questions received outside opening hours and those that need a call-back to obtain missing information. These two figures are often enough to size the stakes, with no complex calculation.

Flat fee or pay as you go: which suits your activity?

The right model depends on the rhythm of your requests more than on their average number. Three profiles come up often:

• A steady activity: an accounting firm or a property manager receives roughly the same volume every month, with predictable peaks (tax deadlines, service charge statements). Usage-based billing stays readable, but a flat fee makes the annual budget easier
• A seasonal activity: a heating installer receives many requests in autumn, a shop in December, a coliving house at the start of the academic year. Usage-based billing follows these peaks and can double the bill in a busy month; a flat fee with enough included volume smooths the spending
• An activity that is starting: a business launching a service does not yet know its volume. A usage-based entry plan limits the risk at first, provided you watch consumption from the first month

In every case, ask for the monthly usage report and set an alert. A rising bill should be explained by activity, not by a conversation running in a loop or a change in the definition of the billed unit.

Which contract clauses should you read before signing?

The price shown says nothing about the conditions that come with it. Check these points in the contract or the terms and conditions:

• The commitment period: monthly or yearly, with or without automatic renewal, and the notice to cancel
• Price changes: annual indexation, the vendor's right to change its price list, notice period
• The included volume and overage: what happens beyond it, and at what price
• Ownership of content: your documents, instructions and conversations must remain yours and be exportable
• The data processor: a data processing agreement compliant with the GDPR must be available and list the sub-processors
• Availability and support: response time in case of an outage, support language, a named contact

A clear offer answers these questions on one page. If the answers are scattered across several documents, ask for a written summary before committing.

The most common budgeting mistakes

• Comparing monthly prices without looking at the unit. A low entry price can hide a usage bill that doubles in a busy month
• Forgetting the seats. If three people must be able to take over a conversation, the per-seat price is multiplied by three
• Ignoring the exit. A tool that does not let you export your content and conversations makes switching expensive
• Underestimating preparation. Contradictory documents cost more in corrections than in set-up
• Paying for unused features. Advanced connections bring nothing as long as the basic scope does not work

Where do you start to get a suitable budget?

Start with a one-hour audit to define the questions, the documents and the team's role. Bring representative requests and your current terms to make the estimate concrete.

KernChat, KERN-IT's Belgian platform in Brussels, starts with this audit: set-up from 1 500 € excl. VAT and subscription from 100 € excl. VAT a month, with AI usage, hosting in Europe and a monthly review included, no credits. The set-up method shows how this support unfolds.