Use Case

AI Chatbot Cost Guide: What Chatbot Infrastructure Actually Costs

The real cost of running an AI chatbot depends on conversation length, model choice, caching strategy, and volume. CostMyAI tracks live pricing across 300+ models so you can build the right cost model before you launch.

Chatbot cost drivers

  • System prompt length: a 2,000-token system prompt counts as input on every request
  • Conversation history: accumulates across turns, doubling or tripling effective input tokens
  • Output length: longer, more detailed responses cost proportionally more
  • Prompt caching: reduces cost of repeated system prompts by up to 90% on Anthropic models
  • Model tier: GPT-4o mini at $0.15/1M input vs GPT-4o at $2.50/1M is a 17x cost difference
Calculate my chatbot costs