Short answer: a Telegram bot costs from €300 for a simple autoresponder to €5000 for a bot with payments, CRM and AI. Most businesses land in the €600-2000 range. The price depends on what the bot has to do: answer questions, collect leads, or take payments and write to your CRM.
Setting up the bot itself in Telegram is free - you get it from BotFather in five minutes. You pay for the logic someone has to program into it, and for the fact that the bot then runs 24/7 somewhere.
Below I break it down into concrete ranges, show what usually isn't in the quote, and how much it burns each month.
What the price depends on
Two things push the budget up the most:
Integrations. A bot that just replies with canned messages is cheap. A bot that has to talk to your CRM, calendar, payment gateway or booking system gets pricier with every connected tool. Each integration is separate work: API, authorization, error handling, tests.
Logic and state. A simple bot answers a command and forgets. A bot taking an order has to remember which stage the customer is at, validate data, run the conversation step by step and save the result to a database. That's an application, not a script - and it gets priced as one.
The third factor people underestimate: whether the bot has AI. Plugging in a language model (so the bot understands loose questions, not just rigid commands) adds to the build and creates an ongoing cost for API tokens. More on that in a moment.
Real ranges by bot type
Prices from the market, for a custom build (not a subscription to a ready-made platform):
Simple autoresponder bot - €300-600. Answers commands, sends a menu, FAQ, links, opening hours. No integrations, no database. A few days of work. Good to start with when you just want to take repetitive questions off your inbox.
Bot collecting leads - €600-1500. Walks the customer through a form (name, phone, what they need), validates the data, saves the lead and sends you a notification on Telegram or by email. Sometimes broadcasts to a list. This is the most common scenario for a small business - a bot instead of a form on the site, except the customer never leaves the chat.
Bot with payments and CRM - €1500-3500. The customer orders, pays in the chat (Telegram Payments, Stripe), and the order lands in your CRM or spreadsheet. This is where payment handling, statuses and integrations live. The build usually takes 3-5 weeks.
Bot with AI - €2500-5000+. Understands questions written in plain language, answers from your knowledge base, qualifies a lead, can hand off to a human. On top of the build cost there's the monthly token cost. If you're interested in the AI side specifically, I wrote it up separately in the piece on chatbot and AI agent pricing.
A full overview of prices across all services - from sites to automation - is in the pricing guide for sites, shops and apps for 2026.
What usually isn't in the quote
This is where people get caught out, so I'll say it plainly. The build price usually does not include:
- Hosting and server - the bot has to run non-stop, that's a separate monthly cost.
- Payment gateway - Stripe fees you pay on every transaction, that's not me, that's the provider.
- API costs - if the bot has AI, model tokens run every month based on traffic.
- Later add-ons - a new command, another integration, a logic change is a new quote, not a warranty.
- Accounts on paid tools - if the bot plugs into your CRM on a paid plan, that's your subscription.
Fixing a bug after launch should be included (and with me it is). But "let's also add payments and an admin panel" is a new scope.
How much it burns each month
Telegram takes nothing for the bot itself. The fixed costs are:
Hosting - €5-20/month. The bot is light, it runs fine on a small VPS or in the cloud. A simple bot fits in the cheapest option.
AI costs (if any) - €30-80/month. At 1000+ conversations a month on cheaper models. With heavier traffic or a pricier model - more.
Paid integrations - depends on the tool. If the bot writes to a CRM on a paid plan or uses an external API with a limit, that gets added.
For a simple bot it realistically comes to a few euros a month. For a bot with AI and payments - a few dozen. That's still cheaper than one salary for replying to the same questions.
What I charge
I play open cards. I build a simple autoresponder bot from €300. A lead-collecting bot with database saving and notifications - from €700. A bot with payments or AI - I quote individually, usually from €1800.
Before I start anything, you get a fixed price and scope in writing. No "it took more hours." If you want to add a feature along the way - I tell you the cost and you decide. I give the timeline in weeks too, not "someday."
If the bot has to talk to your CRM or WhatsApp, take a look at the piece on CRM integration with Telegram and WhatsApp - that's where I cover how I wire it up. I describe the service details on the Telegram bots page.
When it pays off, and who should skip it
A Telegram bot pays for itself fast when you have repetitive traffic: the same questions over and over, sign-ups, orders, statuses. Then a €400 autoresponder pays back in a month or two, because you stop losing evenings to replying. A bot with payments pays off when you actually sell in the chat - what counts is the commission on transactions minus what used to slip away without an answer.
Who should skip it? If you get two inquiries a week and handle them by phone - a bot is overkill. If your customers aren't on Telegram (and in some markets a chunk of business runs mainly on WhatsApp), better to start there. A bot makes sense when there's traffic to automate, not the other way around.
Got a specific case? Write to me, I'll quote it firmly - you tell me what the bot should do, you get a price and a timeline.
FAQ
How much does a Telegram bot cost for business? From €300 for a simple autoresponder to €5000 for a bot with payments, CRM and AI. Most businesses land in €600-2000. The price depends mainly on integrations and whether the bot has to remember conversation state and take payments.
Is a Telegram bot free? Setting up a bot with BotFather is free and takes a few minutes. But that's just an empty shell - you pay for the logic someone has to program, and for the hosting that keeps the bot running 24/7. Telegram takes no commission for the bot itself.
How long does it take to build a Telegram bot? A simple autoresponder is a few days. A lead-collecting bot - 1-2 weeks. A bot with payments - 3-5 weeks. A bot with AI - 2-4 weeks depending on the knowledge base. I give the timeline in weeks before the start, together with the price.
What's the difference between a no-code bot and a coded one? A builder (ManyChat, Chatfuel) is a subscription from €15/month, a quick start, but you're limited to what the platform can do and you don't own the logic. A coded bot is a one-time build - your code, any integration, any payment, no permanent subscription beyond hosting.
How much does it cost to maintain a bot per month? Hosting alone is €5-20/month, because the bot is light. If it has AI, add €30-80/month for tokens at 1000+ conversations. Paid integrations (e.g. a CRM on a paid plan) are a separate cost on your side.
Can a Telegram bot take payments? Yes. Through Telegram Payments or an external gateway (Stripe), the customer pays without leaving the chat. This pushes the build price into the €1500-3500 range, because it adds handling of transactions, statuses and integration with the order system.
How soon does a bot pay for itself? A simple bot answering repetitive questions usually pays back in 1-3 months, because you reclaim the time lost on manual replies. A bot with payments pays off faster if it actually generates sales in the chat. Without real traffic to automate, a bot isn't worth it.
