Chatbot ROI calculator
See what an AI chatbot saves your support team, what it costs, and how fast it pays back. Enter your own volume and costs, test cautious resolution rates, and copy the formulas into a spreadsheet. Free, no sign-up, nothing leaves your browser.
Made by Anatolii Ulitovskyi Updated Fewer tickets for your team
Let an AI agent answer the repeat questions on your website at any hour, and pass the rest to your team with the whole conversation attached.
CRMsoftware.pro puts an AI agent on your website that answers questions in chat and voice from your own help content, hands over to a person when it cannot help, and saves every conversation for your team.
- Answers at night and on weekends
- Hands over to a person with the full chat
- Every conversation saved for your team
Free plan, no credit card. Paid plans from $19/month, billed yearly.
The method
How to calculate chatbot ROI
Count what the bot takes off your team, add any new business it brings in, and compare that with what the bot costs.
Start with the conversations the AI closes on its own: the customer got an answer and no agent had to step in. Each one saves the agent time it would have taken. Multiply those minutes by the fully loaded cost per agent hour, which is pay plus benefits, taxes and overhead, not the salary alone.
Then add what the bot brings in. A website chatbot answers at night and on weekends, so some leads that would have waited until morning, or left, become customers. Count them only if you can track them, and use the profit from a new customer rather than the revenue.
On the cost side, include the plan price, any fee per AI resolution and the one-time setup work. First-year cost is twelve months of the chatbot plus setup; ROI compares it with twelve months of gains. Payback shows how many months of net benefit it takes to cover the setup.
200 hours a month
2,000 × 6 ÷ 60 = 200 h
5,000 conversations, 40% closed by AI, 6 minutes each. At $30 an hour that is $6,000 of agent cost.
$6,301 a month
$6,000 + $1,500 − $1,199 = $6,301
60 after-hours leads × 10% × $250 add $1,500. The bot costs $199 + 2,000 × $0.50.
466%
($90,000 − $15,888) ÷ $15,888 = 466%
First-year cost is 12 × $1,199 + $1,500 of setup. The setup is paid back in about 7 days.
Inputs
Where to find each number
Take the numbers from your help desk, chatbot reports and payroll. Use the reference points only until you have your own.
| Input | Where to find it | Reference point |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations per month | Help desk or live chat reports for the channels the bot will cover | Your own data |
| AI resolution rate | The bot's reports: conversations closed with no handover to an agent | Intercom says its Fin AI agent averages 76% across 12,000+ customers (vendor figure) |
| Minutes per conversation | Average handle time in your help desk | Measure your own; it depends on your product |
| Cost per agent hour | Payroll; if you only know the hourly wage, divide it by 0.70 | US customer service representatives earned a median $21.53 an hour in 2025 (BLS). Wages are 70% of private-sector employer costs (BLS, June 2026), so about $30.76 fully loaded |
| Plan price and fee per resolution | The vendor's pricing page | Intercom lists Fin from $0.99 per Fin outcome |
| After-hours leads | Chats and forms that arrive outside office hours | Our After-Hours Lead Calculator estimates them |
A vendor's average describes its own customers, who chose the product and set it up with care. Replace it with your trial numbers as soon as you have them.
Resolution rate
What AI resolution rate to plan for
The rate drives most of the result, so test a cautious one first.
An AI resolution is a conversation the AI closes on its own: the customer gets the answer, no agent joins, and the same question does not come back by email or phone. A conversation the bot starts and then hands to a person does not count, even if the bot collected useful details first.
Vendor figures are high: Intercom reports a 76% average for Fin. Self-service in general has a weaker record: in a 2019 Gartner survey, only 9% of customers said they had solved their issue completely through self-service. Your rate depends on how many questions repeat and how complete your help content is.
The table under the result shows ROI at 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%. If the bot pays off at the low end, the decision is easy. If it only works at 80%, run a trial before you commit, and look at the break-even rate: the share of conversations the AI must close just to cover the plan.
Spreadsheets
Chatbot ROI formulas for Excel and Google Sheets
Conversations in B2, AI resolution rate in C2, minutes per conversation in D2, cost per agent hour in E2, plan price in F2, fee per resolution in G2, setup cost in H2.
Net monthly benefit
To count after-hours leads, add +I2*J2*K2: leads in I2, share that become customers in J2, value of a customer in K2.
First-year ROI
Payback in months
Break-even resolution rate
The share of conversations the AI must close to cover the plan price, without counting leads.
FAQ
Chatbot ROI questions
How do you calculate chatbot ROI?
Take a year of gains (agent cost saved plus any new revenue), subtract a year of chatbot costs including setup, and divide by those costs. In the example, ($90,000 − $15,888) ÷ $15,888 = 466%.
What AI resolution rate is realistic?
It depends on how many of your questions repeat and how complete your help content is. Intercom reports a 76% average for its Fin AI agent; plan with a lower number until your own trial shows the real rate.
What is the difference between resolution and containment?
Containment counts conversations that never reached an agent, including customers who gave up. A resolution means the question was answered. Use resolutions for ROI, or the savings look bigger than they are.
Why don't the savings show up in the budget right away?
Saved agent hours are capacity. They turn into money when you hire fewer people, cut overtime or outsourcing, or move agents to other work.
Should I count after-hours leads?
Only if you can track them, for example with a CRM field for leads the bot captured. Use the profit from a new customer, not the revenue, and leave the fields empty if you are not sure.
What does an AI resolution cost?
Divide the monthly bill by the AI resolutions. With a $199 plan and $0.50 per resolution, 2,000 resolutions cost $1,199, about $0.60 each, against $3.00 of agent time per conversation.
Does the calculator store my data?
No. Everything runs in your browser. The share link keeps your numbers in the address after the # sign, which is not sent to our server.
References
Sources
- Fin average resolution rate: Intercom, Fin AI Agent (fin.ai), checked October 25, 2026
- Fin price per outcome: Intercom, Pricing, checked October 25, 2026
- Median pay of customer service representatives: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Customer Service Representatives
- Wages as a share of employer costs: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $46.89 per hour worked in June 2026", The Economics Daily, September 17, 2026
- Self-service resolution: Gartner, "Gartner Says Only 9% of Customers Report Solving Their Issues Completely via Self-Service", September 25, 2019
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