How do you calculate chatbot ROI?

Short answer

Chatbot ROI is the value a chatbot brings in compared with what it costs. You work it out as the value gained, minus the cost, divided by the cost, where the value is usually staff time saved plus extra leads, bookings or sales.

Also called: chatbot return on investment, AI chatbot ROI, AI agent ROI.

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The formula in plain words

ROI is the value gained minus the cost, divided by the cost. The value is usually two things: time your team no longer spends answering the same questions, and revenue from leads and bookings that came in through the chat.

The cost is everything you pay: the plan, plus any seats, add-ons or overage, plus the hours it takes to set up the agent and keep its knowledge current.

A worked example

A physiotherapy clinic gets 400 chat questions a month. The agent answers 300 on its own, and each would have taken a receptionist about 3 minutes, so that's 15 hours saved. At €25 an hour, that's €375. The agent also books 4 extra intake appointments worth €60 each, so €240. Total value: €615.

The cost is €89 for the plan plus 2 hours of upkeep at €25, so €139. ROI is 615 minus 139, divided by 139: about 3.4, or 340%. These numbers are an example; use your own.

Measuring it in SimplyBoost

Performance shows how many conversations and messages the agent handled, how many were resolved, how fast it answers, the leads it captured and the questions it could not answer. Those are the inputs for the formula.

Because the price is flat, the cost side stays the same as volume grows within your allowance, so a busier month raises the return instead of the bill.

Questions people ask

What should I count as value?

Time saved on repeat questions, plus leads, bookings and sales that came through the chat. Count only what you can trace, so the number holds up when someone asks.

How many questions does an AI agent need to answer to pay for itself?

Divide the plan price by the value of one answered question. At €25 an hour and 3 minutes a question, each answer is worth €1.25, so an €89 plan is covered by about 72 answered questions a month.

Should I include setup time in the cost?

Yes. Count the hours to add your knowledge and test the agent, and the time each month spent filling in missing answers. Leaving it out makes the ROI look better than it is.

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