Pricing
We do not publish package prices. We publish what moves the price.
A "WhatsApp bot from USD 99" is either a template or a lie. The same words describe a one-sheet price lookup and a five-branch routing system with credit approvals. Below: how we charge, what you pay vendors directly, and the six drivers that decide the number.
How we charge
- 01
Scoping: fixed, small, credited
The scoping document (design phase) is a fixed fee agreed on the first call. If you proceed to the build, it is credited against the build.
- 02
Build: fixed price from the scoping document
One number for the agreed scope. Changes after sign-off are quoted separately, in writing, before they are built.
- 03
Run: monthly, stoppable
A monthly fee for monitoring, tuning and small additions, sized to the build. No lock-in; you keep everything if you stop.
Quotes are issued in USD unless agreed otherwise.
The six drivers
Answer these and you can estimate your own band. The worksheet does it for you.
| Driver | Small | Medium | Larger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channels | WhatsApp only | WhatsApp + one (forms, missed calls) | Three or more, including voice or email |
| Integrations | A sheet or a calendar | A CRM or accounting package with an API | Several systems, one without an API |
| Enquiry types / intents | Up to ~10 | 10–30 | 30+, or open-ended (agent) |
| Approvals and routing | One handover inbox | Routing by branch or rep, one approver | Multi-step approvals with limits |
| Volume | Under 30 enquiries/day | 30–100/day | 100+/day or multi-site |
| Data state | Clean list or nothing yet | Sheet with duplicates | Five phones and a notebook |
Bands describe the shape of the build, not a price list. Two "medium" projects can differ by a factor of two on the number of integrations alone.
What you pay vendors directly (sourced)
These are third-party costs, paid on your own accounts, not through us. We include estimates in every scoping document.
| Item | What it costs | Source |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta) | Per delivered template message since 1 July 2025. Replies inside the 24-hour service window are free; utility templates inside that window are free; marketing templates are charged at the "Rest of Africa" rate, which includes Zimbabwe. Rate card published by Meta. | Meta — pricing updates |
| GoHighLevel (if chosen as CRM) | List price USD 97 (Starter), 297 (Unlimited) or 497 (SaaS Pro) per month; usage fees for SMS, calls, email and AI features on top. | GHL plans and pricing 2026 |
| Voice telephony (Twilio, to Zimbabwe) | USD 0.405/min to landlines, USD 0.8601/min to mobiles; no voice-enabled Zimbabwe numbers offered. | Twilio — Zimbabwe SIP trunking pricing |
| Data-controller licence (POTRAZ) | Tiered annual licence from USD 50 (Tier 1) up to USD 2,500 (Tier 4), plus a data protection officer; valid 12 months. | IFEX — Zimbabwe's data-protection mechanism |
| Automation hosting | Self-hosted n8n: a small cloud server, no per-task fee. Make/Zapier: per-operation plans. Chosen at scoping. | Vendor pricing pages (varies by plan) |
| AI model usage | Per token or per minute of speech, by the provider. Estimated from your volumes in the scoping document. | Provider pricing pages (varies by model) |
Prices checked 14 September 2026. Vendors change them; the scoping document carries the date of each figure.
Want the other side of the equation?
What an automation is worth to you depends on your volumes and margins, not on our price. businessai.co.zw has an ROI calculator built for Zimbabwean SMEs; run it with your numbers, then bring the result to the call.
Next step
Scope it before you book it
Fill in the scoping worksheet (five minutes, no sign-up). It produces a summary you can paste into WhatsApp or email, so the first call starts with the actual work.