# Product recipe: AI chatbot for a website or app (AgentGid)

For a chat assistant inside your product: sign-in, saved history, tools and a model behind it.

Parts were picked from AgentGid's catalog by rules: free tier, official MCP server, use in public projects built with AI agents, downloads, price. Prices are list prices from the official pages (see each card for the check date); confirm before you commit.

## What it costs
- Start: $0 a month on the free tiers of the first picks (their limits apply).
- If you outgrow the free tiers, the lowest paid plans of the first picks are Clerk $25, LangSmith $39, Resend $20 (together about $84/month); usage beyond a plan's credits is billed on top.
- Billed by usage (grows with traffic): OpenRouter, Neon.
- Model, default: fast and cheap: about $0.5 per 1,000 messages with Claude Haiku 5.5 (AgentGid estimate at ~3,000 input + 400 output tokens each).
- Model, harder questions: about $3.75 per 1,000 messages with Gemini 3.8 Flash (AgentGid estimate at ~3,000 input + 400 output tokens each).
- Prices of the picks below were checked on the official pages between 2026-10-09 and 2026-10-20.

## How it fits together
1. Sign the user in and keep their chat history in the database.
2. Send each message with recent history to the model through the gateway; stream the answer back.
3. Give the model tools (search, your API) and log every call.
4. Rate-limit per user and set a spending cap at the gateway.

## LLM gateway (one key, many models)
- OpenRouter: free: 25+ free models, 50 requests/day · usage: Provider list price per token (no markup); fee on credit purchases: 5.5% Standard, 8% Business · official MCP https://mcp.openrouter.ai/mcp · npm @openrouter/sdk · pip openrouter · card https://agentgid.com/apis/openrouter/agent.md
- LiteLLM: free: Open-source gateway free to self-host · pip litellm · card https://agentgid.com/apis/litellm/agent.md
- Also fits: Vercel AI Gateway, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey, Helicone (https://agentgid.com/apis/llm-gateway/)

## Database and backend
- Neon: free: 1 GB storage, 100 CU-hours compute/month per project, 100 projects, 5 GB Object Storage, 1M function invocations · usage: $0.106 per CU-hr (Launch), $0.222 per CU-hr (Scale); $0.35 per GB-month storage; $0.023 per GB-month Object Storage; $0.60 per 1M invocations · official MCP · npm @neondatabase/serverless · card https://agentgid.com/apis/neon/agent.md
- Convex: free: 1M function calls, 0.5GB database storage, 20 GB-hours action compute included · paid from $25/mo · usage: $2.20 per additional 1M function calls, $0.22 per additional GB database storage, $0.33 per additional GB-hour action compute · npm convex · card https://agentgid.com/apis/convex/agent.md
- Also fits: Firebase, Appwrite, Prisma, Backendless (https://agentgid.com/apis/backend-db/)

## Sign-in and accounts
- Clerk: free: Up to 50,000 MRU (monthly retained users) per app · paid from $25/mo · usage: $0.02/mo per MRU (50,001-100,000), $0.018/mo (100,001-1M), $0.015/mo (1M-10M), $0.012/mo (10M+) · npm @clerk/nextjs · card https://agentgid.com/apis/clerk/agent.md
- Stytch: free: 10,000 monthly active users and AI agents; 1,000 M2M tokens · usage: Pay as you go: starting at $0/month, 10,000 MAUs included; fingerprint add-on $.005/fingerprint · official MCP https://stytch.com/docs/resources/workspace-management/stytch-mcp-server · npm stytch · pip stytch · card https://agentgid.com/apis/stytch/agent.md
- Also fits: Descope, Auth0, Keycloak, Ory Network (https://agentgid.com/apis/auth/)

## Traces and evals
- LangSmith: free: Developer plan: 1 seat, up to 5k base traces / mo, then pay-as-you-go · paid from $39/mo · usage: Plus: $39 / seat per month incl. up to 10k base traces / mo; trace overage is pay-as-you-go (rate not listed on pricing page); 1 LSU = $1 (Deployment/Fleet/Sandbox usage) · official MCP https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/langsmith-mcp-server · npm langsmith · pip langsmith · card https://agentgid.com/apis/langsmith/agent.md
- LangWatch: free: Developer plan: 50k events/month, 14-day data access, 2 users, no credit card · usage: Growth: EUR 29 per core-seat/month incl. 200k events, then EUR 5 per 100k events (prices shown in EUR only) · official MCP @langwatch/mcp-server · npm langwatch · pip langwatch · card https://agentgid.com/apis/langwatch/agent.md
- Also fits: W&B Weave, Ragas, Pydantic Logfire, AgentOps (https://agentgid.com/apis/observability/)

## Email
- Resend: free: 3,000 emails/month, 100/day, 3 domains · paid from $20/mo · usage: Pro $20/month for 50,000 emails; extra emails $0.90 per 1,000 · official MCP resend-mcp · npm resend · pip resend · card https://agentgid.com/apis/resend/agent.md
- Also fits: Mailtrap Email API/SMTP, Brevo, Postmark, Elastic Email (https://agentgid.com/apis/email/)

## Model (all of these can call tools; prices per 1M tokens)
- Default: fast and cheap: Claude Haiku 5.5 ($0.1 in / $0.5 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/claude-haiku-5-5/agent.md · or GPT-6 Luna, MiMo V2.6 Flash
- Harder questions: Gemini 3.8 Flash ($0.75 in / $3.75 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/gemini-3-8-flash/agent.md · or Kimi K2.7 Code, DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Hardest work: Kimi K3 ($3 in / $15 out) · https://agentgid.com/models/kimi-k3/agent.md · or Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Fable 5.1

## Or start from a ready platform
- Rasa: free tier · https://agentgid.com/agents/rasa/agent.md
- Chatwoot Captain: free tier, from $19/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/chatwoot-captain/agent.md
- Decagon: see card · https://agentgid.com/agents/decagon/agent.md
- Botpress: free tier, from $150/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/botpress/agent.md

## Libraries
- `npm install ai`: AI SDK (Apache-2.0) · https://agentgid.com/tools/ai/agent.md
- `npm install next`: Next.js (MIT) · https://agentgid.com/tools/next/agent.md
- `pip install langgraph`: LangGraph (MIT) · https://agentgid.com/tools/langgraph/agent.md
- `pip install pydantic-ai`: Pydantic AI (MIT) · https://agentgid.com/tools/pydantic-ai/agent.md

## Agent Skills (read a skill before you install it: skills can run scripts)
- `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill conversational-ux`
- `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill chatbot-flow-design`

## Coding agent to build it
- OpenAI Codex: free tier, from $8/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/openai-codex/agent.md
- Claude Code: from $20/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/claude-code/agent.md
- OpenCode: free tier, from $10/mo · https://agentgid.com/agents/opencode/agent.md

## Also on AgentGid
- SaaS on Next.js kit: https://agentgid.com/build/kits/saas-starter/
- Avatars and placeholders: https://agentgid.com/assets/avatars/
- Icons: https://agentgid.com/assets/icons/

## Before you ship
- Keep API keys on the server, never in the client; set spending limits where the provider offers them.
- Read each service's terms for your use (data retention, commercial use, rate limits).
- Log model calls (traces) and test with your own real inputs before launch.

Recipe page: https://agentgid.com/build/recipes/ai-chatbot/ · all product recipes: https://agentgid.com/build/recipes/agent.md