Guides · Kyle · St. Thomas and Area

AI agents for small business in Canada (2026)

Prices checked 20 Oct 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page. Prices exclude HST. Figures are as of Oct 2026.

Updated 20 Oct 2026.

An AI agent is a chat tool that can take a next step, not only write the answer. It can open a page, draft an email, or book a time. It still stalls and finishes the wrong task. Check every result for the first month.

This page is a general list for a small business in Canada. It is not your plan, and it is not legal advice. Prices are from vendor pages on 20 Oct 2026. US-dollar estimates use the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4097 on 19 Oct 2026. The Bank calls that rate indicative. A card may add a foreign exchange fee. Prices exclude tax.

Agents inside a plan you may already pay for

Chat-plan prices are in ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini. Microsoft seats are in Copilot and Microsoft 365.

ChatGPT Work replaced ChatGPT agent. OpenAI’s help page says agent mode is no longer available. Work is included on Plus and up. Free and Go get a limited version, desktop only. Event-triggered tasks need Plus or higher. chatgpt.com/pricing showed no dollar amounts on 20 Oct 2026, so I am not printing a ChatGPT price.

Claude Cowork is on paid plans only. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month when $200 is billed up front. Max starts at $100. Those amounts are not marked CAD. If they are US dollars, that is about C$28.19, about C$23.96, and about C$140.97, before tax and a card fee. Since 6 Oct 2026, Pro and Max sessions run in Anthropic’s cloud. There is no local-only option. Folders are reached only while the desktop app is open. Training on Free, Pro, and Max is opt-out. Turn it off before a client file is in reach.

Gemini Agent Mode and Tasks sit on Google’s Canadian plans: AI Plus C$6.99, AI Pro C$26.99, Ultra C$139.99 or C$279.99. They are Ultra-first and only in select countries. I cannot confirm Canada. Do not plan on them until they open for your account.

Copilot Cowork, Autopilot, and Code are usage-billed with Copilot Credits, on top of the licence. Business Standard with Copilot is CAD $31.90 per user a month on annual billing. Business Premium with Copilot is CAD $43.40. The Copilot Business add-on is CAD $24.43 for the first year, through 31 Dec 2026, then CAD $28.50. Set a spend cap in Cost Management before you turn the metered tools on.

No-code builders

Zapier Agents. Free is 400 activities a month, 10 per run. Pro is about US$33.33 a month on annual billing, about C$46.99, with 1,500 activities and 40 per run. That meter is separate from Zap tasks. Zapier asks before a run passes the cap. Add your own approval before anything reaches a customer.

Make AI Agents are on every plan. Free is 1,000 credits. Core is US$9 a month, about C$12.69. Pro is US$16. Teams is US$29. Those plan prices are from 17 Oct 2026. I do not have a verified credit cost per agent run, so the sticker is not the whole bill. Make can show each decision and can wait for approval.

Lindy. Team is US$49.99 per active user a month, about C$70.47, with 5,000 credits. More credits are US$10 per 1,000. A trial is US$50 of credits for 7 days. Lindy says sending an email or posting waits for approval, and that your data is not used for training. The training line is Lindy’s own claim. Every active user is billed, and one job can use from 2 to 2,500 credits.

Phone agents

Inbound calls only. I do not suggest outbound AI calling.

Goodcall Starter is $79 a month for 100 unique callers, Growth $129, Scale $299. The page does not name the currency, so there is no Canadian estimate.

Rosie Professional is US$49 a month for 250 minutes, about C$69.08. Scale is US$149. Growth is US$299.

Smith.ai is described as 25 calls free, then $3 a call, and Pro at $150. I did not re-read that page in full on 20 Oct 2026, and the currency was not settled, so confirm it before you budget.

Tell the caller it is an AI, and say if the call is recorded. Run 20 real calls first. Wrong hours and prices are the usual miss.

Open source, for technical owners only

Hermes Agent (Nous Research) is free software on your own machine or server. It is not Nous’s Hermes models, and it is not the Hermès brand. Optional Nous Portal credits are Plus US$20 (about C$28.19), Super US$100, and Ultra US$200, or you bring a key. You secure it. The cost is the model, the hosting, and your time.

OpenClaw (OpenClaw Foundation) is free, with no subscription and no hosted tier. You pay for the model and the hardware. Its own docs warn about prompt injection, instances left open on the internet, and skills or plugins you did not write. Tools run on the host unless you sandbox them. This is not for a non-technical owner, and it is not a place for customer files.

Meta Muse

Muse is Meta’s personal AI agent. It runs on its own computer in Meta’s cloud, with a browser, so it can fill in forms, book things, draft email, and keep working after you close the app. It launched in the US on 8 September 2026 and in Canada on 18 September, according to the Canadian outlets Mon Carnet and iPhone in Canada. Meta’s own subscription help page still describes Muse as in limited testing, so check that it opens for you before you plan around it. You can use it in the Muse app on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac, at muse.ai, or in a WhatsApp chat.

The free tier is the reason to look. Mark Zuckerberg said Muse is free for up to 100 million tokens a week, and Meta says the free plan covers most of what people need. Meta lists two paid plans in US dollars: Power at US$20 a month, about C$28.19, and Maximum at US$100 a month, about C$140.97, before tax and card fees. I did not see a Canadian-dollar price on Meta’s pages.

Muse asks before it sends an email or buys something. It connects to Gmail, Google Calendar, Shop Pay, Stripe’s Link, and other services, and to your Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts automatically if they share an Accounts Center. Meta says your Muse conversations are not shared with its ad systems. Using your chats to train Meta’s AI is on by default. Turn it off under Settings, then Data controls, then “Help improve our AI models.”

For a business, Meta announced Muse for Small Business on 29 September. It links to Facebook Pages, Instagram analytics, Meta ad accounts, Shopify, QuickBooks, Canva, and more. It is free with usage limits. I could not find the paid prices. It suits owners whose marketing already lives on Facebook and Instagram. Keep it away from client files, health information, and bank logins. On 20 October, RBC’s CEO said the bank is considering blocking Muse from customer information.

Grok Bot

Disclosure first: KRBY SI uses Grok Bot for its own research, so weigh this section with that in mind.

Grok Bot gives you named AI “Bots” that work on a cloud computer with a browser, files, and a terminal. They use connected apps where they can and click through websites where they cannot. They can run tasks on a schedule, remember the job you gave them, and keep going while your laptop is closed. There is a desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and a phone companion app. A Bot can also have its own email address, and it drafts replies for you to approve before anything is sent.

There is no free Grok Bot. It is part of The X Subscription from the Premium plan up: US$30 a month (about C$42.29) or US$300 a year. Super is US$100 and Ultra is US$200. The US$8 Plus plan does not include Grok Bot. Premium also includes Grok, Cursor, and X Premium benefits, and all of them draw on one weekly usage allowance. I did not see a Canadian-dollar price.

On privacy, Grok Bot uses your Cursor account’s data settings, and opting out of training follows those settings. All your Bots share one computer, so anything you sign into there is open to every Bot. Grok Bot hands logins, two-step codes, and payments back to you.

It fits people who are comfortable setting up apps and want an agent for multi-step work, including code. If you mostly want errands done for free, Muse is the easier place to start. Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work are fair alternatives at a similar price.

How to pick

Little or none. Skip agents, or use a done-for-you option.

Some setup. A no-code agent, with an approval step and a spend cap. Nothing goes to a customer, and nothing moves money, until you approve it.

Technical. A full workflow is reasonable, including a self-hosted agent if you can secure the machine. Approval still comes before anything goes to a customer or moves money. Prefer an agent when the job is messy and repeats more than twice a week. A fixed template is cheaper when the steps do not change.

Privacy, prompt injection, and tools that close

An agent on the inbox or the browser sees what is open there. Client files belong on a plan that does not train by default. Do not give an agent a bank, CRA, or payroll login. PIPEDA covers a lot of Canadian businesses. This is a flag, not a legal opinion.

Prompt injection is a page or an email with hidden instructions for the agent. Keep an agent that reads outside content away from send and pay.

Relay.app closed in September 2026 and deleted accounts. ChatGPT agent mode was retired. Pay monthly until a tool has lasted a real month, and set a spend cap when you connect it.

What the paid PDF adds

Wording and setup steps for your own week stay in the paid PDF.

Where these prices came from

Checked on 20 Oct 2026, unless a line above names an earlier day: