Pet Grooming Software With AI: Features and Prices Compared

As of September 2026, the grooming platforms with genuine AI features are Teddy ($49 to $199 a month, with a voice assistant for groomers), Groomify ($39 to $139 a month billed annually, with a booking chatbot and a paid AI receptionist from $109) and MoeGo (from $49 a van, with route-optimised scheduling). DaySmart Pet and Gingr list no AI features on their pricing pages.

The word "AI" covers very different things across these products, so the useful comparison is which job each one takes off your hands: answering clients, helping you run the diary, or planning the day. That's how this tutorial is organised, followed by a year's cost for two typical businesses and a trial script you can run before paying.

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Three kinds of AI on grooming software pages

Read the feature lists closely and the "AI" falls into three groups. Knowing which you're looking at stops you paying for the wrong one.

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• Staff-facing assistants. You talk or type to the software ("book Daisy in for a full groom Tuesday afternoon") and it does the admin. Clients never see it. Teddy's Ask Teddy is the clearest example.
• Client-facing chat and phone agents. These answer pet owners directly on your website, by text or on the phone, and can take bookings. Groomify's booking chatbot and AI receptionist add-on sit here, as does Teddy's missed-call handling on its top plan.
• Optimisation features. Route planning for vans and smart waitlists that fill cancellations. These use algorithms rather than chat, and vendors don't always label them AI, but for a mobile groomer they often save the most time.

Features and prices side by side

List prices in USD, checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 27 September 2026. Grooming software changes plans often, so confirm before you sign.

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How each platform's AI behaves in a working day

Teddy: an assistant you talk to mid-groom

Ask Teddy works by voice or text from the groomer's side. You can ask it to move a booking, find the soonest slot for a doodle with a particular groomer, run commission figures or list clients who haven't been in for a while. It shows what it's about to change and waits for your confirmation, which matters when your hands are wet and you're dictating. It won't answer the salon phone unless you're on the $199 Plus plan, where missed-call and after-hours handling is included.

An illustrative exchange, to show where the time goes. Mid-way through a spaniel, the groomer says: "Move Bella's Thursday ten o'clock to Friday, same groomer, and text the owner." The assistant comes back with the change it proposes (Bella, full groom, Friday 9.30 with the same groomer, owner to be notified) and waits for a yes. Two things are worth checking in your trial. First, whether it picked 9.30 because 10.00 was taken, and told you so, rather than silently moving the time. Second, what it does with two clients called Bella. A good test is to create two and see whether it asks which one you mean or guesses.

Groomify: the most client-facing AI of the group

The booking chatbot on every plan lets owners book through your website at any hour. The AI receptionist is a separate subscription billed on minutes, so the real question is how many minutes your phone uses. A salon forwarding only unanswered calls might use a few hundred minutes a month; forwarding every call could use far more. Price the tier from your phone bill's call log, not a guess.

Here is that sum for an illustrative two-groomer salon. The call log shows about 60 inbound calls a week, averaging two and a half minutes, of which roughly 25 go unanswered while both groomers are at the table.

• Forward every call: 60 × 2.5 minutes × 4.3 weeks is about 645 minutes a month. That is past the 450-minute tier, so it lands on the $899 tier for 1,500 minutes, most of which goes unused.
• Forward only unanswered calls: 25 × 2.5 × 4.3 is about 270 minutes a month. That fits the $295 tier with room for a busy December.

Same salon, same phone, roughly $600 a month apart depending on one forwarding setting. Before choosing, ask Groomify what happens when the minutes run out mid-month: whether calls fall back to voicemail, stop, or bill as extra.

MoeGo: strongest on routes and waitlists

For mobile groomers, Smart Schedule's aim is fewer miles between dogs, and the Growth plan adds route reordering and a waitlist that offers freed slots to waiting clients. MoeGo doesn't list an AI phone receptionist on its pricing pages, so if phone answering is your problem you'd pair it with a separate service. Budget for its text caps; a busy van sending reminders, "on my way" texts and rebooking prompts can hit 200 quickly.

Count it before you pick a plan. An illustrative van doing six dogs a day, five days a week, has about 130 appointments a month. If each one gets a reminder the day before, an "on my way" text and a rebooking prompt afterwards, that is around 390 texts, nearly double the 200 on Basic. Growth's 900 covers it with space for two-way replies. Dropping the "on my way" text would bring it to about 260, still over the Basic cap, so for most full-time vans Growth is the real starting price rather than Basic.

DaySmart Pet and Gingr: solid systems, no AI to pay for

Neither lists AI features on its pricing page. That isn't a mark against them. If your main needs are reliable booking, reminders and payments, a system without AI may cost less, and you can add a separate AI receptionist or chatbot later if your call volume justifies it.

Two illustrative businesses show where each fits. A single-groomer salon with a steady book of regulars who rebook at the counter might run DaySmart Pet at its $29 entry price with payments, and never feel the lack of AI, because the phone rings a few times a day and the groomer returns calls at lunch. A business running 20 dogs a day in daycare with one groomer on site is a different case: the daycare side is the heavier admin, and that is what Gingr is built around. For that owner the question to put to Gingr in a demo is whether a dog's daycare notes (feeding, temperament, incidents) show on the groomer's view of the same dog, not whether it has a chatbot.

Checks that matter more to groomers than the AI label

A demo will show you the AI booking a dog in thirty seconds. The questions below show whether it books the right slot. Run each one in the trial account.

1. Duration by breed, size and coat. A shih tzu bath and tidy and a matted double-coated husky are not the same slot. Check that services can carry different durations by size or coat type, and that the chatbot or receptionist asks the questions needed to pick the right one.
2. Matting and de-shedding surcharges. Can the AI tell an owner a price is "from" and depends on coat condition, rather than quoting the base price as final?
3. Vaccination records. Where are certificates stored, does the system warn when one expires before the appointment date, and can it block online booking until an up-to-date record is uploaded? Our tutorial on automating vaccination checks for a grooming salon goes through the workflow.
4. Multi-pet households. Book two dogs for one owner in back-to-back slots with one groomer, and in parallel slots with two. Many booking bots handle one pet per booking only.
5. Temperament and handling notes. A "muzzle for nails" or "senior, needs breaks" note should show on the groomer's view of the booking, and the AI shouldn't book that dog into a slot too short for it.
6. Mobile arrival windows. For vans: does the client get a window rather than a fixed time, and does route optimisation respect clients who can only be home after 3pm?
7. Intake details before the first visit. The best setups collect breed, weight, coat condition, health issues and a photo before the first appointment. See collecting pet details with AI before booking for the questions worth asking.

What a year costs: a one-van groomer and a three-table salon

Two illustrative businesses, using the list prices above. Payment processing fees aren't included because they depend on your card volume and each provider's rates.

A solo mobile groomer, one van, five or six dogs a day

For this groomer the phone is the pain point: every call answered with clippers in hand costs a few minutes and a distracted dog. If more than a handful of new-client calls a week go to voicemail and don't call back, the receptionist option is worth the extra. If existing clients mostly rebook by text, Teddy or MoeGo covers the need for less. Mobile groomers weighing route tools should also read how mobile groomers use AI for routes, reminders and rebooking.

A three-table salon: two groomers, a bather and a part-time front desk

Here the decision hinges on how many calls go unanswered when the desk person isn't in. Pull a month of call logs from your phone provider and count missed calls by hour. If they cluster in the two hours before opening and after the desk leaves, a missed-call and after-hours setup covers them; you don't need a receptionist answering every call. Our explainer on how an AI receptionist handles bookings covers what to expect from each approach.

A 14-day trial script

Teddy and Groomify both advertise 14-day free trials; ask the others what trial or sandbox they offer. Load ten real (anonymised) clients and pets, then run these tests and note pass or fail:

1. New client books a first full groom for a large, matted dog online.
   Does the slot length change? Is a coat-condition question asked?
2. Existing client asks the chatbot or receptionist for "the usual"
   with their regular groomer on a Saturday.
3. Owner books two dogs together; check the diary shows both correctly.
4. A dog's vaccination record expires the day before its booking.
   Does anything warn you or block the booking?
5. Client cancels by text 20 hours before. Is your cancellation policy
   applied and the slot offered to the waitlist?
6. Ask the chatbot a price question for a breed you price "from".
   Does it give a range, or a firm figure you'd have to honour?
7. Ask something it shouldn't answer (a skin condition, a medication).
   Does it refer the owner to their vet and hand over to you?
8. Mobile only: add a client who is only home after 3pm; re-optimise
   the route and check the window is respected.
9. Use the staff assistant by voice with background noise (dryer on).
10. Export all client and pet records. Could you import them elsewhere?

Any failure on tests 1, 4, 6 or 7 is a reason to walk away or to switch that AI feature off, because those are the errors that reach a client or a dog. Failures elsewhere are annoyances you can work around.

Test 6 is the one most often failed, and usually the fix is in your own service descriptions rather than the software. An illustrative first run:

Owner:   How much is a full groom for a cockapoo?
Chatbot: A full groom for a cockapoo is $75. Would you like
         to book?

That $75 is the base price, and the salon charges up to $110 for a matted coat. An owner who books on the strength of that answer and is charged $110 at collection will feel misled. After the service description was rewritten to "Full groom, medium breeds: from $75. Matted or overgrown coats are priced at the table after a coat check, up to $110", the second run read:

Chatbot: A full groom for a cockapoo starts at $75. If the
         coat is matted or overdue, we confirm the price at
         drop-off after a quick coat check (up to $110).
         Is the coat brushed out at the moment?

The follow-up question is the part to look for. If the bot can't be made to ask it, keep price questions out of its hands and have it reply "we'll confirm the price at drop-off" instead.

Picking one without overbuying

Choose on the job that costs you most today. If it's answering the phone mid-groom, price Groomify's receptionist tiers or Teddy Plus against your real missed-call count. If it's driving, MoeGo's route tools or Teddy Core earn their keep first. If the diary works and only reminders and payments need fixing, DaySmart Pet or Gingr without AI is a perfectly sensible choice. Whichever you pick, keep a copy of your full client and pet export from the old system before you cancel it.

Further reads

• How Much Does an AI Receptionist Cost for a Small Business? — What phone-answering AI costs outside grooming software.
• How to Build the FAQ Your AI Chatbot Needs Before Launch — Write the answers a booking chatbot needs before launch.
• Your Software Raised Its Price for AI: Keep, Downgrade or Switch? — What to do when your current system adds AI and raises its price.
• AI Vendor Lock-In: How to Keep Your Data and Prompts Portable — Keep client and pet records portable before you switch.
• How to Set Up an AI Receptionist Without Losing Callers — Go live with call answering without losing callers.
• How to Evaluate an AI Software Vendor: A Small Business Scorecard — A scorecard for judging any software vendor's AI claims.
• How Pet Shops Use AI for Stock, Subscriptions and Advice — Reorder rules for dated and seasonal lines, bag run-out maths for subscriptions, and an advice assistant that knows when to say 'ask your vet'.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: MoeGo pricing pages (mobile and salon), Teddy pricing and product pages, Groomify pricing page, DaySmart Pet pricing page, Gingr pricing page. All checked 27 September 2026.