Benchmark
Free AI chatbot plans, normalized to conversations/month.
Rows sort alphabetically A-Z by product name. A check in Free tier means recurring free AI use, not only a trial or one-time starter amount.
Main table criteria
Hosted website chat. Self-serve signup. Public free plan. Recurring AI allowance. Clear enough free usage data to compare, or a viable hosted free plan marked not comparable.
Below-table criteria
One-time or trial AI allowance, beta or unclear availability, unclear counted unit, not primarily website chat, or product flow too unclear to verify.
Calculation notes
AI chats means estimated visitor conversations where the AI sends 5-10 replies. An asterisk links to the row-specific calculation.
- Stand Chat
- 15 chats/week converts to about 65/month using 15 x 52 / 12. Stand counts full visitor conversations, not message bubbles.
- Chatbase
- 50 monthly message credits converts to at most 5-10 conversations/month using the one-credit-per-response minimum and the 5-10 AI replies per conversation standard. Models that use more credits per response yield fewer conversations.
- tawk.to
- tawk.to AI Assist Hobby is free and includes 100 monthly message credits. Each AI Assist message deducts 1 credit. That converts to 10-20 conversations/month using the 5-10 AI replies per conversation standard.
- Docuyond
- 200 monthly AI replies converts to 20-40 conversations/month using the 5-10 AI replies per conversation standard. The pricing page labels the listed prices as early-adopter pricing.
- Botpress
- Botpress combines incoming message/event limits with a monthly dollar AI budget. Bot replies do not count as incoming events, but AI work consumes the monthly $5 AI token credit. The pricing page does not provide enough information to convert this into a reliable conversation count.
- Elfsight
- Elfsight is the only product in this benchmark with a separate published widget-load cap. Its 50-message allowance gives a message-based ceiling of about 5-10 conversations, but Free also allows only 200 widget loads/month—fewer than 7 per day in a 30-day month. Each widget-bearing page load counts even if nobody opens chat, so the traffic limit can bind first.
- HelpJet
- HelpJet lists 100 monthly interactions. The public pricing page does not define interaction, but in-app usage describes customer-chat interactions as bot replies and account testing counted six bot replies as six interactions. That converts to 10-20 conversations/month using the 5-10 AI replies per conversation standard.
Checked but excluded
Products checked but not used in the main ranking.
These products were checked but kept out of the main table because the free AI allowance is one-time, trial-like, beta, or not defined clearly enough to convert to monthly conversations.
Method
A provider's free number is only useful after you know what gets counted. Some products count whole conversations. Some count AI replies. Some count visitor messages. Some use credits or dollar budgets.
The table above normalizes every product to included free AI chats per month where the pricing page makes that possible.
Products are omitted if the hosted bot or self-serve signup flow could not be verified during review.
Conversion standard: one useful website conversation usually takes 5-10 AI-generated replies. When a product counts messages instead of conversations, this page converts the free allowance to a conversation range by dividing the monthly message allowance by 10 and 5.
Message limits
Why message limits are hard to compare.
Some products count AI messages. Some count visitor messages. Some count conversations or resolutions. Some count credits or dollars.
A 50-message monthly plan is not 50 real conversations. Using the 5-10 AI-replies standard, 50 AI messages is only about 5-10 conversations/month.
A one-time starter amount is different from a recurring free tier. Tidio's first 50 Lyro conversations are a starter amount that does not refresh. Weekly or monthly free tiers refresh on their published schedule.
Credit and AI-spend products are harder again. Botpress says AI Spend depends on token usage, so conversation cost depends on model choice, prompt size, retrieval, and workflow design.
Counting method
Why full-conversation limits are easier to understand.
A visitor conversation is the thing a business owner recognizes. Message limits are harder because one serious buyer may ask many follow-up questions.
End of quota
What happens when the free AI limit is reached?
The end-of-quota behavior matters as much as the free number.
Message-counted bots
Once message credits run out, AI replies can stop until reset. If the product counts individual messages, an active conversation can be left unfinished.
Conversation-counted plans
Once the free conversation quota is used, new AI chats usually pause until the next reset.
Live-chat-first products
Human live chat may remain available even after AI usage runs out. Check whether AI-to-human handoff is included on the free plan.
When free is not enough
Estimated monthly cost at 50, 150, 500, and 1,500 chats.
These are conversation/month targets. Message-credit products use 5-10 AI replies per chat, so costs become ranges. Elfsight prices use its message allowance; its separate widget-view cap can require a higher tier.
Self-hosted
Self-hosted alternatives are possible, but not free hosted chat.
Self-hosting can be the right choice when control matters more than setup time.
Sources
Pricing sources used for this benchmark.
Pricing changes. Verify the source page before buying.
FAQ
Common questions.
What does "included free AI chats per month" mean?
It is the estimated number of visitor conversations the free plan can handle with AI in a month. When a product counts messages, the estimate uses 5-10 AI replies per conversation.
Why use 5-10 AI replies as the standard conversation length?
Short website chats may need about five AI replies. More serious buyer or support conversations often need closer to ten. A range is more honest than one fake average.
Do free AI website chat tools require a credit card?
Some do not, some only say no card for a trial, and some do not state it clearly on the pricing page. The benchmark marks this separately.
Do free AI website chat tools require an OpenAI API key?
The hosted products in this table do not require the customer to bring an OpenAI or other AI model API key for the listed hosted plans.
Which products have recurring free AI usage?
Botpress, Chatbase, Docuyond, Elfsight, HelpJet, Stand Chat, and tawk.to publish recurring free AI usage. Products with one-time, trial, beta, or unclear AI allowances are listed separately below the main table.
What is the difference between free live chat and free AI chat?
Free live chat lets a human answer visitors. Free AI chat lets an AI answer visitors inside a free allowance. Some products offer one without much of the other.
What happens when a free AI allowance runs out?
It varies. Some tools stop AI replies until reset, some stop only new chats, some leave human live chat available, and some do not state the behavior clearly.
Why are some rows not converted to one clean number?
A clean conversion would be misleading when the product counts several things at once, such as incoming events plus AI dollar spend.
Which free plan is most generous?
It depends on the unit. A full-conversation quota is easier to compare. Message-counted plans can look generous until visitors ask follow-up questions.
How often should I re-check these numbers?
Before choosing a product. Pricing pages change, and AI quotas are especially likely to move.