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.
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 5-10 conversations/month using the 5-10 AI replies per conversation standard.
- Wonderchat
- Wonderchat shows a Free pricing card with about 10 resolutions/month and 20 credits, but its FAQ says every signup gets 20 free messages and the trial lasts until those messages run out. This page does not mark that as a clean recurring free AI tier.
- 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.
- Tidio
- Tidio publishes 50 monthly human-support conversations on Free, plus 50 Lyro AI conversations as a one-time starter amount. Because the AI amount does not refresh, recurring free AI chats/month is 0.
- 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 counts 50 monthly visitor messages, not AI replies. It also caps the free plan at 200 widget views/month. If about 1% of widget views become chats, 200 views is about 2 chats/month, so the view cap can be tighter than the message cap.
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.
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.
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?
Stand Chat, tawk.to, Chatbase, Botpress, and Elfsight publish recurring free AI usage. Tidio has a free plan, but Lyro AI is 50 conversations once. Wonderchat shows a Free card, but its FAQ describes a 20-message lifetime trial.
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.