Table of Contents
- Key takeaways: conversational AI chatbots at a glance
- What is a conversational AI chatbot?
- How these conversational AI chatbots were ranked
- The 7 best conversational AI chatbots in 2026
- 1. Fin: best for resolving customer service conversations inside a helpdesk
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 2. Tidio: best for small teams that want live chat and AI in one inbox
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 3. SiteGPT: best for a chatbot trained on your own website and documents
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 4. Chatbase: best for an AI agent with voice and a simple helpdesk
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 5. Botpress: best for teams that build custom agents
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 6. CustomGPT: best for cited answers from large document sets
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 7. Botsonic: best for the lowest paid entry price
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- Conversational AI chatbots comparison table
- What a conversational AI chatbot costs
- Cost of 1,000 AI-handled conversations a month
- Price per 1,000 units on the entry plan
- How to choose a conversational AI chatbot
- Conversational AI chatbot use-case cheat sheet
- ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: general assistants are a different category
- Conversational AI chatbots FAQ
- Basics
- What is the best conversational AI chatbot?
- What is the difference between a chatbot and conversational AI?
- Are ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini conversational AI chatbots?
- Human handoff
- Which conversational AI chatbots hand off to a human agent?
- Does a handoff cost extra?
- Can a conversational AI chatbot collect leads?
- Pricing
- How much does a conversational AI chatbot cost?
- Is there a free conversational AI chatbot?
- What is the most affordable conversational AI chatbot for a small business website?
- Compliance
- Which conversational AI chatbots support HIPAA?
- Which conversational AI chatbots suit GDPR buyers?
- Sources

- Fin resolves conversations inside the Intercom helpdesk or another helpdesk. It costs $0.99 per outcome, plus seats from $29 a month billed annually.
- Tidio puts live chat, tickets and the Lyro AI agent in one inbox. It has a free plan, then $24.17 a month billed annually.
- SiteGPT answers from your website, files and cloud drives and escalates to a human. It costs $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly. A signed DPA and a HIPAA BAA are on the Enterprise plan only.
- Chatbase, Botpress, CustomGPT and Botsonic cover voice agents, custom builds, cited answers and the lowest paid entry price.
- 1,000 AI-handled conversations a month cost $1,019 on Fin with one seat and $670 on Botpress Plus. Botpress saves $349 a month (34%).
Key takeaways: conversational AI chatbots at a glance
Tool | Best for | Human handoff | Starting price |
Fin | Resolving customer service conversations inside a helpdesk | Hands off to agents in the inbox | $0.99 per outcome, plus seats from $29 a month billed annually |
Tidio | Small teams that want live chat and AI in one inbox | Lyro hands off to live chat agents | Free plan, then $24.17 a month billed annually |
A chatbot trained on your own website and documents | Escalate to human button on every plan | $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly | |
Chatbase | An AI agent with voice and a simple helpdesk | Helpdesk on Standard and above | $40 a month |
Botpress | Teams that build custom agents | Routing and assignment on Team | Free for 100 conversations, then $150 a month billed annually |
CustomGPT | Cited answers from large document sets | Not listed in the plan table | $99 a month, or $89 a month billed annually |
Botsonic | The lowest paid entry price | Zendesk handoff add-on at $199 a month | $19 a month, or $16 a month billed annually |

What is a conversational AI chatbot?
- Business platforms. A company trains the chatbot on its own content and puts it on a website, in a helpdesk or on a messaging channel. The seven tools in this list are business platforms.
- General assistants. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini answer anyone's questions from general knowledge. A short section near the end covers them.
How these conversational AI chatbots were ranked
- Resolution and handoff. Can the chatbot close a customer service conversation, and does a person take over in the same tool when it cannot?
- Knowledge sources. What content can the chatbot learn from, and how does that content stay current?
- Pricing unit. Does the vendor charge per plan, per message, per conversation or per resolved outcome?
- Entry cost. What does the lowest paid plan cost, and is there a free plan or a free trial?
- Third-party reviews. What is the G2 rating, and how many reviews sit behind it?
The 7 best conversational AI chatbots in 2026
1. Fin: best for resolving customer service conversations inside a helpdesk

Key features
- AI agent for email, live chat and phone
- Messenger, shared inbox and ticketing system on every Intercom plan
- Workflows automation builder and round robin assignment on Advanced
- SSO, SLAs and HIPAA support on Expert
- Fin on an existing helpdesk such as Zendesk, Salesforce or Freshdesk, with no seats required
Pros
- Fin charges only when it delivers an outcome, at most once per conversation.
- A handoff to a person costs nothing.
- Spending limits and alerts cap the monthly bill.
- The 14-day trial needs no credit card.
- A 90-day money-back guarantee covers Fin.
Cons
- Cost rises with volume. 1,000 outcomes cost $990 a month before seats.
- The workflow builder starts on Advanced at $85 per seat a month billed annually.
- HIPAA support and SLAs are on Expert only, at $132 per seat a month billed annually.
- Voice is priced separately at $1.99 per voice outcome.
Pricing
Item | Price | Notes |
Fin outcome | $0.99 each | Charged at most once per conversation |
Essential seat | $29 a month, billed annually | Messenger, shared inbox, ticketing, help center |
Advanced seat | $85 a month, billed annually | Workflows builder, round robin, multiple team inboxes |
Expert seat | $132 a month, billed annually | SSO, SLAs, HIPAA support, multibrand |
Copilot add-on | $29 per agent a month, billed annually | AI assistant for human agents |
Rating
Best for
2. Tidio: best for small teams that want live chat and AI in one inbox

Key features
- Live chat and ticketing on every plan
- Lyro AI Agent with human handoff and knowledge-based responses
- Flows, a visual no-code builder for chat paths
- Macros, automatic chat assignment and advanced analytics on Growth
- Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email integrations
- Desktop and mobile apps
Pros
- The Free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month.
- The first 50 Lyro conversations are free.
- Replies from Lyro and Flows do not count as billable conversations.
- The 7-day trial needs no credit card.
- Lyro can also be added to Zendesk, Salesforce or another helpdesk as a stand-alone product.
Cons
- Lyro is a separate add-on from $32.50 a month billed annually for 50 conversations.
- Plans are capped by billable conversations. Starter includes 100.
- Ticketing automations and departments start on Plus, from $300 a month plus usage.
- Removing Tidio branding costs $16.67 a month.
Pricing
Plan | Price a month, billed annually | Billable conversations |
Free | $0 | 50 |
Starter | $24.17 | 100 |
Growth | From $49.17 | From 250 |
Plus | From $300, plus usage | Custom |
Premium | Contact sales | Custom, with pay-per-resolution billing |
Lyro AI Agent add-on | From $32.50 | From 50 Lyro conversations |
Rating
Best for
3. SiteGPT: best for a chatbot trained on your own website and documents

Key features
- Trains on URLs, sitemaps, files and raw text
- Connects to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub and YouTube
- Monthly auto refresh on Growth. Weekly auto refresh and a daily auto scan on Scale
- Escalate to human, lead collection and quick prompts
- iOS app with a live inbox and push notifications from Growth
- Chat integrations from Growth: Google Chat, Messenger, Slack, Crisp, Freshdesk Messaging and Zoho SalesIQ
- Zendesk AI Agent on Scale and above
- 95+ languages
Pros
- The price is a flat plan with no fee per conversation or per outcome.
- Content sources go beyond a website to drives, GitHub and YouTube.
- Auto refresh keeps answers current on Growth and above.
- Advanced analytics on Growth show knowledge gaps and the questions the chatbot could not answer.
- The home page states SOC 2 Type II examined, GDPR certified and HIPAA assessed.
Cons
- SiteGPT has no ticketing, routing or SLAs. A team with an email queue still needs a helpdesk.
- There is no Intercom or HubSpot integration today.
- Starter has no chat integrations and refreshes content manually.
- The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. There is no free plan.
- A signed DPA and a HIPAA BAA are on the Enterprise plan only.
- WhatsApp and branding removal are paid add-ons at $39 a month each, billed yearly.
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Messages a month | Chatbots | Members |
Starter | $59 | $39 | 4k GPT-4.1-mini or 400 GPT-4.1 | 1 | 1 |
Growth | $129 | $79 | 10k GPT-4.1-mini or 1,000 GPT-4.1 | 2 | 4 |
Scale | $429 | $259 | 40k GPT-4.1-mini or 4,000 GPT-4.1 | 3 | 10 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Rating
Best for
4. Chatbase: best for an AI agent with voice and a simple helpdesk

Key features
- AI agents for chat, email and voice
- Helpdesk, voice, telephony and outbound campaigns on Standard
- Auto-resync of training content on Standard
- Integrations listed for Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, HubSpot, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Slack and WhatsApp
- Advanced analytics and tickets as a training source on Pro
Pros
- Hobby costs $40 a month.
- Every paid plan starts with a 7-day trial.
- Yearly plans are 20% off.
- Enterprise is listed as HIPAA-eligible.
Cons
- The Helpdesk needs Standard at $150 a month. Hobby does not include it.
- Usage is metered in message credits. Extra credits cost $40 per 1,000.
- Removing "Powered by Chatbase" costs $99 a month.
- Each plan includes one AI agent. Extra agents cost $25 each a month.
- The pricing page shows no free plan card.
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Message credits a month | Members |
Hobby | $40 | 700 | 2 |
Standard | $150 | 4,000 | 3 |
Pro | $500 | 15,000 | 5 |
Enterprise | Contact sales | Custom | Custom |
Rating
Best for
5. Botpress: best for teams that build custom agents

Key features
- Botpress Studio for building agents
- Webchat and WhatsApp channels. Voice on Enterprise
- Help Center on every plan, with a custom domain from Plus
- Teams, routing and role-based access on Team
- Table, vector and file storage that grows with each plan
Pros
- The Free plan includes 100 conversations, 3 seats and 3 AI agents.
- AI-only and human-assisted conversations are counted the same.
- Plus includes unlimited AI agents and white-label webchat.
- The extra conversation rate drops from $0.65 on Plus to $0.50 on Team.
Cons
- The first paid plan costs $150 a month billed annually and includes 250 conversations.
- A pack of 100 conversations is added automatically at 95% of the quota. It cannot be switched off.
- Routing, assignment and team analytics need Team at $750 a month billed annually.
- The Free plan has no top-ups or overages past 100 conversations.
Pricing
Plan | Price a month, billed annually | Conversations included | Extra conversations |
Free | $0 | 100 | None |
Plus | $150 | 250 a month | $65 per 100 |
Team | $750 | 1,500 a month | $50 per 100 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Rating
Best for
6. CustomGPT: best for cited answers from large document sets

Key features
- Citations and sources on every plan
- Training on websites, helpdesks, PDFs, Office documents, YouTube videos and audio files
- 90+ languages on every plan
- RAG API access on Standard
- Slack deployment and Zapier on every plan
- SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR listed on every plan
Pros
- Standard includes 10 agents and 5,000 documents per agent.
- Storage reaches 60 million words on Standard and 300 million on Premium.
- Every self-serve plan starts with a 7-day trial.
- Annual billing saves 10%, or $120 a year on Standard.
Cons
- Standard includes 1,000 queries a month. The next step is Premium at $499 a month.
- Website auto-sync and branding removal need Premium.
- The plan table lists no helpdesk and no live agent inbox.
- A custom DPA and custom SSO are on Enterprise.
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually (per month) | Queries a month | Agents |
Standard | $99 | $89 | 1,000 | 10 |
Premium | $499 | $449 | 5,000 | 25 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | As needed | As needed |
Rating
Best for
7. Botsonic: best for the lowest paid entry price

Key features
- Sitemap upload with up to 5,000 URLs on Starter
- Lead capture forms on Starter
- WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Zapier and WordPress integrations on Starter
- Slack, Google Chat, Calendly and Notion on Professional
- Auto-sync from a website and third-party platforms on Advanced
- Live agent handoff through Zendesk on Enterprise
Pros
- Starter costs $19 a month, or $16 a month billed annually.
- Starter includes 1,000 messages a month and one chatbot.
- Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial.
- 2,000 extra messages cost $25 a month.
Cons
- Ticket and live agent handoff to Zendesk is a $199 a month add-on below Enterprise.
- Removing "Powered By Botsonic" costs $49 a month.
- Auto-sync needs Advanced at $299 a month, or $249 a month billed annually.
- API access costs $49 a month below Advanced.
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually (per month) | Messages a month | Chatbots |
Starter | $19 | $16 | 1,000 | 1 |
Professional | $49 | $41 | 3,000 | 2 |
Advanced | $299 | $249 | 12,000 | Not listed |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Rating
Best for
Conversational AI chatbots comparison table
Tool | Human handoff | Pricing unit | Entry paid price | Free plan | G2 rating |
Fin | To agents in the inbox | $0.99 per outcome | $29 per seat, billed annually | No, 14-day trial | 4.5 (3,919) |
Tidio | To live chat agents | Billable conversations and Lyro conversations | $24.17, billed annually | Yes | 4.6 (1,962) |
Escalate to human on every plan | Messages in a flat plan | $59, or $39 billed yearly | No, 7-day trial | 4.9 (12) | |
Chatbase | Helpdesk on Standard | Message credits in a flat plan | $40 | No, 7-day trial | 4.8 (46) |
Botpress | Routing and assignment on Team | Conversations | $150, billed annually | Yes | 4.5 (514) |
CustomGPT | Not listed | Queries in a flat plan | $99, or $89 billed annually | No, 7-day trial | 4.0 (1) |
Botsonic | Zendesk add-on at $199 a month | Messages in a flat plan | $19, or $16 billed annually | No, 7-day trial | 4.6 (107) |
What a conversational AI chatbot costs
Cost of 1,000 AI-handled conversations a month
Tool | Plan cost | Usage cost | Monthly total | 12-month total |
Fin with one Essential seat | $29 | 1,000 outcomes at $0.99: $990 | $1,019 | $12,228 |
Botpress Plus | $150, with 250 conversations | 8 packs of 100 at $65: $520 | $670 | $8,040 |

Price per 1,000 units on the entry plan
Tool and plan | Plan price | Included usage | Price per 1,000 units |
SiteGPT Starter | $59 a month, billed monthly | 4k GPT-4.1-mini messages | $14.75 per 1,000 messages |
Botsonic Starter | $19 a month, billed monthly | 1,000 messages | $19 per 1,000 messages |
Chatbase Hobby | $40 a month, billed monthly | 700 message credits | $57.14 per 1,000 credits |
CustomGPT Standard | $99 a month, billed monthly | 1,000 queries | $99 per 1,000 queries |
Botpress Plus | $150 a month, billed annually | 250 conversations | $600 per 1,000 conversations |
Tidio Lyro add-on | $32.50 a month, billed annually | 50 Lyro conversations | $650 per 1,000 Lyro conversations |
Fin | No plan fee for the AI agent | Pay per outcome | $990 per 1,000 outcomes |
How to choose a conversational AI chatbot
If you need... | Pick... | Why |
An AI agent that resolves conversations inside a helpdesk | Fin | $0.99 per outcome, and a handoff costs nothing |
Live chat, tickets and AI in one inbox for a small team | Tidio | Free plan with 50 billable conversations |
Answers from a website, files, drives and YouTube at a flat price | No fee per conversation, auto refresh on Growth | |
AI answers on voice calls | Chatbase | Voice and telephony on Standard |
Custom logic built by a developer | Botpress | Studio, tables and unlimited AI agents on Plus |
A source shown with every answer | CustomGPT | Citations and sources on every plan |
A trained chatbot for under $20 a month | Botsonic | Starter costs $19 a month with 1,000 messages |

Conversational AI chatbot use-case cheat sheet
Scenario | Best pick | Why |
SaaS team that wants AI to resolve chats inside the inbox | Fin | Native AI agent with handoff to agents |
Team that already runs Zendesk or Salesforce | Fin on the existing helpdesk | $0.99 per outcome with no seats required |
Online store with a two-person team | Tidio | Live chat, Lyro and native Shopify actions |
Solo founder who wants free live chat | Tidio | Free plan with 50 billable conversations |
Small business website with a fixed budget | Flat $59 a month, or $39 billed yearly | |
Knowledge spread across a website, PDFs, Google Drive and YouTube | Trains on all four and refreshes on a schedule from Growth | |
Visitors who write in many languages | SiteGPT or CustomGPT | 95+ languages and 90+ languages |
Team that wants AI answers on phone calls | Chatbase | Voice and telephony on Standard |
Product team with a developer and custom API actions | Botpress | Studio and tables, priced per conversation |
Research or policy library where each answer needs a source | CustomGPT | Citations and 60 million words of storage on Standard |
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: general assistants are a different category
Question | General assistant | Business platform |
Who asks the questions? | The person who holds the account | A company's customers and visitors |
Where do the answers come from? | General training, plus files the person adds | The company's website, documents and help center |
Who takes over? | No handoff to a company's team | The company's own team |




