Table of Contents
- What is Chatbase?
- How does Chatbase work?
- What features does Chatbase offer?
- Data sources and training limits
- AI models
- AI Actions
- Helpdesk and human takeover
- Voice and telephony
- Channels, integrations, and API
- How much does Chatbase cost in 2026?
- What does Chatbase cost per year?
- How do Chatbase message credits work?
- What add-ons does Chatbase charge for?
- What does Chatbase cost at your volume?
- What are Chatbase's pros and cons?
- Pros
- Cons
- What do users say about Chatbase?
- Who should use Chatbase?
- What are the best Chatbase alternatives?
- Chatbase vs SiteGPT: which one fits?
- How to choose between Chatbase and its alternatives
- Frequently asked questions
- Basics
- What is Chatbase?
- What is Chatbase used for?
- Does Chatbase use ChatGPT?
- Pricing and free plan
- Is Chatbase free?
- How much does Chatbase cost?
- How much does it cost to remove Chatbase branding?
- What happens when Chatbase credits run out?
- Features and integrations
- Does Chatbase support human handoff?
- Does Chatbase have an API?
- Does Chatbase integrate with WhatsApp and Slack?
- Is Chatbase HIPAA compliant?
- Alternatives
- What are the best Chatbase alternatives?
- Is Chatbase or Botpress better?
- Is there a cheaper alternative to Chatbase?
- Sources
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Dec 18, 2025 06:34 AM
Chatbase is a no-code platform for building AI agents trained on your own content, and it fits small teams that want an agent live in minutes with a free plan to test on. It costs $0 for 50 message credits a month, then $40, $150, or $500 a month on monthly billing. Teams with large content libraries, a need for human handoff under $150 a month, or a white-label requirement should compare it with the alternatives below first.
TL;DR
- Chatbase builds AI agents from files, websites, Notion pages, and Q&A. It deploys them to web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, email, and voice.
- Pricing on monthly billing: Free (50 credits), Hobby $40 (700 credits), Standard $150 (4,000 credits), Pro $500 (15,000 credits). Yearly billing takes 20% off.
- Three costs sit outside the plan price: extra credits at $40 per 1,000, extra agents at $25 each a month, and badge removal at $99 a month.
- The native Helpdesk, human takeover, voice, API access, and weekly auto-resync all start on Standard at $150 a month.
- Among alternatives, SiteGPT fits customer service answered from many content sources, with human escalation on every plan from $39 a month billed yearly. It has no free plan and no voice agents.
Aspect | Verdict |
Best for | Small teams that want a content-trained AI agent live fast, with actions and voice available later |
Free plan | Yes. 50 message credits a month, 1 member, 1 MB of training content. Agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity |
Paid pricing | Hobby $40, Standard $150, Pro $500 a month on monthly billing. $32, $120, and $400 a month on yearly billing |
Biggest strength | Speed of setup, plus AI Actions, voice, and a built-in Helpdesk on one platform |
Biggest limitation | Model-weighted credits, a $99 a month branding fee, and a 40 MB training cap on Pro |
Human handoff | Native Helpdesk with takeover on Standard ($150 a month) and above |
G2 rating | 4.8 out of 5 from 46 reviews |
What is Chatbase?
Chatbase is a no-code platform for building AI agents that answer from your own content. You add sources, pick an AI model, style the chat widget, and embed the agent on a website or connect it to a messaging channel.
The company describes its product as conversational agents for customer experience across chat, email, and voice. Its pricing page says more than 10,000 businesses use it.
Chatbase sits on the content-trained side of the chatbot category. A builder platform such as Botpress asks you to design each step of a conversation. Chatbase asks for your content and lets the model handle the conversation.
How does Chatbase work?
Chatbase works in four steps:
- Add sources. Upload files, crawl a website, paste text, write Q&A pairs, or connect Notion.
- Pick a model. The pricing page lists models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Meta, MoonshotAI, and Mistral, among others, on paid plans.
- Configure the agent. Write instructions, add AI Actions, and style the widget.
- Deploy. Embed the chat bubble on a site or connect a channel such as WhatsApp or Slack.
Answers come from retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). The agent searches your sources for relevant passages and writes a reply from them. RAG lowers the rate of invented answers but does not remove it. The causes and fixes are covered in the guide to chatbot hallucinations.
What features does Chatbase offer?
Chatbase offers six feature groups that matter for a buying decision: data sources, models, AI Actions, the Helpdesk, voice, and channel integrations.
Data sources and training limits
Chatbase trains on six source types, according to its data sources documentation:
- Files in PDF, TXT, DOC, and DOCX format, up to 20 MB each
- Websites, added by crawl, by sitemap, or as individual links
- Text snippets
- Q&A pairs
- Notion pages
- Helpdesk tickets (the pricing page lists tickets as a source on Pro)
A new source is live within seconds, with no retrain step. Standard and Pro include auto-resync, which re-reads websites, Notion pages, and tickets every week. On Free and Hobby you resync a website by hand.
The limit to watch is training content size. Chatbase measures the extracted text across all sources for one agent.
Plan | Training content per agent | AI Actions per agent | Members |
Free | 1 MB | 0 | 1 |
Hobby | 10 MB | 5 | 2 |
Standard | 20 MB | 8 | 3 |
Pro | 40 MB | 12 | 5 |
A large help center or product catalog can pass 40 MB of text. At that point the only path is Enterprise, which lists higher limits at a custom price.
AI models
Chatbase lets you choose the model behind each agent. The Free plan has limited access to models. Paid plans add advanced models from eight providers.
Model choice changes the bill. Chatbase states that each request costs a number of message credits that depends on the model you choose. A cheaper model stretches a plan further than a premium one.
AI Actions
AI Actions let a Chatbase agent do a task during a chat. The pricing page lists integrations such as Stripe, Shopify, Calendly, and Zendesk, and it caps the number of actions per agent by plan.
Actions also use credits. Chatbase gives this example: a calendar action that looks up free slots makes two requests to the model, so it costs twice the credits of a plain answer.
Helpdesk and human takeover
Chatbase includes a native Helpdesk on the Standard plan and above. The agent can open a ticket with the full conversation attached, or a teammate can step into a live chat.
The takeover documentation describes how it works:
- A support associate clicks Takeover on an ongoing conversation. The AI stops replying.
- Chatbase writes a subject line and a summary, then creates a ticket assigned to that associate.
- Takeover works on the chat bubble, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.
- Only one associate can take over a conversation at a time.
- Clicking Allow AI replies hands the conversation back to the agent.
The Helpdesk also has custom statuses, assignment rules, notes, mentions, custom views, and reporting. Teams that already run a helpdesk can connect Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, HubSpot, Zoho Desk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, or Gorgias. Teams on Intercom that are weighing its native AI agent first can check the per-outcome math in the Intercom Fin AI Agent pricing review.
The gap is the Hobby plan. At $40 a month it does not list the Helpdesk. How this compares across tools is covered in AI chatbots with human handoff.
Voice and telephony
Chatbase lists voice and telephony on Standard and above. Standard allows 10 concurrent calls and Pro allows 20. Outbound campaigns start on Standard too.
This is a real advantage for teams that take support calls. SiteGPT does not offer phone agents.
Channels, integrations, and API
Chatbase lists these integrations on its pricing page:
Type | Integrations listed |
Messaging channels | WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack |
Helpdesks | Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, HubSpot, Zoho Desk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Gorgias, Sunshine |
Commerce and payments | Shopify, Stripe |
Other | WordPress, Zapier, Calendly, Twilio, Odoo |
Hobby includes integrations. The plan card places advanced integrations, with Stripe and Zendesk named as examples, on Standard. API access also starts on Standard, so the $40 Hobby plan has no API.
How much does Chatbase cost in 2026?
Chatbase costs $0 for 50 message credits a month, $40 a month for Hobby, $150 a month for Standard, and $500 a month for Pro on monthly billing. Yearly billing is 20% lower. All figures come from the Chatbase pricing page.
Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing (per month) | Message credits a month | Members | Notable inclusions |
Free | $0 | $0 | 50 | 1 | Limited models. Agents deleted after 14 days of inactivity |
Hobby | $40 | $32 | 700 | 2 | Advanced models, integrations, basic analytics, attachments |
Standard | $150 | $120 | 4,000 | 3 | Helpdesk, voice, telephony, API access, auto-resync, advanced integrations |
Pro | $500 | $400 | 15,000 | 5 | Advanced analytics, sources suggestions, tickets as a source |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | SSO, white-labeling, audit logs, SLAs, HIPAA-eligible |
Every plan includes 1 agent. Paid plans start with a 7-day trial.
What does Chatbase cost per year?
Yearly billing saves $96 on Hobby, $360 on Standard, and $1,200 on Pro.
Plan | 12 months on monthly billing | 12 months on yearly billing | Saving |
Hobby | $480 | $384 | $96 |
Standard | $1,800 | $1,440 | $360 |
Pro | $6,000 | $4,800 | $1,200 |
How do Chatbase message credits work?
A Chatbase message credit pays for a request to the AI model. The number of credits per request depends on the model. An agent with actions can make several requests for one reply.
- Plan credits renew on the first day of each calendar month, whatever day you subscribed.
- Unused plan credits do not carry over.
- Auto-recharge credits cost $40 per 1,000 and do not expire.
Credits and messages are different units. 700 credits is 700 replies only if every reply is one request on a model that costs one credit.
What add-ons does Chatbase charge for?
Chatbase charges for three add-ons on top of the plan.
Add-on | Price | What it means |
Auto-recharge credits | $40 per 1,000 credits | Added when credits fall below a threshold you set. $0.04 per credit |
Extra agents | $25 per agent a month | Every plan includes 1 agent |
Remove 'Powered By Chatbase' | $99 a month | $1,188 over 12 months. Hobby plus this add-on is $139 a month |
The branding add-on costs about 2.5 times the Hobby plan. White-labeling is listed as included only on Enterprise.
What does Chatbase cost at your volume?
The table below does the math for five credit volumes on monthly billing. It picks the cheapest plan at each volume and prices extra credits at $0.04 each.
Credits used a month | Cheapest setup | Monthly cost | Cost per credit |
700 | Hobby | $40 | $0.057 |
2,000 | Hobby + 1,300 recharge credits | $92 | $0.046 |
4,000 | Standard | $150 | $0.038 |
8,000 | Standard + 4,000 recharge credits | $310 | $0.039 |
15,000 | Pro | $500 | $0.033 |
Standard becomes cheaper than Hobby plus recharges above 3,450 credits a month. Pro becomes cheaper than Standard plus recharges above 12,750 credits a month.
How these prices compare across the category is in the AI chatbot pricing comparison.
What are Chatbase's pros and cons?
Pros
- Fast setup. A source is live within seconds of being added, and there is no retrain button.
- A free plan. 50 credits a month is enough to test answers on your own content.
- Wide model choice. Paid plans list models from eight providers.
- Helpdesk built in. Standard and above include tickets, takeover, routing, and reporting.
- Voice and telephony. Phone agents and outbound campaigns are included from Standard.
- Many helpdesk connectors. Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, HubSpot, and five more are listed.
- Native messaging channels. WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Slack connect without a third-party tool.
- Credits that do not expire. Auto-recharge credits stay on the account until used.
Cons
- Credits are hard to forecast. The cost of a reply depends on the model and on how many requests an action makes.
- Branding removal costs $99 a month. That is $1,188 a year on top of the plan.
- Training content is capped. 10 MB on Hobby, 20 MB on Standard, 40 MB on Pro.
- One agent per plan. Each extra agent costs $25 a month.
- Human handoff starts at $150 a month. Hobby does not list the Helpdesk.
- API access starts at $150 a month. Hobby does not list it.
- Free agents are deleted. An agent on the Free plan is removed after 14 days of inactivity.
- No scripted flow builder. Conversations are driven by the model, so a strict step-by-step path is hard to guarantee.
What do users say about Chatbase?
Chatbase holds 4.8 out of 5 on G2 from 46 reviews. 43 of them are five-star and 3 are four-star.
G2's summary of those reviews says users praise ease of use and quick setup across platforms. The same summary says some users want more detailed analytics.
46 reviews is a small base for a product with more than 10,000 customers. Read the individual reviews for teams of your size before relying on the average.
Who should use Chatbase?
Chatbase is a good fit if you:
- Want an agent on your site today and have a modest amount of content
- Need a free plan to test before paying
- Plan to add actions such as booking, order lookup, or Stripe billing tasks
- Want phone agents and chat on the same platform
- Serve customers on WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram
Chatbase is a poor fit if you:
- Have more than 40 MB of text to train on
- Need human handoff or API access on a plan under $150 a month
- Need an unbranded widget and do not want a $99 a month add-on
- Want a bill that does not move with model choice
- Run many agents for clients or brands
What are the best Chatbase alternatives?
The best Chatbase alternative depends on why you are leaving. No tool here is best overall. Each row names the case it fits.
The ranking uses three criteria that match the most common reasons to leave Chatbase: how usage is billed, what human handoff costs, and how much content the tool can train on.
# | Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free option | Main trade-off |
1 | Customer service answered from many content sources, with human escalation on every plan | $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly | 7-day trial, card required | No free plan, no voice agents, no flow builder | |
2 | A like-for-like swap with a free plan and more usage per dollar | $49 a month for 5,000 AI credits and 5,000 source pages | Free plan: 1 bot, 50 source pages, 100 AI credits | Unbranded widgets need the Business plan at $499 a month | |
3 | Custom multi-step flows with code | $150 a month billed annually for 250 conversations | Free plan: 100 conversations | Takes build time. Extra conversations cost $65 per 100 | |
4 | Many agents and large document sets on one plan | $99 a month, or $89 a month billed annually, for 10 agents and 1,000 queries | 7-day trial | Removing branding needs Premium at $499 a month |
SiteGPT is first because it answers the three most common complaints at once: plain message quotas, escalation on the entry plan, and page-based content limits. DocsBot is second because it is the closest match to how Chatbase works. A longer list with migration steps is in the Chatbase alternative guide.
Chatbase vs SiteGPT: which one fits?
Chatbase and SiteGPT are both content-trained tools. Chatbase covers more ground, with actions, voice, and a helpdesk. SiteGPT focuses on customer service and lead generation from a wide set of content sources.
Criterion | Chatbase | SiteGPT |
Content sources | Files, websites, text, Q&A, Notion, tickets | 12+ sources: websites, sitemaps, files, YouTube, GitHub, Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Box, help centers |
Content limit | 1 MB to 40 MB of text per agent | 1,000 pages on Starter, 10,000 on Growth, 50,000 on Scale |
Content refresh | Weekly auto-resync on Standard and Pro | Manual on Starter, monthly on Growth, weekly plus a daily scan on Scale |
Billing unit | Message credits that vary by model | Messages. 4,000 a month on Starter with GPT-4.1-mini, or 400 with GPT-4.1 |
Human handoff | Native Helpdesk with takeover from Standard ($150 a month) | Escalation to a human with team notifications on every plan |
Channels | Web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, email, voice | Web chat. Slack, Crisp, Messenger, Google Chat, Freshdesk Messaging, and Zoho SalesIQ from Growth. Zendesk from Scale. WhatsApp as a paid add-on |
Voice agents | Yes, from Standard | No |
Free plan | Yes, 50 credits a month | No. 7-day trial with a card |
Entry paid price | $40 a month, or $32 a month billed yearly | $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly |
Remove branding | $99 a month | $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly |
Chatbots per plan | 1, then $25 per extra agent a month | 1 on Starter, 2 on Growth, 3 on Scale |
HIPAA BAA | Enterprise only | Enterprise only |
Choose Chatbase when you need a free plan, phone agents, actions, or a connector to Intercom, HubSpot, or Salesforce. SiteGPT has no Intercom or HubSpot integration, and its Starter plan has no chat integrations.
Choose SiteGPT when the job is customer service answers from content that lives in many places. Chatbase Hobby costs $384 a year on yearly billing and SiteGPT Starter costs $468, so Chatbase is $84 a year cheaper at entry. An unbranded widget reverses that. Chatbase Hobby plus branding removal is $1,572 a year. SiteGPT Starter plus branding removal is $936 a year on yearly billing. That is $636 less, or 40%.
The two plans do not count usage the same way. Estimate your volume in both credits and messages before comparing. The full breakdown is in SiteGPT vs Chatbase.
How to choose between Chatbase and its alternatives
If you need... | Pick... | Why |
A free plan to test on your own content | Chatbase or DocsBot | Chatbase gives 50 credits a month. DocsBot gives 100 AI credits and 50 source pages |
Phone agents and chat on one platform | Chatbase | Voice and telephony are included from Standard |
Escalation into Intercom, HubSpot, or Salesforce | Chatbase | Those connectors are listed on its Helpdesk page |
Human handoff on an entry plan | SiteGPT | Escalation is on every plan. Chatbase starts it at $150 a month |
Content from Google Drive, YouTube, GitHub, or a help center | SiteGPT | It lists 12+ source types |
An unbranded widget at the lowest yearly cost | SiteGPT | $936 a year with Starter, against $1,572 with Chatbase Hobby |
Custom flows with API calls and branching | Botpress | Its Studio combines a visual canvas with code |
Ten or more agents on one plan | CustomGPT | Standard includes 10 agents. Chatbase charges $25 for each extra agent |
Frequently asked questions
Basics
What is Chatbase?
Chatbase is a no-code platform for building AI agents trained on your own files, website, Notion pages, and Q&A. Agents can be deployed to a website, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, email, and voice.
What is Chatbase used for?
Chatbase is used mainly for customer service. Teams use it to answer common questions, open tickets, hand chats to a human, and run actions such as booking or order lookup.
Does Chatbase use ChatGPT?
Chatbase can use OpenAI models, the same family that powers ChatGPT. Its pricing page also lists models from Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Meta, MoonshotAI, and Mistral, among others.
Pricing and free plan
Is Chatbase free?
Chatbase has a free plan with 50 message credits a month, 1 member, and 1 MB of training content. Agents on the free plan are deleted after 14 days of inactivity. If 50 credits is too few to test with, compare six free plans in free chatbots for a website.
How much does Chatbase cost?
Chatbase costs $40 a month for Hobby, $150 a month for Standard, and $500 a month for Pro on monthly billing. Yearly billing is 20% lower, at $32, $120, and $400 a month.
How much does it cost to remove Chatbase branding?
Removing the 'Powered By Chatbase' badge costs $99 a month as an add-on. White-labeling is listed as included on the Enterprise plan.
What happens when Chatbase credits run out?
With auto-recharge on, Chatbase adds credits at $40 per 1,000 when the balance falls below your threshold. Those credits do not expire. Plan credits renew on the first of each calendar month.
Features and integrations
Does Chatbase support human handoff?
Yes, on Standard and above. The native Helpdesk creates tickets with the conversation attached, and a support associate can click Takeover to pause the AI and reply directly.
Does Chatbase have an API?
Yes. The pricing page lists API access on the Standard plan at $150 a month and above.
Does Chatbase integrate with WhatsApp and Slack?
Yes. The pricing page lists WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Slack as integrations.
Is Chatbase HIPAA compliant?
Chatbase lists its Enterprise plan as HIPAA-eligible, with a Business Associate Agreement and zero data retention. The self-serve plans do not list HIPAA. What to check in any vendor is covered in the guide to HIPAA compliant AI chatbots.
Alternatives
What are the best Chatbase alternatives?
SiteGPT fits customer service answered from many content sources. DocsBot fits teams that want a similar tool with a free plan. Botpress fits custom flows with code. CustomGPT fits teams that need many agents.
Is Chatbase or Botpress better?
Chatbase is better when you want an agent that answers from content with little setup. Botpress is better when the conversation must follow steps you design. Botpress bills per conversation and Chatbase bills per credit.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Chatbase?
At entry, Chatbase Hobby is the cheapest paid plan in this comparison at $32 a month billed yearly. SiteGPT becomes cheaper once you need an unbranded widget: $936 a year against $1,572.
Sources
All pages opened on 4 October 2026.
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