Table of Contents
- Key takeaways: free chatbots for a website at a glance
- What counts as a free chatbot for a website?
- How these free chatbots were ranked
- The 6 best free chatbots for a website in 2026, plus one paid upgrade
- 1. Tawk: best for free live chat with an AI add-on
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 2. Tidio: best free plan with live chat, flows, and an AI trial
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 3. SiteGPT: best paid step when a free AI cap runs out
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 4. Chatbase: best free AI agent trained on your content
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 5. Crisp: best free live chat for a team of two
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 6. Botpress: best free plan for teams that build custom agents
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 7. HubSpot: best free rule-based chatbot tied to a CRM
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- Free chatbot for website comparison table
- What a free chatbot costs once the free plan runs out
- How to choose a free chatbot for your website
- Free website chatbot use-case cheat sheet
- How to add a free chatbot to a website
- Free chatbot for website FAQ
- Basics
- Is there a completely free chatbot for a website?
- Can you use an AI chatbot for free?
- Is SiteGPT a free chatbot?
- Limits
- What do free chatbot plans limit?
- Do free chatbots show the vendor's branding?
- Which free chatbot has no AI?
- Pricing
- What is the cheapest paid chatbot after a free plan?
- When is a paid chatbot worth it over a free one?
- Setup
- How do you add a free chatbot to a website?
- Do free chatbots work on WordPress?
- Sources
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Created time
Sep 6, 2023 12:44 AM
The best free chatbot for a website in 2026 is Tawk for free live chat with an AI add-on, and Tidio for a free plan that includes a one-time AI allowance.
Six tools in this guide have a real free plan. The seventh, SiteGPT, has no free plan and is listed as the paid step for when a free AI allowance runs out.
TL;DR
- Tawk is free with no paid plan for the core live chat. Its AI Assist add-on has a free tier for limited volume, and paid AI starts at $29 a month.
- Tidio has a free plan with 50 billable conversations a month, 100 Flows visitors a month, and 50 Lyro AI conversations that never refill.
- SiteGPT is not free. It costs $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly, with a 7-day trial that requires a credit card. It fits a site that has outgrown a free AI cap.
- Chatbase gives 50 AI message credits a month for free and deletes a free agent after 14 days of inactivity.
- Crisp and HubSpot are free without generative AI. Botpress is free for 100 conversations and needs building time.
Key takeaways: free chatbots for a website at a glance
Tool | Best for | What the free plan includes | First paid step |
1. Tawk | Free live chat with an AI add-on | Core platform free. AI Assist free tier for limited volume | AI Assist from $29 a month |
2. Tidio | A free plan with live chat, flows, and an AI trial | 50 billable conversations and 100 Flows visitors a month. 50 Lyro AI conversations, one time | Starter $24.17 a month, billed annually |
3. SiteGPT | The paid step when a free AI cap runs out | No free plan. 7-day trial, credit card required | Starter $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly |
4. Chatbase | A free AI agent trained on your content | 50 message credits a month, 1 member, 1 MB of training content | Hobby $40 a month |
5. Crisp | Free live chat for a team of two | Chat widget, shared inbox, 2 seats, 100 customer profiles. No AI credits | Mini $45 a month |
6. Botpress | A free plan for teams that build custom agents | 100 conversations, 3 seats, 3 AI agents | Plus $150 a month, billed annually |
7. HubSpot | A free rule-based chatbot tied to a CRM | Chatbot builder with templates, live chat handoff, CRM sync | Paid HubSpot hubs |
What counts as a free chatbot for a website?
A free chatbot for a website is a chat widget with a plan that costs $0 a month with no end date. A free trial is not a free plan, because the widget stops working when the trial ends.
Free plans fall into three groups, and the group matters more than the brand.
- Free live chat. Your team answers every message. Tawk and Crisp work this way on their free plans.
- Free rule-based chatbot. The bot follows a script you write. HubSpot's free builder and Tidio Flows work this way.
- Free AI chatbot. The bot writes answers from your content. Chatbase, Tidio Lyro, Botpress, and Tawk AI Assist offer this for free, each with a cap.
The difference between scripted and AI answers is explained in how to make a chatbot.
How these free chatbots were ranked
These free chatbots were ranked on five criteria, in this order.
- What the free plan answers with. Does the free plan include AI answers, scripted flows, or only live chat?
- The monthly cap. How many conversations or AI replies does the free plan allow?
- What expires. Does a free allowance refill each month, and is anything deleted for inactivity?
- The first paid step. What does the cheapest upgrade cost when the cap is reached?
- Third-party reviews. What is the G2 rating, and how many reviews sit behind it?
Every tool gets a "best for" label. No tool is best overall, because a two-person shop and a documentation site need different things. SiteGPT is this site's own product. It has no free plan, so it is ranked third by role and its limits are listed with the same weight as the others.
The 6 best free chatbots for a website in 2026, plus one paid upgrade
1. Tawk: best for free live chat with an AI add-on
Tawk is a live chat platform with no paid plan for its core software. The vendor's add-ons page says the platform is free and that revenue comes from four optional extras. It ranks first because the free part has no trial clock and no card.
Key features
- Live chat widget, inbox, and knowledge base in the free platform
- AI Assist add-on with AI agents trained on your knowledge base
- Handoff from the AI agent to your team with the conversation context
- Add-ons billed per property, not per seat
- Live help from the vendor around the clock
Pros
- The core platform costs $0 with no credit card
- AI Assist has a forever-free tier for limited volume
- Paid extras can be switched off at any time
- According to the vendor, 99% of businesses use the product without paying
Cons
- The widget shows a "Powered by" badge unless you pay $29 a month for Whitelabel
- The vendor does not publish the volume limit of the free AI Assist tier
- AI Assist answers from a knowledge base that you have to write or import first
- Voice Agents and Data Enrichment are waitlist-only add-ons
Pricing
Item | Price | Notes |
Core platform | $0 | Live chat, inbox, knowledge base |
AI Assist | Free tier, then from $29 a month | Free tier covers limited volume |
Whitelabel | $29 a month | Removes the badge, adds custom domains |
Voice Agents | From $49 a month plus usage | Waitlist |
Data Enrichment | From $59 a month | Waitlist |
Source: Tawk add-ons and Why is Tawk free?
Rating
Tawk holds 4.5 out of 5 from 203 reviews on G2.
Best for
Tawk is best for a small business that wants free live chat today and may add AI answers later. Teams that have outgrown the free inbox or the paid badge removal can compare seven replacements in the Tawk alternatives guide.
2. Tidio: best free plan with live chat, flows, and an AI trial
Tidio is a customer service platform whose free plan combines live chat, scripted Flows, and a small AI allowance. It ranks second because the free plan covers all three chatbot types, with a published cap on each. A longer write-up is in the Tidio review.
Key features
- 50 billable conversations a month on the free plan
- Flows that reach 100 unique visitors a month for free
- 50 Lyro AI Agent conversations on every new account
- Live chat, ticketing, and a live visitors list
- Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and email channels listed in the plan table
Pros
- A conversation is billable only when a human agent replies
- The 7-day trial of paid features needs no credit card
- The account drops to the free plan when the trial ends
- The largest review base in this list: 1,962 G2 reviews
Cons
- The 50 free Lyro conversations do not refill. A monthly AI allowance needs a paid Lyro plan.
- Removing Tidio branding is a paid add-on, listed at $16.67 a month.
- Live chat, Lyro, and Flows are priced as three separate quotas.
- The free plan has 50 billable conversations a month, and paid Starter has 100.
Pricing
Plan | Price | What you get |
Free | $0 | 50 billable conversations and 100 Flows visitors a month, 50 Lyro conversations one time |
Starter | $24.17 a month, billed annually | 100 billable conversations |
Growth | From $49.17 a month, billed annually | From 250 billable conversations |
Lyro AI Agent | From $32.50 a month, billed annually | From 50 Lyro conversations a month |
Plus | From $300 a month plus usage | Custom limits |
Source: Tidio pricing.
Rating
Tidio holds 4.6 out of 5 from 1,962 reviews on G2.
Best for
Tidio is best for an online store that wants live chat, simple flows, and a first test of AI answers on one free plan. A side-by-side with a content-trained chatbot is in SiteGPT vs Tidio.
3. SiteGPT: best paid step when a free AI cap runs out
SiteGPT is an AI chatbot trained on your own website content, and it has no free plan. It is in this list for the moment a free AI allowance stops being enough. Starter includes 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages a month, against 50 credits on Chatbase Free and 50 one-time conversations on Tidio.
Key features
- Trains on your website, up to 1,000 pages on Starter
- 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages a month on Starter, or one tenth as many GPT-4.1 messages
- Escalation to a human and lead collection
- 95+ languages
- Chat integrations such as Slack, Crisp, and Messenger from the Growth plan
Pros
- A flat monthly price with a published message quota
- Starter includes 4,000 messages a month, against 50 credits a month on Chatbase Free
- Yearly billing lowers Starter from $59 to $39 a month
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 on G2
Cons
- No free plan
- The 7-day trial requires a credit card
- Starter has 1 chatbot, 1 team member, manual content refresh, and no chat integrations
- Removing SiteGPT branding is an add-on at $39 a month billed yearly
- The G2 base is small at 12 reviews
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Messages a month | Pages | Chatbots |
Starter | $59 | $39 | 4,000 | 1,000 | 1 |
Growth | $129 | $79 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 2 |
Scale | $429 | $259 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 3 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Message quotas are GPT-4.1-mini messages. A HIPAA BAA and a signed DPA are available on the Enterprise plan only. Source: SiteGPT pricing.
Rating
SiteGPT holds 4.9 out of 5 from 12 reviews on G2.
Best for
SiteGPT is best for a business that has tested a free AI chatbot, hit the cap, and wants content-trained answers at a flat price. Setup steps are in the AI chatbot for website guide.
4. Chatbase: best free AI agent trained on your content
Chatbase is an AI agent builder with a free plan that answers from your own content. Its free message credits refill every month. Plans and limits are covered in the Chatbase review.
Key features
- 50 message credits a month on the free plan
- 1 MB of training content and 1 member on Free
- Access to a limited set of AI models on Free
- Integrations, analytics, and advanced models from the Hobby plan
- Native Helpdesk, voice, and telephony from the Standard plan
Pros
- The free credits refill every month
- The paid entry price is $40 a month
- Yearly plans are 20% off
Cons
- A free agent is deleted after 14 days of inactivity.
- 50 credits a month is fewer than 2 credits a day.
- Integrations are listed from the Hobby plan, not Free.
- Removing "Powered By Chatbase" costs $99 a month.
Pricing
Plan | Monthly price | Message credits a month | Members |
Free | $0 | 50 | 1 |
Hobby | $40 | 700 | 2 |
Standard | $150 | 4,000 | 3 |
Pro | $500 | 15,000 | 5 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Extra credits cost $40 per 1,000. Source: Chatbase pricing.
Rating
Chatbase holds 4.8 out of 5 from 46 reviews on G2.
Best for
Chatbase is best for testing a content-trained AI agent on a low-traffic site before paying for one.
5. Crisp: best free live chat for a team of two
Crisp is a customer service suite with a free plan built around a website chat widget and a shared inbox. The free plan has no AI credits, so your team writes every reply. Other options in the same category are in Crisp alternatives.
Key features
- Website chat widget and shared inbox on the free plan
- 2 seats and 100 customer profiles on Free
- Mobile apps, chat SDKs, and a contact form
- Flat pricing per workspace, with no conversation limit
- AI credits included from the Mini plan
Pros
- The free plan is free forever
- No per-conversation charge on any plan
- A 14-day trial of all features needs no card
- 205 reviews on G2
Cons
- The free plan includes no AI credits.
- The AI chatbot is listed from the Essentials plan at $95 a month.
- Free is limited to 2 seats and 100 customer profiles.
- A shared email inbox starts on the Mini plan.
Pricing
Plan | Price per workspace a month | Seats | Included AI credits |
Free | $0 | 2 | $0 |
Mini | $45 | 4 | $5 |
Essentials | $95 | 10 | $25 |
Plus | $295 | 20+ | $75 |
Source: Crisp pricing.
Rating
Crisp holds 4.5 out of 5 from 205 reviews on G2.
Best for
Crisp is best for a founder and one teammate who want to answer website chats themselves at no cost.
6. Botpress: best free plan for teams that build custom agents
Botpress is a platform for building custom AI agents, and its free plan includes 100 conversations. It suits a team with time to design the agent's logic. The platform is covered in the Botpress review.
Key features
- 100 conversations on the free plan
- 3 seats and 3 AI agents on Free
- 1,000 table rows of structured storage on Free
- 100 MB of vector storage for knowledge on Free
- Community help on Free, live chat help from Plus
Pros
- The free plan includes AI agents and a builder
- No top-ups or overage charges on Free
- The largest G2 base among the AI builders here: 514 reviews
Cons
- Building an agent takes more setup than a content-trained widget.
- A conversation counts once the visitor sends two messages.
- White-label webchat starts on the Plus plan.
- The first paid plan is $150 a month, billed annually.
Pricing
Plan | Price | Conversations included | Extra conversations |
Free | $0 | 100 | None |
Plus | $150 a month, billed annually | 250 a month | $65 per 100 |
Team | $750 a month, billed annually | 1,500 a month | $50 per 100 |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Source: Botpress pricing.
Rating
Botpress holds 4.5 out of 5 from 514 reviews on G2.
Best for
Botpress is best for a technical team that wants to prototype a custom agent for free. More builders are compared in the no-code chatbot builder ranking.
7. HubSpot: best free rule-based chatbot tied to a CRM
HubSpot includes a free chatbot builder that runs scripted conversations and saves the answers to its CRM. The free bot is rule-based. It asks questions in a set order and does not write answers from your content.
Key features
- Chatbot templates for lead qualification, meeting booking, and ticket creation
- A visual editor with no coding
- Replies personalized with contact data from the HubSpot CRM
- Handoff to a live agent
- Rule-based chatbots available on all HubSpot products and plans
Pros
- Free with no credit card required
- Every chat is logged against a CRM contact
- The bot can create a ticket when a person is needed
- 3,018 reviews for Service Hub on G2
Cons
- The free bot follows rules. It does not generate answers.
- HubSpot's AI customer agent is a separate product from the free builder.
- Premium chatbot features sit in the paid hubs.
- On a site not hosted with HubSpot, the bot needs the HubSpot tracking code on each page.
Pricing
Item | Price | Notes |
Chatbot builder | $0 | Rule-based chatflows, no credit card |
Premium chatbot features | Paid HubSpot hubs | Listed under Marketing, Sales, Service, and Content Hub |
Rating
HubSpot Service Hub holds 4.4 out of 5 from 3,018 reviews on G2.
Best for
HubSpot is best for a sales-led team that already keeps contacts in HubSpot. Its paid tiers are compared in HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift. Teams that are replacing Drift for sales chat can see where HubSpot ranks among seven options in Drift alternatives.
Free chatbot for website comparison table
This free chatbot comparison table lines up all seven tools on the five ranking criteria.
Tool | Free plan answers with | Free cap | What expires | First paid step | G2 rating |
Tawk | Live chat. AI on a free tier | AI volume limit not published | Nothing stated | $29 a month for AI Assist | 4.5 (203) |
Tidio | Live chat, Flows, Lyro AI | 50 conversations and 100 Flows visitors a month | 50 Lyro conversations never refill | $24.17 a month, billed annually | 4.6 (1,962) |
No free plan | 7-day trial | Trial ends after 7 days | $59 a month, or $39 billed yearly | 4.9 (12) | |
Chatbase | AI agent | 50 credits a month | Agent deleted after 14 idle days | $40 a month | 4.8 (46) |
Crisp | Live chat only | 2 seats, 100 profiles | Nothing stated | $45 a month | 4.5 (205) |
Botpress | AI agent you build | 100 conversations | No top-ups on Free | $150 a month, billed annually | 4.5 (514) |
HubSpot | Scripted bot | Not published | Nothing stated | Paid HubSpot hubs | 4.4 (3,018) |
What a free chatbot costs once the free plan runs out
A free chatbot costs between $29 and $150 a month at its first paid step, on the prices each vendor publishes. The table shows what that first step buys.
Tool | First paid step | Monthly price | What it adds |
Tawk | AI Assist | From $29 | Paid AI agent volume |
SiteGPT | Starter, billed yearly | $39 | 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages |
Chatbase | Hobby | $40 | 700 message credits |
Crisp | Mini | $45 | 4 seats and $5 of AI credits |
Tidio | Starter plus Lyro, billed annually | $56.67 | 100 billable conversations and 50 Lyro conversations |
SiteGPT | Starter, billed monthly | $59 | 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages |
Botpress | Plus, billed annually | $150 | 250 conversations a month |
The Tidio figure adds two published prices: $24.17 for Starter and $32.50 for Lyro. HubSpot is left out because its chatbot page lists no dollar price for the premium features.
The units differ, so compare the per-unit price with care. Chatbase Hobby works out to 5.7 cents per message credit ($40 divided by 700). SiteGPT Starter works out to about 1.5 cents per GPT-4.1-mini message billed monthly ($59 divided by 4,000), or about 1 cent billed yearly. Tidio Lyro works out to 65 cents per AI conversation ($32.50 divided by 50), and a conversation can hold many messages.
Costs across more vendors are in the AI chatbot pricing comparison.
How to choose a free chatbot for your website
Choose a free chatbot for your website by answering three questions: who writes the reply, how many chats you get a month, and how much setup time you have.
If you need... | Pick... | Why |
Free live chat with no trial clock | Tawk | The core platform has no paid plan |
Live chat, flows, and a taste of AI on one free plan | Tidio | 50 conversations, 100 Flows visitors, 50 Lyro conversations |
A free AI agent trained on your pages | Chatbase | 50 message credits refill each month |
AI answers beyond a free cap | 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages a month on Starter, paid | |
Free chat for two people, no AI | Crisp | 2 seats and a shared inbox for $0 |
A custom agent and you have build time | Botpress | 100 free conversations with a builder |
A scripted bot that fills a CRM | HubSpot | Free builder synced to HubSpot contacts |
Free website chatbot use-case cheat sheet
This cheat sheet maps nine common situations to one pick each.
Scenario | Best pick | Why |
New business with a handful of chats a week | Tawk | Free live chat with no card |
Online store testing AI replies | Tidio | 50 free Lyro conversations and live chat in one widget |
Blog or documentation site with under 50 questions a month | Chatbase | 50 free credits refill monthly |
Site that used up a free AI allowance | 4,000 messages a month for $39 billed yearly | |
Two founders answering chats from their phones | Crisp | Free mobile apps and 2 seats |
Developer building a booking or triage agent | Botpress | Free builder with 3 AI agents |
Sales team that lives in HubSpot | HubSpot | Chats land on the CRM contact record |
WordPress site that wants a plugin | See the WordPress chatbot ranking | It compares WordPress chatbot plugins |
Healthcare practice that needs a signed BAA | No free plan in this list | SiteGPT offers a BAA on Enterprise only, per its HIPAA page |
How to add a free chatbot to a website
Adding a free chatbot to a website takes four steps on any tool in this list.
- Create the account. Tawk, Tidio, Chatbase, Crisp, Botpress, and HubSpot all start without a paid plan.
- Give the bot its answers. Write knowledge base articles, build a flow, or point an AI agent at your pages.
- Paste the embed code. Each tool gives a short script to add to your site. If you expected to paste ChatGPT itself, see how to embed ChatGPT in a website for the routes that work.
- Test the cap. Ask ten real questions, then check how much of the monthly allowance they used.
WordPress owners can follow the guide to adding a chatbot to WordPress. On Squarespace the script goes into code injection, which needs a Core plan or higher, so read the chatbot for Squarespace guide before you pick a free tool. On Webflow, custom code needs a paid Site plan or Workspace, and the Webflow chatbot guide shows which tools install as a Webflow app instead.
Free chatbot for website FAQ
Basics
Is there a completely free chatbot for a website?
Yes. Tawk's core live chat platform is free with no paid plan. Tidio, Chatbase, Crisp, Botpress, and HubSpot each have a free plan with a cap.
Can you use an AI chatbot for free?
Yes, within a cap. Chatbase gives 50 message credits a month, Botpress gives 100 conversations, and Tidio gives 50 Lyro conversations one time. Tawk AI Assist has a free tier for limited volume.
Is SiteGPT a free chatbot?
No. SiteGPT has no free plan. It has a 7-day free trial that requires a credit card, and Starter costs $59 a month or $39 a month billed yearly.
Limits
What do free chatbot plans limit?
Free chatbot plans limit volume, seats, and branding. Tidio caps billable conversations at 50 a month. Crisp caps seats at 2. Chatbase caps credits at 50 a month and deletes idle agents after 14 days.
Do free chatbots show the vendor's branding?
Most do. Removing the badge costs $29 a month on Tawk, $16.67 a month on Tidio, and $99 a month on Chatbase. Botpress lists white-label webchat from its Plus plan.
Which free chatbot has no AI?
Crisp's free plan includes no AI credits, and HubSpot's free builder is rule-based. Both rely on your team or a script for every answer.
Pricing
What is the cheapest paid chatbot after a free plan?
Tawk AI Assist is the cheapest first paid step at $29 a month. SiteGPT Starter is $39 a month billed yearly, and Chatbase Hobby is $40 a month.
When is a paid chatbot worth it over a free one?
A paid chatbot is worth it when the free cap runs out most months. A site that gets more than 50 AI questions a month has passed the Chatbase Free allowance and the Tidio one-time Lyro allowance.
Setup
How do you add a free chatbot to a website?
Create an account, give the bot its answers, and paste the embed script into the site.
Do free chatbots work on WordPress?
Yes. A tool that gives an embed script works on WordPress, and the WordPress chatbot ranking compares the plugins. If the site needs a chatbot plugin that stays free, the free WordPress chatbot guide shows what WPBot, Hyve Lite and AI Engine give at no cost.
Sources
All pages below were opened on 6 October 2026.
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