If you need to turn your help content into a website chatbot, Chatbase answers customer questions from that material.
Buy it only when the $40-per-month Hobby plan replaces repeated support work; it is cheaper than Intercom, with fewer voices in the wider support market.
Who it's for
Chatbase suits you when customers repeatedly ask questions that already have written answers. You may be disappointed if every reply must be exact without human review.
Buy it if
- You run a small store and your order, return, and product pages already answer common questions.
- You need a chatbot on WordPress, Shopify, or WhatsApp instead of building a custom integration.
- You can review conversations and refine instructions when the bot gives an unhelpful answer.
Skip it if
- You handle medical, legal, financial, or refund decisions where a confident wrong reply creates a real risk.
- You need an agent to reason across messy documents without editing your knowledge base first.
- You already use a full helpdesk and need deep human-agent workflows more than a website chatbot.
Your first hour
You can begin with the free plan, and Chatbase also advertises a trial for paid plans. Its public materials do not clearly state whether a paid trial needs a card. The vendor says an agent can be ready in minutes.
- Create a workspace The free plan allows 1 workspace member.
- Add your content Free training content is limited to 1 MB.
- Test real questions You have 50 message credits per month on the free plan.
- Publish the widget Chatbase supports a JavaScript embed and documents deployment across several channels.
The setup is simple for a non-developer, but writing safe instructions takes longer than placing the chat widget.
What you actually get per plan
Chatbase has a free plan and monthly paid plans based mainly on message credits, workspace members, and training-content size. Most small businesses that put the bot in front of customers will reach Hobby, because 50 free messages disappear quickly.
| Plan | Price | What’s inside | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 50 message credits/month, 1 member, 1 MB training content | Agent deletion after 14 days of inactivity |
| Hobby | $40/month | 700 message credits/month, 2 members, 10 MB training content | Auto-recharge credits can cost $40 per 1,000 credits |
| Standard | $150/month | 4,000 message credits/month, 3 members, 20 MB training content | Auto-recharge credits can cost $40 per 1,000 credits |
| Pro | $500/month | 15,000 message credits/month, 5 members, 40 MB training content | Auto-recharge credits can cost $40 per 1,000 credits |
The free plan has a hard cap of 50 monthly message credits and removes inactive agents after 14 days.
Three real situations
These are the buying cases where the limits and answer quality matter most.
A two-person online store
At $40 per month, Hobby gives 2 members and 700 monthly credits. It fits if the team can route unusual returns and payment questions to a person.
A small agency with three support staff
Standard costs $150 per month and includes 3 members. The team must test questions spanning several client documents, since those are where plausible but wrong answers appear.
A freelancer with three retainer clients
The free plan’s 50 monthly credits are enough for a short experiment, not client-facing support. Skip Chatbase if each client only needs basic answers; a clear FAQ and contact form are cheaper and simpler.
Where it falls short
Reviewers report that Chatbase can make a confident guess instead of refusing an unsupported question. Complex queries, ambiguous training data, and answers requiring several documents can produce plausible but incorrect replies. Compared with Intercom, the better-known support-suite alternative, Chatbase is the more chatbot-first choice and needs tighter answer checks.
Credits are the practical cost trap, especially when auto-recharge adds $40 per 1,000 credits. That hurts a small team with unpredictable traffic. Chatbase supports more than 95 languages, but language coverage does not remove the risk from unclear source content. Customer data is not used to train its AI models, though service data is stored in the United States.
Watch out: Paid obligations are generally non-cancellable and non-refundable. You can stop renewal in your account, but do not treat a paid month as refundable.
Common questions
Is there a free Chatbase plan?
Yes. It includes 50 monthly message credits, 1 member, and 1 MB of training content. An inactive free agent is deleted after 14 days.
Can I cancel Chatbase any time?
You can turn off renewal through your account settings. Paid obligations are generally non-cancellable, and fees are generally non-refundable.
Does Chatbase train on my data?
No. Chatbase states that it does not use customer data to train AI models and uses retrieval from your supplied content.
What is the cheapest way to try Chatbase?
Start on the free plan at $0. Paid plans are also reported to include a 7-day trial, but the vendor does not clearly publish the card requirement.
What is the closest Chatbase alternative?
Intercom is the better-known alternative for teams buying broader customer support software. Chatbase is a narrower fit when your main need is a trained customer chatbot.
Bottom line
Buy Chatbase at $40 per month only if you have repeated customer questions and will review its replies. Skip it if unsupported answers could cause harm; use a clear FAQ or a support tool with stronger human workflows instead.
