Free AI Chatbots for Websites: Limits and a Safe Evaluation

On a chatbot pricing page, "free" can mean three different things: a time-boxed trial that expires, a one-time batch of credits that never refills, or an ongoing plan that keeps working month after month under a fixed cap. Among the vendors reviewed here, ongoing free human chat is easier to establish than ongoing free AI replies. Several offers are time-limited trials or starter allowances. Knowing which kind you are looking at is the difference between a useful weekend test and a widget that goes silent while customers are typing. Prices and limits below come from vendors' public pricing pages as of 26 October 2026; treat them as a snapshot, not a promise.

This guide covers what the reviewed vendors' own pricing pages currently say, separates the types of free access, and gives you a no-payment evaluation checklist that will not leave a dead bot on your site. For a broader overview of the category, see the AI chatbot hub.

What "free" means on a chatbot pricing page

Four distinct offers are all labeled "free," and they behave differently:

Free trial. Time-limited access to the full paid product. Intercom offers 14 days with no credit card; Chatbase and YourGPT offer 7 days; Zendesk offers 14 days. When the trial ends, you either pay or the account stops providing service. Nothing carries over.

One-time starter credits. A fixed allowance attached to your account that does not renew. Tidio gives every account 50 Lyro AI conversations "free (lifetime)," as its pricing page puts it. They do not refresh monthly. Once used, the AI agent stops answering until you buy a Lyro plan (from $32.50/month).

Ongoing free plan. A $0 tier that keeps functioning indefinitely under set caps. Tidio's free plan is the clearest example among the vendors reviewed: 50 billable conversations per month, 100 Flows visitors, and operator access, with live chat, ticketing, and basic analytics. The key catch is that the free tier's Lyro allowance is the one-time 50 conversations above, not a monthly renewal.

Open-source software you host yourself. The code may be free, but you pay for infrastructure, maintenance, and integration work. None of the vendors covered here follow this model; if you choose it, budget for developer time and uptime.

Where a genuine free plan still exists

Among the products reviewed, Tidio is the only vendor whose current pricing page states an ongoing free plan with defined monthly limits. The plan includes:

• Live chat and ticketing
• 50 billable conversations per month. A conversation counts only when a human agent replies or initiates it
• 100 visitors reached with Flows per month
• Operator access within the free plan's current limits
• Basic analytics, live visitor list, and operating hours

Two limits need attention. First, the free plan includes 50 Lyro AI conversations as a one-time lifetime allowance; they do not refresh. Second, the free widget carries Tidio branding. Removing it is a paid add-on at $16.67/month. If the bot answers a customer with Tidio's logo and the customer reads it as an official company channel, that matters.

For research and document work rather than website support, see our research AI agents guide, which covers literature and document tools separately.

Paid-start or trial-only products

Most products positioned as "free" website chatbots actually begin with a trial, then move to a paid plan. The current starting prices from the vendors' own pages:

Notes on the less obvious rows:

Chatbase. The $32/month Hobby tier includes 700 message credits per month, one agent, two team members, and basic integrations including Shopify, Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Calendly, and WordPress. Additional credits auto-recharge at $40 per 1,000. There is no ongoing free message allowance on the pricing page; the entry point is the trial.

YourGPT. Essential costs $39/month billed annually and includes 2 chatbots, 3 team members, and 10 million AI credits. Credit consumption varies by model, so volume is not directly comparable to Chatbase's message credits. The YourGPT homepage describes its free offer as a seven-day trial.

Intercom / Fin. Intercom's Essential seat is shown at a promotional $19/month (struck-through $29) for new customers, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome. Qualification details for the promo are not published. As a standalone product, Fin runs on another helpdesk with no seats, from $0.99 per outcome, with a 50-outcome monthly minimum. Neither is a permanent free plan.

Freshdesk. Growth is $19 per agent per month billed annually. Freddy AI Agent includes the first 500 sessions; additional sessions are $49 per 100. Agents are billed per seat, so included features scale with headcount. The pricing page does not state a trial duration.

Zendesk. Support Team is $19 per agent per month billed yearly. Zendesk also runs a startup program offering eligible startups up to 2 years free. That is an application-based offer, not a general free plan.

Gorgias. The public pricing page describes a helpdesk-plus-AI-agent bundle and does not show fixed plan amounts. Gorgias's billing documentation explains that you pay per ticket replied to from the helpdesk, plus an outcome-based fee when AI resolves a conversation without a human. The vendor's blog describes per-resolved-interaction rates, but those amounts are not confirmed by the live pricing page, so exact current pricing needs a quote or configuration.

Test a free bot without paying: ten checks

Use this checklist before putting any free or trial chatbot on a public URL. The goal is to learn whether the bot is safe to publish and what it will cost next month.

1. Use the card-free trial if one exists. If a vendor asks for payment details before you can test, treat the "free" label with suspicion and decide whether the tool is worth that risk.
2. Confirm what refreshes. Read whether the allowance is monthly, one-time, or trial-only. For Tidio, confirm that Lyro's 50 conversations are one-time while the human billable conversations refresh monthly on the free plan.
3. Check the knowledge scope. Can the bot access the FAQs and documents you plan to feed it within the free tier? Chatbase's Hobby allows 40 MB of training content; YourGPT Essential allows 20 documents and 200 webpages.
4. Look for branding and watermarking. Free tiers often display vendor branding. Tidio's free plan shows Tidio branding; removing it is a paid add-on.
5. Ask about data export. Can you download conversation logs and knowledge configuration? A free tool without export locks you in before you have validated anything.
6. Confirm deletion. Understand what happens to your data when you close the account. The pricing pages do not all spell this out; contact the vendor if it is not documented.
7. Map the paid migration. Identify what the paid plan costs and which limits change. If the step from free to paid is steep or unclear, factor that into your decision.
8. Inspect identity handling. A typed email, order number, account ID, or phone number is a lookup key, not proof of identity. The bot should never reveal order details or account records based on matching text alone, and must never ask for passwords, admin tokens, or one-time codes in chat. Sensitive actions need an authenticated customer session or a secure verification link sent to the stored contact address.
9. If you plan Shopify, check the setup path. Since 1 January 2026, new custom apps can't be created in the Shopify admin; use the Dev Dashboard or Shopify CLI with current OAuth documentation. Native app installs are a separate path, and permissions should be scoped to what the bot actually needs.
10. Verify actions reached the backend. If the bot performs actions through integrations, a 200/202 API response or a timeout is not proof a task completed. Read the operation state or the authoritative record, and design retries with idempotency to avoid duplicate actions like double-charging a customer.

A worked example: evaluating Tidio's free plan

For a small store testing an AI chatbot, a workflow might look like this. Day 1: create a Tidio account without a credit card, train the bot on the shipping and returns FAQs, and publish the widget on a staging page. Days 2-3: ask the 20 most common customer questions and check answer quality. Days 4-7: ask colleagues to test the staging widget and confirm how human and AI usage are counted. Day 8: decide. If the bot answers repeatable questions well, plan for the paid Lyro quota, remembering that the 50 free Lyro conversations are one-time, or stay on the free human plan and staff the chat manually. This is a hypothetical sequence, not a product guarantee, but it shows the timeline a real evaluation needs.

When to move to paid

Pay when customers can reach the bot without you in the room, meaning the bot must resolve requests on its own within a defined scope. The table above lists the first paid lines. What matters next is matching the plan to the job:

• For simple FAQ deflection on a low-traffic site, Chatbase Hobby ($32/month billed annually) is one paid agent option. Tidio Starter covers human conversations; continued AI replies require a Lyro allowance, sold separately from $32.50/month.
• If you need document-heavy training and multi-channel deployment, YourGPT Essential ($39/month annual) includes 20 documents, 200 webpages, and unlimited integrations.
• If human agents staff a queue and AI triage matters more than a website widget, Freshdesk Growth ($19/agent/month), Zendesk Support Team ($19/agent/month), or Intercom Essential ($19/seat/month promo) fit better.
• If you run an ecommerce store with order actions, evaluate Shopify integration depth rather than sticker price. Chatbase Hobby lists Shopify; YourGPT documents store actions (catalog search, product cards, add-to-cart, view cart) that require Agent Mode enabled; Tidio's native Shopify actions are tied to paid Lyro quota.

The AI chatbot pricing guide covers these mechanics in more depth, and the helpdesk comparison is useful once human staffing enters the picture. For deployment specifics, see the AI chatbot for website guide.

FAQ

Is there really a completely free AI chatbot for my website? Among the vendors reviewed, only Tidio publishes an ongoing free plan: 50 human billable conversations per month, 100 Flows visitors, and 50 one-off Lyro AI conversations. Other tools offer trials or paid entry points. A "free" claim should always specify whether it refreshes.

What happens when Tidio's 50 Lyro conversations run out? They do not renew. Each Tidio account starts with 50 Lyro conversations "free (lifetime)," according to the pricing page. To get a monthly refresh, you buy a Lyro plan starting at $32.50/month, or choose a bundle that includes Lyro quota.

Does a free trial require a credit card? Intercom's 14-day trial and Tidio's 7-day trial explicitly do not. Other vendors vary; read the checkout flow before entering payment details. If a card is required, check whether the trial automatically converts to a subscription and record the cancellation deadline.

Can I use a free or trial chatbot on Shopify? Yes, at the integration level. Chatbase's Hobby tier lists Shopify as an included integration; YourGPT documents Shopify setup, with built-in store actions (catalog search, product cards, add-to-cart, view cart) that require Agent Mode enabled; Tidio lists native Shopify actions tied to paid Lyro quota. For any custom connection, remember that new Shopify custom apps must be created in the Dev Dashboard or Shopify CLI, not the admin, since 1 January 2026, and order-status or return actions need setup and permission review before you rely on them.

What does "billable conversation" mean on Tidio's free plan? A billable conversation counts when a human agent replies or initiates a conversation. Unanswered visitor messages and messages from Flows or Lyro are not counted. This definition matters because the 50-conversation limit applies only to human-handled threads.

What should I check before deleting a free account? Export your conversation logs and any configured knowledge sources, confirm the vendor's deletion process, and check that the brand and widget assets are removed from your site. Documented export and deletion paths vary by vendor.

Conclusion

The short version is that "free" rarely means free forever. Trials and one-time credits are useful for evaluating fit, but an ongoing, capped free plan is the only kind you can build a public support channel on without budgeting for near-term spend. Test with a card-free trial when possible, read whether the allowance refreshes, and map the paid migration before publishing. Include the identity and backend checks above before letting a bot touch customer records. If your website needs a 24/7 assistant that actually resolves requests, plan for a paid tier from the start. The free evaluation is how you choose which one.

Build your bot after you finish evaluating

You now have the checklist to separate real free limits from trials. The next step is choosing a platform that fits your workload and deploying without surprises.

Compare Platforms on the Chatbot Hub