Chatbase

Chatbase is a platform for building AI agents that handle customer support and sales. You train an agent on your documents, website pages and knowledge base, then deploy it to a website chat widget, Meta apps, Slack, WhatsApp, email or a phone line. Agents follow procedures written in plain language, take actions such as looking up an order or processing a refund, and hand off to a human through Chatbase's built-in helpdesk when they get stuck.

It is sold on message credits rather than seats, with a free plan and three paid tiers. Chatbase says it is used by more than 10,000 brands and holds a 4.8 rating on G2. The agents are built for resolving tickets; they are not trained on audio or video.

Training on your own material. Connect data sources and upload documents: help articles, product catalogs, policies, website pages. Chatbase states that your data is only accessible to your agent and is not used to train models.

One agent, many channels. Deploy the same agent to a website widget, Meta apps, Slack, WhatsApp and email. Voice and telephony, where customers call and get answers, arrive on the Standard plan.

Procedures and actions. Instructions written in plain language that the agent follows step by step, with actions built in: order lookups, refunds, API calls. Pre-built actions cover human escalation, Slack, Stripe, Calendly, lead collection and web search.

Interactive widgets. Agents can respond with interactive components rather than text alone.

Helpdesk and human handoff. An integrated helpdesk where AI and human agents work from the same conversation, with routing, teams, scheduling and AI-drafted replies.

Analytics. Conversation tracking, sentiment, resolution rate and topic summaries across inquiries, so you can review escalations and refine instructions. Advanced analytics is a Pro-plan feature.

Model choice. Paid plans get access to advanced models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Meta, Mistral and others; the free plan has limited model access.

Lead capture. A Collect Leads action gathers contact details in the conversation, with a daily lead email and webhooks per action.

Support teams deflecting tickets. The product is built around resolving customer issues end to end: procedures, actions, escalation and a helpdesk. If most of your inbound is "where is my order" and "how do I reset my password," this is the shape of tool you want.

Ecommerce and SaaS with a help center. Order lookups, refunds through Stripe, and a documentation base to train on are exactly what Chatbase is designed around.

Teams that need channels beyond the website. WhatsApp, Meta apps, Slack, email and voice from one agent is a real advantage over widget-only tools.

Less ideal: creators and content teams. Chatbase trains on documents, not recordings. If what your audience wants to ask about is what you said in an episode, a video or a webinar, it cannot cite the moment or play it back. That job is what Castmagic's Audience Chat is built for, and the two do not overlap much.

Channels: website chat widget, Meta apps, Slack, WhatsApp, email, and voice/telephony (Standard plan and up).

Actions: pre-built actions for human escalation, Slack, Stripe, Calendly, lead collection and web search, plus custom actions that call your own APIs.

Business tools: "Advanced integrations (Stripe, Zendesk, and more)" unlock on the Standard plan, alongside API access.

Developer surface: API access from Standard, webhooks for helpdesk and conversation events, and custom domains for white-labelled embed scripts.

Chatbase offers documentation and a help center on every plan. Enterprise adds priority support, a customer success manager and SLAs.

On security, Chatbase states SOC 2 Type II certification and GDPR compliance, encryption at rest and in transit, and HIPAA eligibility plus zero data retention on the Enterprise plan.

Chatbase has a free plan and three paid tiers, metered on message credits rather than seats. Yearly billing is 20% off. Prices verified September 4, 2026.

Add-ons: auto-recharge credits at $40 per 1,000; extra agents at $25 per agent per month; removing the Chatbase branding is $99 per month on any plan.

What that means in practice: every plan includes one agent, so a second product or brand costs $25 a month. A small site that needs API access or the helpdesk jumps from $40 to $150. And if you want your own branding on the widget, add $99 to whichever tier you pick.

One agent, every channel. Website, WhatsApp, Meta apps, Slack, email and voice from a single build is more than most chatbot tools offer.

Built for resolution, not just answers. Procedures, actions, refunds through Stripe, and a helpdesk with human handoff make it a support product rather than a FAQ bot.

Model choice. Paid plans can run agents on models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Meta and Mistral.

Serious compliance. SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA eligibility and zero data retention on Enterprise.

A real free plan to test with. 50 credits is enough to see whether the answers are good before paying.

Credits are the ceiling. Message credits, not seats, are the meter, and auto-recharge is a paid add-on at $40 per 1,000. Advanced models consume more credits per message.

Branding costs extra on every plan. Removing the Chatbase badge is $99 a month, even on Pro.

Free agents expire. An agent on the free plan is deleted after 14 days of inactivity.

One agent per plan. Each additional agent is $25 a month, and the Hobby-to-Standard jump ($40 to $150) is where API access, the helpdesk and voice live.

Documents only. Chatbase trains on text sources. Podcasts, videos and webinars are outside its scope, and answers cannot cite or play a moment from a recording.