Chatbase is a pretty well-known name if you’re looking into AI chatbots. It’s often seen as a simple way for businesses to start experimenting with AI. The problem is, when you get to the price tag, things start getting complicated. The cost you see on their website often isn’t the full picture, and its pricing can hide extra costs that pop up when you least expect them.
If you’re trying to budget for an AI tool, sorting through the different plans, confusing "message credit" rules, and pricey add-ons can be a real pain. This guide is here to clear things up. We’ll give you a straight-up, detailed look at Chatbase pricing for 2025. We’ll break down each plan, point out the hidden costs, and help you figure out if it’s the right tool for your team or if there’s a better way to go.
What is Chatbase?
At its heart, Chatbase is a tool that lets you build an AI chatbot using your own data, like content from your website or documents you upload. Most people use it by embedding it on their website to answer visitor questions, making it a common choice for basic customer interactions and lead generation. You can get a simple bot running fairly quickly just by giving it a few links.
While it’s easy to start, the platform’s actual value is tangled up in its pricing. The limits on its plans and the extra costs for add-ons become obvious once your business grows and your needs get more complex. What starts out looking like a simple tool can quickly turn into a surprisingly expensive part of your budget.
A complete breakdown of Chatbase pricing plans
Chatbase’s pricing isn’t just one monthly fee. It’s based on a mix of monthly message credits, how many AI agents (chatbots) you can create, and how much data you can use to train them. This makes it tricky to guess what you’ll actually end up paying each month. Let’s dig into the plans, based on their official pricing page.
| Feature | Free | Hobby | Standard | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $0 | $40 | $150 | $500 |
| AI Agents | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Message Credits/mo | (https://www.chatbase.co/pricing) | 2,000 | 12,000 | 40,000 |
| Agent Size | 400 KB | 33 MB | 33 MB | 33 MB |
| API Access | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| "Powered By" Removal | No | No (Add-on) | No (Add-on) | No (Add-on) |
| Key Limitation | Deleted after 14 days of inactivity | Only 1 AI agent, branding costs extra | Expensive for only 2 agents | Steep cost, core features are add-ons |
Chatbase pricing: The free plan’s limited trial
The free plan gives you a single chatbot with 100 message credits and a tiny 400 KB training data limit. The biggest issue? Your chatbot and all its data get deleted if you don’t log in for 14 days. This isn’t really a usable free plan for a business; it’s more of a temporary trial to nudge you towards a paid plan.
Chatbase pricing for the hobby plan ($40/month): just for personal projects
For $40 a month, you still only get one AI agent. You get more message credits and a bigger data limit, but you can’t remove the "Powered by Chatbase" branding or use your own domain without paying for add-ons. That makes it a non-starter for most businesses trying to look professional.
Chatbase pricing for the standard plan ($150/month): an awkward middle step
Jumping to the Standard plan costs you $150 a month, which gets you two AI agents and three user seats. For what you get, this plan feels expensive. You’re paying more than triple the Hobby plan’s price for just one extra bot, and you still have to pay extra to remove their branding.
Chatbase pricing for the pro plan ($500/month): a pricey option
At $500 a month, the Pro plan offers three AI agents and 40,000 message credits. This is another huge price jump for just one additional agent. The main features are pretty much the same, and important business functions like using your own domain are still locked away as paid monthly extras.
The hidden costs of Chatbase pricing you can’t ignore
The price you see on Chatbase’s website is rarely what you end up paying. A few things can make your monthly bill much higher and harder to predict, effectively penalizing you for growing your business.
Confusing message credits in Chatbase pricing
Here’s where it gets tricky. A "message" isn’t always just one message. If you use more advanced AI models like GPT-4, a single response can use up 10-30 of your credits. This means you can burn through your monthly allowance way faster than you think, making it almost impossible to predict your costs. A single detailed customer conversation could wipe out the entire free plan’s monthly credit limit.
Expensive add-ons in Chatbase pricing for basic features
Want your bot to look professional? That’ll cost you extra. Removing the "Powered by Chatbase" logo from your chatbot is another $39/month. Hosting the bot on your own custom domain so it looks like it’s part of your website? That’s an additional $59/month. These are things most businesses need, which means the real price of every plan is higher than it looks.
Big price jumps in Chatbase pricing that penalize growth
Chatbase doesn’t offer flexible billing. If your usage suddenly increases and you go over your plan’s limit, you can’t just pay a little extra for what you used. You’re forced to upgrade to the next, much more expensive plan. A successful marketing campaign could suddenly push you from the $150 Standard plan to the $500 Pro plan, more than tripling your bill overnight.
A separate tool, not an integrated part of your workflow
When it comes down to it, Chatbase is just a standalone chatbot builder. It doesn’t connect deeply with the support tools you already use, like your help desk. This just creates another system for your support team to check, forcing them to switch between different platforms to handle customer conversations.
In contrast, a tool like eesel AI works as an automation layer directly inside the tools you already have. It operates within your existing help desk, whether it’s Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Jira Service Management. This gets rid of the need for a separate, disconnected tool and lets your team work where they’re most comfortable.
eesel AI: a clear and powerful alternative to Chatbase pricing
So, if Chatbase’s pricing feels like a maze, what’s a better option? Let’s look at an alternative built for clear pricing, growth, and real workflow automation. eesel AI offers a full set of support automation tools with a straightforward pricing model that won’t hit you with surprise fees for scaling.
Predictable pricing that grows with you
eesel AI uses a simple, interaction-based model. You pay for AI replies or actions, not confusing credits that change in value. All our main products AI Agent, AI Copilot, and AI Triage are included in every plan. You get the full power of the platform without hidden fees or expensive add-ons.
| Aspect | eesel AI | Chatbase |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Predictable (per interaction) | Unpredictable (per credit) |
| Included Products | Full suite (Agent, Copilot, Triage) | Chatbot builder only |
| "Powered By" Removal | Included in all plans | $39/month add-on |
| Training on Past Tickets | Yes (Business plan and up) | No |
| Workflow Actions | Yes (AI Triage, API calls) | Limited (AI Actions) |
Deeper training for smarter, more accurate AI
While Chatbase mostly learns from public website content, eesel AI can learn from your most important data: your past support tickets, internal macros, and private knowledge bases in tools like Confluence or Google Docs. This helps create a much more accurate AI that understands the specific details and voice of your company, which is something you just can’t get from public web pages alone.
Real automation that lives in your existing tools
eesel AI doesn’t force you to switch tools. It improves the help desk you already have, giving your team an AI Copilot to draft replies and an AI Agent to handle frontline support on its own. The best part is that it all happens right inside your team’s current workflow, so there’s no new tool to learn or extra inbox to manage.
Here’s a quick look at how it can work inside a tool like Zendesk:
Will Chatbase pricing help you grow?
Look, Chatbase can be a decent starting point for AI chatbots. But its pricing model, with its hidden costs and surprise upgrades, can cause real problems for a growing business. The appeal of a cheap plan disappears quickly once you see that basic features cost extra and that growing your traffic can lead to a much bigger bill.
For teams that need a reliable, scalable, and transparent AI platform, eesel AI is the better option. Its predictable pricing, deep integrations, and complete feature set give you a clear return on your investment and a tool that can grow with you.
Don’t let confusing pricing hold your team back. Book a demo of eesel AI and see what a truly integrated AI solution can do for your customer support.
Frequently asked questions
The biggest hidden costs are expensive monthly add-ons for essential features like removing the “Powered By” logo and using a custom domain. Also, the message credit system can quickly deplete your allowance, forcing an unexpected upgrade.
A single complex query using a powerful model like GPT-4 can consume up to 30 message credits. This makes it nearly impossible to forecast your monthly usage and costs based on the number of customer conversations.
It doesn’t support scaling very well. If you exceed your plan’s limits, you are forced into a much more expensive tier instead of paying for overages, which can cause your bill to spike suddenly after a successful campaign.
Even at $500/month, the Pro plan requires you to pay extra for key business features like removing Chatbase’s branding or hosting on your own domain. This makes the total cost significantly higher than the list price for a professional setup.
For many businesses, the value is questionable. The core service is just a standalone chatbot builder, and the pricing structure means you often pay more for less functionality compared to more deeply integrated alternatives.
Chatbase is a separate tool, creating another platform for your team to manage. An integrated solution like eesel AI provides more value by working within your existing help desk and offering transparent, all-inclusive pricing.
