Chatbase Pricing: Free Plan, Credit Limits, and When to Upgrade
Chatbase looks affordable at first glance — there is a free plan, and the paid tiers start at $40 a month. But the platform runs on a credit-based billing model that is easy to misread, and several features that feel like table stakes (API access, branding removal, advanced integrations) are locked behind specific tiers. This guide explains exactly how message credits work, what you actually get at each price point, where hidden costs appear, and how to pick the right tier for your situation in 2026.
How Message Credits Actually Work
Every time a user sends a message and your Chatbase AI agent responds, the platform deducts message credits from your monthly allowance. The twist is that the number of credits consumed per response depends on which AI model your agent is using.
| Model tier | Credits consumed per response |
|---|---|
| All other models (default/economical) | 1 credit |
| GPT-5.2 · Gemini 2.5 Pro · Gemini 3.1 Pro | 2 credits |
| Grok 3 · Claude 4.5 Sonnet · Claude 4.6 Sonnet | 3 credits |
| Grok 4 · GPT-5.5 | 4 credits |
| Claude 4.5 Opus · Claude 4.6 Opus | 5 credits |
| Claude 4.7 Opus | 6 credits |
⚠️ Prices shown are for reference only and may change. Always verify on the official Chatbase pricing page before purchasing.
The practical implication: if you configure your agent to use Claude 4.6 Sonnet (3 credits per response), a Hobby plan with 500 credits gives you roughly 166 complete exchanges — not 500. A typical support conversation involves three to five bot replies, so that 500-credit budget might cover 33–55 real conversations per month before you hit the wall.
Credits reset on the 1st of every month, not on your subscription anniversary date.
Chatbase Plans at a Glance
| Plan | Monthly price | Annual price | Credits/mo | API access | White-label | Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 50 | No | No | 1 |
| Hobby | ~$40 | ~$32/mo ($384/yr) | 500 | No | Add-on | 2 |
| Standard | ~$150 | ~$120/mo ($1,440/yr) | 4,000 | Yes | Add-on | 3 |
| Pro | ~$500 | ~$400/mo ($4,800/yr) | 15,000 | Yes | Add-on | 5 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Yes | Included | Custom |
⚠️ Prices shown are for reference only and may change. Always verify on the official Chatbase pricing page before purchasing.
Annual billing saves approximately 20% compared to paying month-to-month. If you are confident in your tier, the annual option is worth it.
Free Plan: What You Actually Get
The free tier is a genuine starting point, not a dummy account. You can build one AI agent, upload up to 400 KB of training content, and let the bot handle up to 50 user interactions per month on economical models.
Limits that matter:
- 50 credits/month — enough for light demos or internal testing, not a production support widget
- 400 KB training content — roughly 200 pages of plain text; tight but workable for a focused FAQ bot
- No API access — you cannot call the agent programmatically; widget-only deployment
- Agents deleted after 14 days of inactivity — if you stop using the free account, your bot disappears without warning
- Chatbase branding always visible — no option to remove it on free
Best for: Personal projects, proof-of-concept demos, testing Chatbase before spending money.
Hobby Plan (~$40/mo): First Paid Step
The Hobby tier bumps you to 500 credits, 10 MB of training content, and unlocks the integrations panel plus basic analytics. You also get two members on the workspace, which is useful for small teams.
What you still do not get on Hobby:
- No API access — programmatic chat is locked to Standard and above
- Branding removal is a paid add-on (~$39/month extra) — factor this in before comparing prices
- No voice or telephony features
- No advanced integrations (Stripe, Zendesk remain unavailable)
The real monthly cost for a brandless Hobby deployment is closer to $79/month, not $40. That reframes the value proposition considerably.
Best for: Solo founders, small personal sites, or very low-volume customer Q&A where 500 credits per month is genuinely enough.
Standard Plan (~$150/mo): The Developer Tier
Standard is where Chatbase becomes a serious production tool. The key unlocks:
- 4,000 credits/month — enough for roughly 800–1,300 real conversations at a 3-credit model
- Full API v2 access — the gateway for custom integrations, programmatic chat, and feeding in Apify-scraped content (see our Chatbase API guide)
- Help desk, Voice, and Telephony modules
- Advanced integrations including Stripe and Zendesk
- Auto-retrain agents when source content changes
- Personalization features (custom identity variables per user)
The Standard plan is the minimum for any developer workflow. If you need programmatic access, this is where you start.
Best for: SaaS support bots, e-commerce sites with moderate traffic, developer teams who need API access.
Pro Plan (~$500/mo): High-Volume Production
Pro scales to 15,000 credits per month — roughly three to four times Standard — and adds:
- Advanced analytics with deeper conversation insight
- Sources suggestions (the platform proposes new content to add to the knowledge base)
- Tickets as a source — automatically train on resolved support tickets
- 12 enabled AI Actions per agent versus 8 on Standard
This tier makes sense when you are handling thousands of conversations monthly and need data to continuously improve the bot.
Best for: High-traffic e-commerce, multi-product SaaS with large support volume, teams that want continuous auto-improvement.
Enterprise Plan: Custom Everything
Enterprise unlocks everything in Pro plus:
- Custom credit limits negotiated with your account team
- White-labeling included — no add-on fee
- SSO (SAML/SCIM) for corporate identity management
- Custom roles and permissions
- Audit logs for compliance
- Priority support, dedicated CSM, and SLAs
Pricing is fully custom. If you need a quote, reach out through Chatbase's sales page.
Best for: Enterprises with compliance requirements, agencies deploying white-labeled bots for clients, companies with unpredictable or very high message volumes.
Hidden Costs to Know Before You Commit
Extra message credits
When your monthly allocation runs out, conversations stop — the widget shows an "unavailable" error. To prevent this, you can enable auto-recharge, which adds 1,000 credits for $40 whenever your balance drops below a threshold you set. Those extra credits do not expire but can add significantly to your monthly bill if your volume is erratic.
Branding removal
On Hobby and Standard plans, the "Powered by Chatbase" widget badge is visible to every user. Removing it requires a separate paid add-on (approximately $39/month). This is only waived at Enterprise. If brand presentation matters, build the add-on cost into your effective price.
Additional seats
Each plan caps the number of workspace members. Going over requires purchasing additional seat add-ons, which adds to your total cost if you have a larger team.
Custom domain
Hosting the chat interface on your own domain (rather than chatbase.co) may require a higher plan or a separate add-on depending on your setup.
Honest Math: How Many Conversations Can Each Plan Handle?
These estimates assume an average of 4 credits consumed per conversation (mixing economical models with a 3-credit model for complex queries) and 3 bot turns per conversation on average.
| Plan | Credits/mo | Avg credits per conversation | Est. conversations/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 50 | 4 | ~12 |
| Hobby | 500 | 4 | ~125 |
| Standard | 4,000 | 4 | ~1,000 |
| Pro | 15,000 | 4 | ~3,750 |
⚠️ Prices shown are for reference only and may change. Always verify on the official Chatbase pricing page before purchasing.
These numbers drop fast if you use higher-tier models. At 6 credits per response (Claude 4.7 Opus, 3 turns per conversation), the same Hobby plan handles only ~27 conversations — barely worth the $40.
When to Upgrade: A Decision Guide
Stay on Free if you are testing the platform, running an internal demo, or only need occasional bot interactions for personal use.
Move to Hobby if you have a live site with light traffic, need basic analytics, and are comfortable with Chatbase branding or willing to pay the add-on.
Move to Standard if you need API access, want to connect Stripe or Zendesk, plan to feed scraped content from Apify's website scraper into your knowledge base, or expect 200+ conversations per month.
Move to Pro if monthly conversations regularly exceed 1,000, you want auto-improving knowledge bases from ticket history, or you need advanced analytics dashboards.
Go Enterprise if you have SSO requirements, need white-labeling without add-on fees, operate under compliance frameworks requiring audit logs, or have volume that makes custom credit pricing worth negotiating.
Bottom Line
Chatbase is genuinely competitive at the Standard tier and above — the credit model is predictable once you understand how model choice multiplies your consumption, and the feature depth is solid. The Free and Hobby tiers are undersized for real production use, and the branding add-on cost is a frequent point of frustration in user reviews. Factor in the full effective price (plan + branding removal + potential credit overages) before comparing Chatbase to flat-rate competitors.
Ready to build? Start your free Chatbase agent here — no credit card required. If you are evaluating alternatives before committing, see our Chatbase full review and the best AI chatbot builders roundup.
Yes. The free plan is permanently free at $0/month with 50 message credits per month and 1 AI agent. The catch is that inactive agents are deleted after 14 days, there is no API access, and Chatbase branding is always visible. It works well for testing but is not suited for production traffic.
When your credits are exhausted, your AI agent displays an 'unavailable' error to end users. You can prevent this by enabling auto-recharge in your Workspace Settings, which automatically adds 1,000 credits for $40 whenever your balance falls below a threshold you set.
Chatbase does not advertise a traditional time-limited trial for paid plans. You can start on the free plan, test your agent, and upgrade at any time. Credits reset monthly on the 1st, regardless of when you subscribed.
No. The Chatbase API v2 requires the Standard plan or higher. Free and Hobby accounts cannot make programmatic API calls to their agents.
Additional credits beyond your monthly plan allowance cost $40 per 1,000 credits via the auto-recharge feature. These credits do not expire and carry over month to month.
White-label branding removal is available as a paid add-on on Hobby and Standard plans. It is included at no extra charge only on the Enterprise plan. Check the official Chatbase pricing page for current add-on pricing.