Chatbase is a customer-support AI chatbot platform with published plans from $40/month (Hobby, 700 message credits) up to $500/month (Pro, 15,000 credits), plus a free tier with 50 credits. Dante AI is a newer AI chatbot platform aimed at small businesses, but we don't have enough independently verified detail on its current plans and limits to score it confidently here. If you want a done-for-you alternative, Agents by AIQ builds and operates AI agents (including phone-answering receptionists and lead follow-up) for small businesses — book a call to scope one.
Bottom line: Chatbase has transparent, published pricing ($40–$500/month), a broad integration set, and a native helpdesk on Standard and above, making it the verifiable choice for website support automation. Dante AI could not be evaluated with the same depth, so the verdict rests on Chatbase's documented strengths rather than a head-to-head feature win.
TL;DR
- Chatbase's paid plans run $40/month (Hobby, 700 message credits), $150/month (Standard, 4,000 credits), and $500/month (Pro, 15,000 credits), with 20% off annual billing ($32/$120/$400).
- Chatbase's free plan offers just 50 message credits/month, and agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity — it's a sandbox, not a production tier.
- The native helpdesk, voice, telephony, outbound campaigns, and API access only appear on the Standard plan ($150/month) and above.
- Every Chatbase self-serve plan includes just 1 AI agent; additional agents cost $25/month each, and removing 'Powered by Chatbase' branding costs $99/month.
- Overage credits cost $40 per 1,000 message credits via auto-recharge, and heavier AI models burn up to 5 credits per reply, so real bills can run well above the base plan.
- Chatbase holds a 4.8/5 on G2 (45 reviews), 4.3/5 on Capterra (73 reviews), and 3.9/5 on Trustpilot (64 reviews).
- Chatbase answers tickets in place inside Zendesk but only escalates into Freshdesk, Intercom, Gorgias, HubSpot, and Help Scout.
Head-to-head
| Dimension | Chatbase | Dante AI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free (50 credits); Hobby $40/mo; Standard $150/mo; Pro $500/mo; 20% off annual; overage $40/1,000 creditswinner | — |
| Ease of use | No-code; train on websites, PDFs, and Q&As with no flow buildingwinner | — |
| Features | AI agents, Actions, Procedures, native helpdesk, voice/telephony (Standard+), outbound campaignswinner | — |
| Support | Priority support, SLAs, and success manager on Enterprise only; 7-day trial on paid tierswinner | — |
| Integrations | Stripe, Zendesk, Salesforce, Zapier, Shopify, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and morewinner | — |
| Setup | Usable agent live in an afternoon from existing contentwinner | — |
| Scalability | 1 agent per plan; extra agents $25/mo each; credits reset monthly with no rolloverwinner | — |
Scores
Chatbase
chatbase.co ↗Chatbase is a no-code platform for building customer-facing AI agents trained on your own content — website pages, PDFs, DOC/DOCX, TXT, CSV, text, and Q&A pairs. Founded by Yasser Elsaid in late 2022 and incorporated in 2023, it was one of the first SaaS products to productize RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), letting businesses 'train' a chatbot on their documents without fine-tuning a model. Agents answer customer questions, take actions in connected systems via AI Actions, follow structured multi-step Procedures, and hand conversations to humans when needed. Deployment spans web chat, email, WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and — from the Standard plan — voice and telephony. Chatbase also includes a native helpdesk that unifies website, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram conversations in one inbox, with routing, internal notes, and AI-assisted drafting. The company reports 10,000+ businesses served, and reviewers consistently praise how fast a trained support agent can go live.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 50 message credits/month, 1 agent, 1 member, limited models, agents deleted after 14 days of inactivity |
| Hobby | $40/mo | 700 message credits/month, 1 agent, 2 members, advanced models, integrations, basic analytics ($32/mo billed annually) |
| Standard | $150/mo | 4,000 message credits/month, 1 agent, 3 members, helpdesk, voice, telephony, outbound campaigns, API access ($120/mo billed annually) |
| Pro | $500/mo | 15,000 message credits/month, 1 agent, 5 members, advanced analytics, source suggestions, tickets as a source ($400/mo billed annually) |
Pros
- Transparent, fully published pricing including per-model credit rates and add-on costs — rare in this category
- Very fast setup: point it at your content and have a working support agent live in an afternoon
- Native helpdesk plus AI agents in one product, with live human handoff and async tickets
- Strong Zendesk integration that answers tickets in place, not just escalates
- Solid review ratings: 4.8/5 on G2, 4.3/5 on Capterra
- Workspace-based billing (not per-seat) helps small teams keep costs down
Cons
- Only 1 AI agent included on every self-serve plan; extra agents are $25/month each
- Credit metering punishes success — busy bots burn credits fast, and overages cost $40 per 1,000
- Helpdesk, voice, telephony, and API access are locked behind the $150/month Standard plan
- Removing 'Powered by Chatbase' branding costs $99/month
- Escalates rather than resolves in Freshdesk, Intercom, Gorgias, HubSpot, and Help Scout
- Free plan's 50 credits and 14-day inactivity deletion make it a demo, not a deployment
Dante AI
Dante AI is an AI chatbot platform positioned for small businesses, offering a way to deploy AI-powered conversational agents without writing code. It competes in the same category as Chatbase: training chatbots on a business's own content so they can answer customer questions and handle routine support tasks. Beyond that category-level description, this comparison could not verify Dante AI's current plan structure, feature set, limits, or third-party ratings with the same specificity available for Chatbase, so buyers should weigh it accordingly and confirm details directly with the vendor before committing.
Pros
- Positioned for small businesses that want a code-free AI chatbot deployment
- Competes in the same category as established players, so switching costs between tools are typically low
Cons
- Current plan limits, credit model, and add-on costs could not be independently verified for this comparison
- Third-party review volume and ratings could not be confirmed at the level available for Chatbase
- Unclear whether it offers a native helpdesk, voice/telephony, or in-place integrations comparable to Chatbase's Standard tier
Pricing compared
Features and channels
Real-world reception and limits
Which should you pick?
FAQs
How much does Chatbase cost in 2026?
Chatbase's published plans are Free ($0, 50 message credits/month), Hobby at $40/month ($32 billed annually, 700 credits), Standard at $150/month ($120 annually, 4,000 credits), and Pro at $500/month ($400 annually, 15,000 credits), with custom Enterprise pricing. Annual billing saves 20%. Add-ons can raise the bill: $40 per 1,000 overage credits, $25/month per extra AI agent, and $99/month to remove Chatbase branding.
Is Chatbase's free plan usable for a real business?
No. The free plan includes only 50 message credits per month, limited AI models, 1 MB of training content, and no AI actions — and agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity. Reviewers and Chatbase's own positioning treat it as an evaluation sandbox. The first practical tier for an active support operation is Hobby at $40/month, and the first tier with the helpdesk is Standard at $150/month.
What is a Chatbase message credit and how fast do you burn through them?
A message credit is consumed each time your AI agent generates a response. The burn rate depends on the model: roughly 1 credit per reply on cheaper models up to 5 credits on heavier ones like Claude 4.6 Opus. Allowances range from 50 credits on Free to 15,000 on Pro, credits reset monthly with no rollover, and auto-recharge tops you up at $40 per 1,000 credits when you run dry — so a busy bot can push your real bill well above the base plan price.
Does Chatbase replace a help desk like Zendesk?
It complements rather than fully replaces one. Chatbase includes its own native helpdesk on the Standard plan and above, with routing, statuses, internal notes, and human handoff. Its Zendesk integration answers tickets in place, but in Freshdesk, Intercom, Gorgias, HubSpot, and Help Scout the documented behavior is to escalate conversations into those tools rather than resolve them there. If your tickets live outside Zendesk, test that handoff behavior before committing.
How does Chatbase compare to Dante AI for small businesses?
Chatbase offers fully published pricing ($40–$500/month self-serve), a documented feature set including a native helpdesk, voice and telephony, and roughly 180 third-party ratings averaging 4.8/5 on G2 and 4.3/5 on Capterra. Dante AI competes in the same small-business AI chatbot category, but its current plans, limits, and ratings could not be verified to the same standard in this comparison. If verifiability and documented integration behavior matter to your decision, Chatbase is the safer documented choice; otherwise, evaluate Dante AI directly with the vendor.
What's the alternative if I don't want to build and run a chatbot myself?
Agents by AIQ is a done-for-you option: rather than handing you a DIY toolkit, the AIQ Labs team designs, builds, connects, and operates AI agents for your business — AI receptionists that answer calls on a real phone number, sales follow-up and SDR agents, support agents, appointment setters, and workflow automation, integrated with the tools you already use. It's month-to-month and you own everything. Book a call to scope the agent your business needs.
Sources
- Chatbase Pricing
- Chatbase Review & Pricing Guide 2026
- Chatbase Review 2026: Features, Pros, Cons, and Pricing
- Chatbase vs Voiceflow vs Botpress: 2026 Pricing Compared
- Chatbase Pricing: What You'll Really Pay
- Chatbase Pricing 2026: Worth It for Instagram DMs?
- Is Chatbase Worth It? Review, Pricing and Credits (2026)
- Chatbase Pricing 2026: Plans, Credits & Add-On Costs