How many conversations does a free chatbot answer before it stops?
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The Short Answer
- Chatbase — Chatbase gives 50 message credits a month, deletes free agents "after 14 days of inactivity", and is the only builder here whose docs name the export formats: JSON, PDF and CSV.
- Tidio — Tidio renews "50 Billable conversations / mo." for live chat while its AI agent runs on a different meter — "Your first 50 conversations are free (lifetime)".
- Botpress — Botpress shows "100 conversations" on the plan card, and its pricing script comments internally that "Free is never recommended (its 100 convos are a one-time trial allotment, not a monthly allowance)".
- Voiceflow — Voiceflow's pricing page shows no free-plan card at all; its calculator script sets the free ceiling at 100 combined credits a month, where only someone reading the source would find it.
| Product | Best for | From | Free plan | Free-plan conversations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatbase | Smallest allowance, clearest export | $32/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped conversations |
| Tidio | Two clocks on one free plan | $24.17/mo | Yes | Capped conversations |
| Botpress | A free tier its own code comment warns about | $150/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped conversations |
| Voiceflow | A free limit that exists only in JavaScript | $60/mo | Yes | Capped conversations |
What we checked, and what we did not test
A chatbot’s free tier fails in a way its owner does not see. When the allowance runs out, the bot stops answering customers who are still arriving — and the person who set it up is not the person who finds out. So the number that matters is how many conversations it will handle, and right behind it, whether the conversations it did handle can be taken out of the product.
On 6 August 2026 we opened four pricing pages and their documentation looking for those two facts. Each verdict quotes what we found.
In this category, the real limits are in the JavaScript
We have not seen this anywhere else on the site, and it happened twice out of four here.
Voiceflow’s pricing page displays no free-plan card. The free ceiling exists — the page’s
own pricing calculator contains let plan = 'Starter'; let price = 'Free'; if (total > 100 && total <= 20000) { plan = 'Pro'; ...} —
which puts it at 100 combined credits a month. A visitor reading the page cannot find that
number. A visitor reading the source can.
Botpress’s plan card says “100 conversations” and gives no period. Its pricing script says what the card does not, in a comment written for the developers who maintain it: “Free is never recommended (its 100 convos are a one-time trial allotment, not a monthly allowance)” and “Free is hard-capped with no add-ons.” The vendor knows precisely how its free tier behaves and describes it accurately — internally.
Both are still primary sources: this is the vendor’s own page, served to anyone who asks for it. But it is worth being exact about where a fact lives, because “published” and “findable” have come apart here, and a limit you can only reach by opening developer tools is not a limit the buyer has been told.
Smallest allowance, clearest export
1. Chatbase — Smallest allowance, clearest export
Chatbase has the tightest monthly cap here and the only export documentation that names its formats.
Best for The only documented transcript export in the category
From $32/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "$0/month" with 50 message credits a month, 1 AI agent, 1 member and limited model access; the page warns that "AI agents get deleted after 14 days of inactivity on the free plan".
- Hobby — $40/mo, or $32/mo billed annually · 2 seats (700 message credits a month, with a 7-day trial)
- Standard — $150/mo, or $120/mo billed annually · 3 seats (4,000 message credits a month)
- Pro — $500/mo, or $400/mo billed annually · 5 seats (15,000 message credits a month; extra agents are an add-on at $300 per agent per year)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened ("Let's Talk"; adds SSO, white-labelling, audit logs and zero data retention)
The free plan is capped at "50 message credits/month" and carries an unusual expiry: "AI agents get deleted after 14 days of inactivity on the free plan." On the half of the question everyone else avoids, Chatbase's docs answer directly: "You can export the conversations in the chats log directly from the dashboard using the Export button. The export can be downloaded as JSON, PDF, and CSV", with no plan restriction attached.
Pros
- It is the only builder here whose documentation names the export formats — JSON, PDF and CSV — with no plan condition attached.
- The credit ladder is published plainly at every tier: 50 free, then 700, 4,000 and 15,000 a month.
Skip it if
- A free agent is deleted after 14 days of inactivity, so the bot itself is on a timer.
- Fifty message credits a month is the smallest recurring allowance here.
- Every tier below Enterprise is capped at one agent; more cost $300 per agent per year.
Two clocks on one free plan
2. Tidio — Two clocks on one free plan
Tidio runs its live chat and its AI agent on different meters, and says so in one sentence easy to read past.
Best for A free plan meant to be kept, with a one-time AI allowance
From $24.17/mo. Free plan: Free — "$0/mo" with "50 Billable conversations / mo." and "100 Flows visitors reached / mo."; for the Lyro AI agent, "Your first 50 conversations are free (lifetime). You can upgrade your monthly limit to 50 - 1 000".
- Starter — $24.17/mo · 10 seats (Shown for 100 billable conversations a month; the page does not label whether this rate is monthly- or annually-billed)
- Growth — $49.17/mo · 10 seats ("Starting at" price from 250 billable conversations; billing term not distinguishable on the page)
- Plus — $300/mo ("Starting at $300/mo + monthly usage" with custom volume and seats)
- Premium — price not shown on the page we opened (Contact pricing; the page advertises a guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate and pay-per-resolution billing)
Two different clocks run on the same free plan: live chat renews at "50 Billable conversations / mo.", while the AI agent does not — "Your first 50 conversations are free (lifetime)." The pricing page never mentions transcript export at all, and Tidio's help-centre article on chat transcripts returned HTTP 403 to every request we made, so that half is unread rather than absent.
Pros
- The free plan is presented as permanent rather than a trial — "stay on the free plan forever or upgrade".
- Billing counts one conversation per human-handled thread "regardless of how many messages are sent".
Skip it if
- The AI agent's 50 free conversations are a lifetime allotment, not a monthly one, and that distinction sits in a single sentence.
- The pricing page never mentions transcript export, and the help-centre page that would answer it blocked us with a 403.
A free tier its own code comment warns about
3. Botpress — A free tier its own code comment warns about
Botpress offers the most generous free seats and agents, attached to conversations that do not come back.
Best for A free tier its own code comments advise against
From $150/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "$0" for "100 conversations" with "No top-ups or overages", 3 seats and 3 AI agents.
- Plus — $189/mo, or $150/mo billed annually · 3 seats (250 conversations a month included, extra packs of 100 at $65; "$25 AI usage included" with "Every conversation includes $0.10. We pay it for you")
- Team — $939/mo, or $750/mo billed annually (1,500 conversations a month, packs of 100 at $50, unlimited seats)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened (Custom volume and pricing; adds voice channel, SLA, security review and custom storage)
The visible plan card says "100 conversations" with "No top-ups or overages" and does not say over what period. The page's own pricing-calculator script does, in a comment its authors presumably never expected to be quoted: "Free is never recommended (its 100 convos are a one-time trial allotment, not a monthly allowance)" and "Free is hard-capped with no add-ons." On export, the page mentions only "Import and export AI agents between workspaces" — bot configurations, not conversation transcripts.
Pros
- Three seats and three agents on the free tier, more than anyone else here offers.
- "No top-ups or overages" on free means no surprise bill.
- Paid plans fold the LLM cost into the price rather than billing it separately.
Skip it if
- The 100 free conversations are a one-time allotment, and that fact appears only in a code comment rather than in the plan copy.
- Nothing on the page says whether conversation transcripts can be exported, on any plan.
- The cheapest paid tier is $150 a month billed annually, the highest entry price in this category.
A free limit that exists only in JavaScript
4. Voiceflow — A free limit that exists only in JavaScript
Voiceflow publishes its free ceiling in a place no visitor will look.
Best for Nobody who wants to read their free limit on the page
From $60/mo. Free plan: No free-plan card appears in the page's visible content. The page's own pricing calculator script defaults to a "Starter" plan priced "Free" and switches to paid Pro pricing once combined message and voice credits pass 100 a month.
- Pro — $60/mo (Usage-based per the page's calculator: $60 a month up to 10,000 credits, $90 up to 15,000, $120 up to 20,000)
- Business — $150/mo (Per the same calculator: $150 up to 30,000 credits, $250 up to 50,000, $500 up to 100,000, $1,000 up to 200,000)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened (Custom, triggered above 200,000 credits a month in the calculator)
Voiceflow's pricing page contains no plain-text statement of its free limit. The number exists — the page's own calculator script reads "let plan = 'Starter'; let price = 'Free'; if (total > 100 && total <= 20000) { plan = 'Pro'; ...}", which puts the free ceiling at 100 combined credits a month — but a visitor can only find it by reading the JavaScript. The transcripts documentation covers viewing and filtering and says nothing about export on any plan.
Pros
- Paid pricing scales continuously with usage rather than jumping between a few fixed tiers.
- The free tier needs no plan selection or card to begin.
Skip it if
- The free limit appears nowhere in the visible page — only inside the pricing calculator's source.
- Neither the pricing page nor the transcripts docs say whether exporting conversations requires payment.
What this means if you are choosing today
Read every “100 free conversations” in this category as a question rather than a number: per month, or ever? Botpress’s is ever. Tidio’s AI allowance is ever. Chatbase’s 50 and Tidio’s live-chat 50 renew. On any horizon longer than a first week, the renewing fifty beats the one-time hundred, which is the reverse of how the plan cards read.
And if the transcripts matter — if you plan to learn what customers actually ask — Chatbase is the only one of the four that documents getting them out, in JSON, PDF or CSV. The other three either mention exporting something else, or say nothing, or sit behind a page that would not open. On a product whose entire output is a record of conversations, that is a strange thing for three of four vendors to leave unwritten.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which free chatbot plan lasts longest?
Chatbase's and Tidio's, because theirs renew. Chatbase gives 50 message credits every month and Tidio gives 50 billable live-chat conversations every month. Botpress's 100 conversations and Tidio's 50 Lyro AI conversations are one-time allotments that do not come back, which makes a larger-looking number the smaller one over any period longer than a month.
Can you export chatbot conversations on a free plan?
Only Chatbase answers. Its documentation says "You can export the conversations in the chats log directly from the dashboard using the Export button. The export can be downloaded as JSON, PDF, and CSV", with no plan restriction attached. Voiceflow's transcript docs cover viewing and filtering and never mention export; Botpress mentions exporting agents but not conversations; Tidio's transcript help page returned 403 to every request we made.
What is Botpress's free plan really worth?
One hundred conversations, once. The plan card says "100 conversations" with "No top-ups or overages" and no period attached; the page's own pricing-calculator script spells it out in a comment: "Free is never recommended (its 100 convos are a one-time trial allotment, not a monthly allowance)" and "Free is hard-capped with no add-ons." It does include three seats and three agents, which is the most generous part of any free tier here.
Why does Voiceflow have no free-plan verdict on its pricing page?
Because the page has no free-plan card. Pricing is produced by an embedded calculator, and that script contains the threshold: the plan starts as "Starter" priced "Free" and becomes paid "Pro" once combined message and voice credits exceed 100 a month. The number is real and published — just not in a place any visitor would read.
Did you build a bot on any of these?
No. Every verdict here was read on the vendor's own pricing page or documentation on 6 August 2026 and is labelled as read, not run. Two things a hands-on test would settle: whether Chatbase's export button is actually enabled on a free account, and whether Tidio's transcript export exists at all, since the page describing it blocked us.
How We Keep This Updated
Prices move and vendors rewrite their plan tables, so every value on this page carries the date we read it. When a page changes, the change lands here rather than being edited away quietly. The procedure is on the methodology page. tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Free-tier caps read on each vendor's own pricing page; Voiceflow's and Botpress's real free limits recovered from the pricing-calculator scripts embedded in those same pages, and recorded as such.