What is the best free AI chatbot for a website?

There isn't one. "Best" depends on whether you need real AI answers from your content, human live chat, or a developer-owned widget. Below is a current (late-August 2026) comparison of five real options, with official free-tier limits. A single-product pitch would be dishonest: every free tier has a hard cap, leftover branding, or missing AI.

Not free: Intercom has no permanent free plan (Starter was retired). Essential starts around $29/seat/month billed annually, and Fin AI is billed separately at ~$0.99 per resolution. A 14-day trial is not a free chatbot.

Snapshot (free tier only)

Product	What the free tier is actually good at	Free AI?	Message / conversation cap	Seats	Branding
Botpress Cloud	Real AI agents trained on your knowledge base, embeddable webchat	Yes, 3 AI agents	100 conversations/month, no top-ups	3	Botpress branding (white-label is Plus)
Tidio	Live chat + rule-based Flows for a small shop	Lyro AI is a one-time 50-conversation quota that does not reset	50 human conversations/month; Flows 100 unique visitors/month	up to 10 operators (Tidio help)	Tidio branding on free
Chatbase	Fastest "upload docs → widget" demo	Yes, limited models	50 message credits/month	1 member, 1 agent	"Powered by Chatbase"; removal is $99/month
Crisp	Unlimited human live chat on a real shared inbox	No. $0 Hugo/AI credits	Unlimited conversations (100 customer profiles)	2	"We run on Crisp"; white-label is Plus ($295/mo)
Groq API + open widget	Fast open-weight replies you host yourself	Yes, via Groq's free API	Per-model org rate limits (chat models commonly ~30 RPM / ~1,000 RPD; check live)	Unlimited (it's your site)	None (you own the UI)

Sources for the table: Botpress pricing, Tidio free-plan help, Tidio Lyro limit, Chatbase pricing, Crisp pricing, Crisp free-plan help, Groq rate limits.

1. Botpress Cloud — best free AI agent if you will learn the builder

Good at: Building an actual AI agent (RAG over a knowledge base, workflows, webchat) without paying per seat. Official Free plan (workspaces created after the May 2026 pricing update): $0, 100 conversations/month, 3 seats, 3 AI agents, Help Center, community support. A conversation is any exchange with at least two end-user messages. Free is hard-capped — unlike Plus/Team, it does not auto-buy conversation packs.

Honest limits: 100 conversations is a quiet site, not a storefront on sale week. Webchat white-labelling is a Plus feature ($150/mo billed annually, 250 conversations, unlimited agents). Storage on Free is small (1K table rows, 100MB vector, 100MB files). The Studio has a learning curve; this is the most capable free AI tier if someone on the team will configure it.

2. Tidio — best free live chat for a small e-commerce site, weak as "free AI"

Good at: A polished chat widget, visitor list, Messenger/Instagram/WhatsApp connections, and simple Flows. Official Free: 50 conversations/month, Flows serving up to 100 unique visitors/month, up to 10 live-chat agents, ticketing, no credit card. Conversations pause when you hit 50.

Honest limits: Lyro (the AI agent) is not a renewable free chatbot. Every project gets a lifetime quota of 50 Lyro conversations; when it hits 50, Lyro stops and does not reset. Paid Lyro add-ons start around $32.50–$39/month for 50 conversations/month. If the requirement is "free AI that answers FAQs all month," Tidio's free plan does not do that. It is free live chat with a small AI trial.

3. Chatbase — best 10-minute prototype, not a production free tier

Good at: Pointing a bot at a URL or PDF and dropping a widget quickly. Official Free: 50 message credits/month, 1 member, 1 agent, 1 MB training content, limited models.

Honest limits: 50 credits is a demo. Agents on Free are deleted after 14 days of inactivity. Advanced models, extra seats, and helpdesk features are paid. Removing "Powered by Chatbase" is an add-on at $99/month. Treat Free as a test account, not a website chatbot you can leave running.

4. Crisp — best free human inbox; AI starts at paid Mini

Good at: Unlimited website conversations, a shared inbox, mobile apps, contact form, and e-commerce plugins at $0 forever, with 2 seats. Official copy: unlimited conversations, no AI credits, 100 customer profiles. Help article updated 2026-05-04.

Honest limits: Hugo / AI Agent / AI workflows are not on Free. Mini is $45/month and includes about $5 of AI credits (~90 automated conversations). White-label ("We run on Crisp") is Plus at $295/month. If you need two humans to answer chat and can live with Crisp branding, Free is unusually generous. If you need an unattended AI bot, you are already on a paid plan.

5. Groq + an open-source widget — best "actually free AI" if you can host a proxy

Good at: Fast replies from open-weight models (e.g. openai/gpt-oss-20b / openai/gpt-oss-120b on GroqCloud) with no vendor chat branding. Groq's free API requires no credit card (console.groq.com). Drop-in widgets exist, including WebChat.js (MIT, optional Groq key) and simple-groq.

Honest limits: Rate limits are per organization, per model, and change. Groq's live table (rate limits) currently lists common chat models around 30 requests/minute and 1,000 requests/day (exact numbers belong in your console, not a blog post). That is enough for a brochure site, not a busy support queue. Do not put a Groq API key in browser JavaScript — any visitor can steal it; you need a tiny backend proxy. You own uptime, abuse, and prompt/grounding quality. There is no built-in human handoff.

How to choose (without a winner)

• Need AI answers from your docs, free, and will configure a builder → Botpress Free (100 convos, 3 agents, 3 seats). Expect branding.
• Need humans to talk to visitors, free, AI optional later → Crisp Free (unlimited chat, 2 seats, no AI) or Tidio Free (50 chats, more seats, Lyro is a 50-use trial).
• Need to see a doc-trained widget this afternoon → Chatbase Free, then budget for Hobby+ if it works. 50 credits will not last.
• Need no SaaS branding and can ship a proxy → Groq + open widget. Fast and cheap; you are the vendor.
• Need Intercom-class AI on a free plan → it does not exist. Intercom is paid.

Re-check the pricing URLs before you embed anything: these caps are what the vendors published in 2026, and free tiers move.