Expert Guide

Free Live Chat Software in 2026: What the Free Plans Actually Allow

Eight live chat tools with a free plan, compared on seats, monthly conversation caps, history and branding, plus the first paid price where the vendor prints one.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 930,000+ readers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 8 tools compared

TL;DR

Short answer: Tidio has the most complete free plan here, with 10 seats, live chat and ticketing included, and 50 billable conversations a month. Freshchat also allows 10 agents for free, and its free grid prints no monthly chat cap. Zoho SalesIQ allows 3 operators and 100 chat sessions a month.

LiveChat, Olark and Intercom have no free plan at all, only 14-day trials that end in paid seats.

Key facts8 tools compared: Tidio, Freshchat, JivoChat, Zoho SalesIQ, Chatwoot, Crisp, Smartsupp, Tawk.to

Updated: October 10, 2026
Top pick: Tidio (best for: Support teams of up to 10 people that want live chat and ticketing before they pay anything)
Top pick price as of October 10, 2026: Tidio: Free: 10 seats, 50 billable conversations a month. Starter from $24.17 a month, 100 conversations.

8 tools compared: Tidio, Freshchat, JivoChat, Zoho SalesIQ, Chatwoot, Crisp, Smartsupp, Tawk.to
Freshchat (best for: Teams of up to 10 agents that want a shared inbox and can wait on AI and social channels): Free: up to 10 agents, no monthly chat cap printed. Growth from $19 per agent a month, billed annually.
JivoChat (best for: Teams of up to five agents that want Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Viber messages in one inbox): Free: includes 5 agents, website chat and social messenger integrations. Basic $28 per agent a month, billed annually.
Zoho SalesIQ (best for: Sites with up to three operators that want visitor tracking next to the chat window): Free: 3 operator licenses, 100 chat sessions a month, tracking for 10,000 visitors. Paid plans bill per operator.

Most small teams should not pay for website chat until the free plan actually breaks. The trouble is that free plans differ sharply. One stops at 25 conversations a month, another at 500, and some print no monthly cap at all.

The limit you hit first decides which free plan is worth installing.

Toolradar data: Toolradar evaluated 50 live chat tools for its ranking, and 4 of the 10 tools it lists have a free plan (toolradar.com/best/live-chat, checked 10 October 2026).

The eight on this page come from vendor pricing pages, not that list, so the two counts differ.

Methodology: we read each vendor's own pricing page on 10 October 2026 and ranked the eight free plans on seats first, then the printed monthly conversation cap, then history and branding.

A limit that a page does not print is written as not stated, never as unlimited. For internal chat between your own staff rather than customer chat on your website, see our team chat apps guide.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

Free Live Chat Software 2026: Free Plan Limits Compared: 8 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Tidio	Free: 10 seats, 50 billable conversations a month. Starter from $24.17 a month, 100 conversations.	Support teams of up to 10 people that want live chat and ticketing before they pay anything.
Freshchat	Free: up to 10 agents, no monthly chat cap printed. Growth from $19 per agent a month, billed annually.	Teams of up to 10 agents that want a shared inbox and can wait on AI and social channels.
JivoChat	Free: includes 5 agents, website chat and social messenger integrations. Basic $28 per agent a month, billed annually.	Teams of up to five agents that want Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Viber messages in one inbox.
Zoho SalesIQ	Free: 3 operator licenses, 100 chat sessions a month, tracking for 10,000 visitors. Paid plans bill per operator.	Sites with up to three operators that want visitor tracking next to the chat window.
Chatwoot	Hacker: free, up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. Startups $19 per agent a month.	Two-agent teams that want a free cloud plan now, or an open-source version they run themselves.
Crisp	Free: 2 seats and 100 customer profiles at no cost. Mini $45 a month per workspace, with 4 seats.	Two-person teams that want a shared inbox and do not want a bill per conversation.
Smartsupp	Free forever: 1 operator, 25 conversations a month, 14-day history. Solo $17 a month, billed annually.	One operator who handles a few dozen website chats a month and also needs WhatsApp and Messenger.
Tawk.to	Free for life. Removing the Powered by tawk.to badge costs $29 a month. AI Assist is optional and priced separately.	Teams that want free live chat with no seat fee and can keep the tawk.to badge on the widget.

Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Oct 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.

Tidio

Top Pick

Best for: Support teams of up to 10 people that want live chat and ticketing before they pay anything.

PricingFree: 10 seats, 50 billable conversations a month. Starter from $24.17 a month, 100 conversations.

+Ticketing and live chat are both on the free plan, so a support queue exists before you upgrade.

+Ten seats at no cost match Freshchat's free tier, and Tidio adds ticketing on the same plan.

+Starter keeps the same 10 seats and raises the cap to 100 billable conversations.

−A billable conversation needs a human reply, so a busy month with 50 answered chats ends the free plan.

−Tidio's branding stays on the free widget, and custom branding is a $16.67 a month add-on on the grid.

Visit Tidio →

Freshchat

Best for: Teams of up to 10 agents that want a shared inbox and can wait on AI and social channels.

PricingFree: up to 10 agents, no monthly chat cap printed. Growth from $19 per agent a month, billed annually.

+Up to 10 agents on the free plan, with a shared inbox, email connection, and roles and permissions.

+The free grid prints no monthly conversation cap, unlike Smartsupp, Tidio, Zoho SalesIQ and Chatwoot.

+Growth adds Freddy AI Agent, social messengers and reporting when the team needs them.

−Freddy AI Agent costs $49 per 100 sessions on Growth, on top of the seat price.

−The free grid does not print a history window or a branding rule, so check the widget before you launch.

Visit Freshchat →

JivoChat

Best for: Teams of up to five agents that want Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Viber messages in one inbox.

PricingFree: includes 5 agents, website chat and social messenger integrations. Basic $28 per agent a month, billed annually.

+Five agents free is more seats than Chatwoot, Crisp or Smartsupp give on their free plans.

+Callback requests and offline forms are included on the free plan.

+Basic is $28 per agent a month billed annually, so five agents come to $140 a month at that step.

−The free grid prints no monthly conversation limit and no history window.

−WhatsApp is a separate module at $27 a month billed annually, so a WhatsApp inbox costs extra.

Visit JivoChat →

Zoho SalesIQ

Best for: Sites with up to three operators that want visitor tracking next to the chat window.

PricingFree: 3 operator licenses, 100 chat sessions a month, tracking for 10,000 visitors. Paid plans bill per operator.

+Visitor tracking for 10,000 visitors a month comes on the free plan, not only on paid tiers.

+The page prints every free limit as a number: operators, chat sessions, visitors and brands.

+Paid plans bill per operator, so growing the team adds a seat price rather than forcing a new plan.

−100 chat sessions a month is a low cap for a site with steady traffic.

−Visitor-side chat history sits on the paid plan above Free, so a returning visitor cannot see past chats on Free.

Visit Zoho SalesIQ →

Chatwoot

Best for: Two-agent teams that want a free cloud plan now, or an open-source version they run themselves.

PricingHacker: free, up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. Startups $19 per agent a month.

+The Hacker plan prints both its agent cap and its conversation cap, so the limits are easy to plan around.

+Startups lifts the conversation count to unlimited, billed per agent.

+The company describes its product as open source and self-hosted, so you can run it on your own server.

−Hacker leaves voice, Captain AI, help center, teams, automation rules, SSO and audit logs out.

−Data retention is 30 days on Hacker, so older conversations leave the cloud archive.

Visit Chatwoot →

Crisp

Best for: Two-person teams that want a shared inbox and do not want a bill per conversation.

PricingFree: 2 seats and 100 customer profiles at no cost. Mini $45 a month per workspace, with 4 seats.

+Crisp prices per workspace, not per conversation, so a busy month does not change the bill.

+Free includes the website chat widget, mobile apps, contact form and push notifications.

+Mini is $45 a month per workspace with 4 seats, and each extra agent is $10 a month on the grid.

−The grid does not show whether full conversation history is on the Free plan.

−Removing the We run on Crisp watermark is a White label feature listed on Plus, at $295 a month.

Visit Crisp →

Smartsupp

Best for: One operator who handles a few dozen website chats a month and also needs WhatsApp and Messenger.

PricingFree forever: 1 operator, 25 conversations a month, 14-day history. Solo $17 a month, billed annually.

+The free plan already includes WhatsApp and Messenger next to the website chat.

+Solo, at $17 a month billed annually, keeps live chat and WhatsApp and is the lowest stated paid price on this list.

+The free plan is labeled Free Forever, so it has no trial clock to watch.

−25 conversations a month is the tightest monthly cap on this list, and the free plan allows one operator.

−The free history window is 14 days, so a support thread from two weeks ago is not searchable.

Visit Smartsupp →

Tawk.to

Best for: Teams that want free live chat with no seat fee and can keep the tawk.to badge on the widget.

PricingFree for life. Removing the Powered by tawk.to badge costs $29 a month. AI Assist is optional and priced separately.

+The page describes its live chat as free for life.

+The page prints no agent cap or chat cap, and it describes its model as agent-centric, not per seat.

+AI Assist, the optional bot, is priced separately, so the chatbot is a separate decision.

−The Powered by tawk.to badge stays on the free widget until you pay for its removal.

−The page does not print a history limit, so ask the vendor how long chats stay searchable on Free.

Visit Tawk.to →

What it is

A free live chat plan is the no-cost tier of a chat widget that sits on your website and routes visitor messages to people on your team. Four limits matter: seats, the number of conversations or chat sessions a month, how long history stays searchable, and whether the widget keeps the vendor's name on it.

Vendors print these differently, so a plan can look generous on the landing page and still run out in the first week of a campaign.

Why it matters

The cap decides when you start paying. Tidio counts a billable conversation only when a human agent replies, so a visitor who never gets an answer costs nothing. Chatwoot counts 500 conversations a month, and Zoho SalesIQ counts 100 chat sessions.

A site that reaches those numbers in week two has to pay in week two.

History is the second cost. Smartsupp keeps a limited 14-day history on its free plan, and Chatwoot keeps data for 30 days on Hacker. On Smartsupp's free plan, a question from three weeks ago falls outside the searchable history.

If the chats also feed your pipeline, the free tiers differ there too, and our free CRM software guide compares them.

Key features to look for

Seats on the free plan

Tidio and Freshchat give 10, JivoChat 5, Zoho SalesIQ 3, Chatwoot and Crisp 2, and Smartsupp 1 operator. Tawk.to prints no seat cap.

Monthly conversation cap

Smartsupp 25, Tidio 50, Zoho SalesIQ 100 chat sessions and Chatwoot 500. Freshchat, JivoChat, Crisp and Tawk.to print no monthly cap for their free plans.

History window

Smartsupp keeps 14 days on Free and Chatwoot keeps 30 days on Hacker. Zoho SalesIQ puts visitor-side chat history on paid plans, and the other free grids print no history window.

Branding on the widget

Tidio's free widget keeps Tidio's branding, and custom branding is an add-on. Tawk.to's Powered by tawk.to badge stays until you pay for its removal.

Pricing

Prices checked on 10 October 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page: Tidio, Freshchat, Zoho SalesIQ, JivoChat, Chatwoot, Crisp, tawk.to and Smartsupp.

Plan names and figures are as the pages print them. A limit a page does not print is written as not stated.

Three products have no free plan on their pricing pages.

LiveChat offers a 14-day trial on its Essential and Growth Text plans, with per-user seats at $25 a month billed monthly and less billed annually. Olark offers a 14-day trial on Live Chat, which is $29 per agent a month after the trial.

Intercom offers a 14-day trial and charges $0.99 per Fin AI Agent outcome on every plan.

The cheapest real upgrade depends on the seat count. Five agents on Freshchat Growth come to $95 a month billed annually, and five on JivoChat Basic come to $140.

Tidio Starter is $24.17 a month on the page, with 100 billable conversations.

Toolradar has profiles for all of these free-plan products except Zoho SalesIQ: Tidio, Freshchat, JivoChat, Chatwoot, Crisp, Tawk.to and Smartsupp.

Plan	Price	Best for
Tidio Free	Free	10 seats, 50 billable conversations a month, live chat and ticketing
Tidio Starter	$24.17/mo	100 billable conversations and 10 seats
Freshchat Free	Free	Up to 10 agents, shared inbox and email connection
Freshchat Growth	$19/agent/mo billed annually	Adds Freddy AI Agent, social messengers and reporting
JivoChat Free	Free	5 agents, website chat and four messenger integrations
JivoChat Basic	$28/agent/mo billed annually	Per agent, with WhatsApp sold as a separate module
Zoho SalesIQ Free	Free	3 operator licenses, 100 chat sessions and 10,000 tracked visitors a month
Chatwoot Hacker	Free per agent	Up to 2 agents, 500 conversations a month, 30 days of retention
Chatwoot Startups	$19/agent/mo	Unlimited conversations and all channels
Crisp Free	Free	2 seats, 100 customer profiles, website chat and shared inbox
Crisp Mini	$45/mo per workspace	4 seats and a shared email inbox
Smartsupp Free	Free	1 operator, 25 conversations a month, 14-day history
Smartsupp Solo	$17/mo billed annually	Live chat and WhatsApp on the paid inbox
Tawk.to Free	Free	Free for life, no agent or chat cap printed, badge stays on the widget
Tawk.to badge removal	$29/mo	Removes the Powered by tawk.to badge

Mistakes to avoid

×Counting a free plan as unlimited. Smartsupp stops at 25 conversations a month and Tidio at 50 billable ones. Freshchat, JivoChat, Crisp and Tawk.to print no monthly cap, but a page that prints no cap is not a written promise of no cap, so confirm it before a launch week.

×Ignoring the badge. Tawk.to's Powered by tawk.to badge stays on the free widget until you pay to remove it, and Tidio's branding stays on Free because custom branding is an add-on at $16.67 a month.

×Comparing per-seat prices instead of totals. Five agents on Freshchat Growth cost $95 a month billed annually, and five on JivoChat Basic cost $140. A five-person team should compare the totals, not the seat price.

×Assuming history lasts. Smartsupp keeps 14 days of history on Free and Chatwoot keeps 30 days on Hacker. Export anything you need to keep before the window closes.

×Expecting WhatsApp on a free Jivo inbox. The free integrations are Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Viber. WhatsApp is a module at $27 a month billed annually.

Expert tips

→Watch the billable count, not the visitor count, since Tidio's cap counts only chats a human agent has answered.

→Check the widget before launch. Look at the badge, the branding and whether the history window covers the support cases you will need to find later.

→Reduce the chat volume first. Answers to repeat questions in a knowledge base lower the number of conversations that reach a capped plan, and our <a href="/reviews/best-knowledge-base-software">knowledge base software guide</a> covers the options.

→Self-host Chatwoot only if someone on the team runs servers. The edition is open source, but the hosting, updates and backups are yours.

The bottom line

For a team that needs seats and ticketing at no cost, Tidio is the most complete free plan here, and its 50-conversation cap is the number to watch. For ten free seats without a printed monthly cap, Freshchat is the test to run first, but get the chat limit in writing before you sign.

Smartsupp and Zoho SalesIQ fit one-person and three-operator sites.

Cite this: Techpresso, "Free Live Chat Software 2026: Free Plan Limits Compared", October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is there free live chat software with no monthly limit?

Several free plans print no monthly cap. Freshchat's free grid lists up to 10 agents and no monthly conversation cap. Crisp's pricing FAQ says it does not limit the number of conversations, and Tawk.to prints no agent or chat cap. Confirm the terms in writing before you rely on any of them.

What is the best free live chat software for a small team?

Tidio, for a team of up to 10 people that wants live chat and ticketing at no cost. Its free plan allows 50 billable conversations a month, and a conversation only counts once a human agent replies. Pick Freshchat if you need 10 agents and no printed monthly cap, and Chatwoot if you want an open-source version to run yourself.

How much does live chat cost after the free plan?

The first paid step depends on whether you pay per agent or per workspace. Smartsupp Solo is $17 a month billed annually, Chatwoot Startups is $19 per agent a month, and Tidio Starter is $24.17 a month. Crisp Mini is $45 a month per workspace with 4 seats, and Tawk.to charges $29 a month to remove its badge.

Does LiveChat have a free plan?

No. LiveChat's pricing page offers a 14-day trial on its Essential and Growth Text plans, with no credit card needed. Text seats are billed per user, at $25 a month when billed monthly and less when billed annually. Olark and Intercom also run 14-day trials instead of a free plan.

Is Chatwoot free?

The cloud Hacker plan is free for up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, with 30 days of data retention. Chatwoot also describes its product as open source and self-hosted, so it can run on your own server. The Startups plan lifts conversations to unlimited on a per-agent price.

Does Zoho SalesIQ have a free plan?

Yes. Zoho SalesIQ's free plan includes 3 operator licenses, up to 100 chat sessions a month, visitor tracking for 10,000 visitors and one brand. Paid plans bill per operator, and visitor-side chat history sits on the paid plan above Free.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.