TeklTalk vs Chatbase: which AI chatbot should you use?
Both TeklTalk and Chatbase let you build an AI chatbot trained on your own website content, with source-cited answers so the bot doesn't invent information. The difference comes down to pricing structure, and to what happens on the free tier.
Chatbase prices in credits: every reply consumes them, and how many depends on the model behind it. TeklTalk prices in messages — one question and its reply, one credit-free number, the same whichever model answers — and free projects don't expire.
If you want a bill you can predict and a free tier you can leave running, TeklTalk is built for that. If you need AI Actions — booking, live order lookups, triggering workflows — Chatbase has the more mature library today.
No credit card required.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Free plan
- TeklTalk
- 100 content credits, 400 messages/mo, unlimited projects — doesn't expire
- Chatbase
- 50 message credits/mo, 1 agent, 1MB of training content — agent deleted after 14 days inactive
Entry paid plan
- TeklTalk
- Starter — $19/mo, or $190/year ($15.83/mo), 1,000 content credits, 4,000 messages/mo
- Chatbase
- Hobby — $40/mo ($32/mo billed yearly), 700 message credits
Mid paid plan
- TeklTalk
- Pro — $59/mo, or $590/year ($49.17/mo), 5,000 content credits, 15,000 messages/mo
- Chatbase
- Standard — $150/mo ($120/mo billed yearly), 4,000 message credits
Pricing model
- TeklTalk
- A flat monthly message count. One question and its reply is one message, whichever model answers it
- Chatbase
- Credits spent per message, and the model decides how many: their own model table lists 1 credit for the cheapest tier and up to 5 for Claude Opus, so a plan's headline credit count buys a fifth as many replies on a frontier model
Remove branding
- TeklTalk
- Included on Starter and Pro
- Chatbase
- Paid add-on, listed at $99/month
Overage handling
- TeklTalk
- Visitors see a short 'temporarily unavailable' note until the allowance resets or you upgrade. No surprise charge and no auto-recharge — the bill is the number on the pricing page
- Chatbase
- Optional auto-recharge at $40 per 1,000 extra credits, billed automatically when you drop below your threshold
Source citations
- TeklTalk
- Every answer links back to the page it came from
- Chatbase
- Supported
Hallucination control
- TeklTalk
- Tunable similarity threshold — the bot returns "I don't know" rather than guessing
- Chatbase
- Confidence and prompt controls on paid tiers
Install
- TeklTalk
- One script tag, live in about five minutes
- Chatbase
- One script tag
JavaScript-rendered pages
- TeklTalk
- Crawled with a real browser, so client-rendered content is indexed
- Chatbase
- Supported
Payments
- TeklTalk
- Paddle, priced and charged in USD — cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Cancel from the dashboard in one click
- Chatbase
- Stripe, priced in USD — cards
AI Actions (bookings, live data lookups)
- TeklTalk
- Not available — the bot answers from your content and hands off to you
- Chatbase
- Available, with more actions on higher tiers
Integrations and enterprise features
- TeklTalk
- Script tag and dashboard, plus alerts to you by email or Telegram when a lead arrives, a conversation starts, or the bot can't answer. No CRM or helpdesk connectors, no SSO
- Chatbase
- CRM, helpdesk and commerce integrations, voice and telephony, outbound campaigns and API access from their Standard tier, SSO and audit logs on Enterprise
Where TeklTalk wins
Pricing you can predict
Under a credit system your real monthly cost depends on which model answers, so a busy month can land well past the advertised plan price. TeklTalk counts messages, not credits or tokens, and every message costs exactly one: the number on the pricing page is the number you pay.
A free tier you can actually leave running
Chatbase's free agents are removed after two weeks of inactivity, which makes the free tier work more like a trial. TeklTalk's free plan runs indefinitely on a quiet site, and needs no card to start.
Unbadged widget without a surcharge
Removing "Powered by Chatbase" is a separate add-on at $99/month. On TeklTalk the badge is gone on every paid plan — from $19/month.
You find out what it couldn't answer
Every question the bot declines to answer is a gap in your own content, and TeklTalk will tell you about it — by email or Telegram, as it happens, alongside alerts for new leads and new conversations and a weekly rollup. It is the most useful thing a site chatbot produces, and it is the reason the "I don't know" behaviour is worth having rather than merely safe.
Built for small sites and solo builders
If you're an indie maker, a blogger, or a small team that wants a chatbot without doing credit arithmetic each month, a flat message count is simply less to reason about. One message is one question answered, one credit is about 500 words of your content, and those are the only two units to learn.
Where Chatbase wins
AI Actions
If you need the chatbot to do things rather than answer things — book an appointment, check a live order status, trigger a workflow — Chatbase's action library is more mature. We don't have an equivalent.
Scale and ecosystem
Chatbase has been in the market longer, integrates with CRM, helpdesk and commerce tools, and offers the enterprise controls a larger team will be asked for — SSO, audit logs, and a support agreement. If that's your checklist, it's the safer default.
Bottom line
Choose TeklTalk if you want a source-cited, hallucination-resistant chatbot on your site, with a bill you can predict in advance and a free tier that doesn't disappear.
Choose Chatbase if you need automated actions beyond answering questions, or you need enterprise integrations, and credit-based pricing at scale doesn't concern you.
Index your site and see for yourself
The Free plan is the same crawler, the same cited answers, and the same one-line install as every paid tier — just with lower ceilings.
Or read the full pricing page.