The short answer
A support team's agent, or an owner's assistant
Choose AI Chat Bot if you run a small or local business and nobody sits in a chat inbox all day. It answers your website visitors only from facts it can point to, passes you anything else, and emails you each lead with a one-line summary and a reminder if you miss it. You pay for customer messages answered, from $19 a month for 1,500, and it keeps answering after the month's allowance is used.
Stay with Chatling if a team answers customers live, on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or Telegram as well as your website, and you want chats shared out among staff, a copilot that drafts replies, or a choice of 37 AI models. Chatling does all of that today. We don't.
How we compared
We make AI Chat Bot. We compared it with Chatling using Chatling's pricing page and its docs on running out of credits, fixing incorrect answers, live chat and AI actions, all read on October 1, 2026, and our own product as it works today. We didn't buy a Chatling plan or test its agent for this page. G2 blocked our reader, so ratings are quoted as Chatling's site shows them. Where Chatling is the better pick, we say so.
Why people switch
Why people look for a Chatling alternative
A reply costs half a credit or 25, by model
Chatling counts AI credits, and its pricing FAQ lists what each model uses per reply: 0.5 for the cheapest, 1 for Claude Haiku 4.5, 4 for Gemini 3.6 Flash or Claude Sonnet 4.6, up to 25 for GPT-6 Astra. So Starter's 1,750 credits are 3,500 replies on one model and 70 on another.
Source: Chatling pricing and FAQ
Out of credits, visitors see an error
Chatling's docs say that when credits run out, people can still message the chatbot but get an “Insufficient AI credits” error, until you buy extra credits or upgrade. You can ask for warnings at 50%, 75%, 90% and 100%.
Wrong answers get fixed after a customer saw them
Chatling's docs say plainly that its AI may not always get the answer right, for example when a question isn't in the knowledge base or when it hallucinates. The fix is to find the conversation and use “Fine-tune this answer”, which adds your correction as an FAQ.
The extras add up
Removing “Powered by Chatling” is a $35 a month add-on, or included on Scale at $295. Exporting leads and chats, AI handoff summaries and routing are listed from Growth at $75 a month, and extra seats are $10 each.
Source: Chatling pricing
Side by side
AI Chat Bot vs Chatling, row by row
| Feature | AI Chat Bot | Chatling |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | Starter: $19 a month ($17 billed yearly) for 1,500 customer messages on one website. | Starter: $25 a month ($21 billed yearly) for 1,750 AI credits, 2 agents and 2 seats. Growth is $75, Scale $295. |
| What you pay for, and what happens at the limit | One customer message answered. Past your allowance it keeps answering in shorter form until the 1st. No overage charge; a top-up of 2,000 messages for $20 is optional. | AI credits: 0.5 to 25 per reply, by model. Chats themselves are unlimited. At zero credits visitors get an error until you add credits ($10 a month per 1,000) or upgrade (docs). |
| Free plan and trial | Free for ever: 100 customer messages a month, every feature but the badge removal. A 7-day trial of 200 messages first, no card. | Free for ever: 200 AI credits a month, 1 agent, 1 seat, half a million characters of knowledge and 2 actions. Paid plans have a 7-day money-back guarantee. |
| How answers stay accurate | Answers come only from facts read from your pages, documents and your own answers, and each reply shows which fact it used. A claim about your business with nothing behind it is withdrawn and passed to you. | Answers from your knowledge base, shaped by instructions you write and the model you pick. Its docs say the AI can still get answers wrong or hallucinate (docs). |
| Checking and correcting answers | A Test page with the questions your customers ask, one-step corrections, a preview of what an edit changes before you save it, and a To check list of answers it wasn't sure of. | “Fine-tune this answer” on a past conversation adds your correction to the knowledge base as an FAQ (docs). |
| When it can't answer | Says so, takes the visitor's name and contact, and emails you the question. A Talk to a person button sits under every reply, on every plan. | Hands the chat to your team in Chatling's live chat inbox, with office hours, email notifications and, from Growth, an AI summary and round-robin routing (docs). |
| Leads and owner alerts | Built in. It asks for a name, a way to reach them and what they need, then emails you in seconds with a one-line summary. Unanswered, one reminder after 5 minutes, then your backup contact. Urgent leads are marked urgent. | A Lead form action saves details as a contact, and a Send Email action can email them on (actions); email credits are 25 a month on Free, 1,000 on Starter. Reminders: not published. |
| Bookings | Sends customers to the booking page you already use, or offers your real free times from Google Calendar. | A Cal.com booking widget inside the chat (actions). |
| Keeping answers current | Re-reads your website every week, or every day on Growth and Pro, and emails you when a price or policy it quotes has changed. | Auto-sync weekly or monthly on Starter, daily on Growth and Scale. A close tie. |
| Languages and chat ratings | Replies in the language the visitor writes in. Visitors can rate a chat with a thumbs up or down, shown on Results. | Understands and replies in over 80 languages. A satisfaction survey at the end of chats, listed on Growth. A tie on languages. |
| Measuring results | Results compares visitors who saw the assistant with a held-back group who didn't, so you see the leads it added. Leads and conversations export as a spreadsheet on every plan. | Analytics from Starter: new conversations and contacts, peak chat times, top countries. Exporting chats and leads is listed from Growth. |
| Channels, AI models and team | Your website (one line of code or the WordPress plugin) and a hosted chat page. One AI model, chosen and tested by us. One owner login. | Website on every plan; WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and an API from Starter. 37 models to choose from, and 1 to 10 seats by plan. |
| Removing the badge | $19 a month, on any plan. | $35 a month as an add-on, or included on Scale ($295 a month). |
| Best fit | Small and local businesses that want their website answered from their own facts and every lead sent to them, without anyone watching a chat inbox. | Support teams that answer customers live across website, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and want to choose the model and share chats among staff. |
Checked October 1, 2026, on their pricing page.
Where we're the better pick
Where AI Chat Bot is the better choice
Every answer is backed, or it's yours to answer
Each reply has to rest on a fact from your pages, your documents or an answer you wrote, and visitors see which one. If the model states something about your business with nothing behind it, that answer is withdrawn and the question comes to you. A wrong price is never fixed after a customer has read it, because it doesn't go out. How answers work.
Corrections happen before customers see them
The Test page asks your assistant the questions your customers ask. Fix an answer in a step, and see which other answers your edit would change before you save it. Test questions never count toward your plan. Test and correct.
One meter, and it never shows an error at the limit
A message is one customer message answered, whatever we run it on, so the bill doesn't move when a model changes. When the month's allowance is used, it keeps answering from your facts in shorter form and keeps taking leads until the 1st. Plans.
Built for an owner with no inbox to watch
Chatling's handoff assumes someone is in its live chat. Ours emails you the lead in seconds with a one-line summary, reminds you after 5 minutes, then tells your backup contact, and marks urgent jobs urgent, even at night if you want to be woken. Lead alerts, after hours.
Rules for your trade, and proof of what it adds
Pick from 25 business types and their rules come with it: a roofer's assistant never promises what insurance pays, a dentist's never gives clinical advice. With Chatling you write those instructions yourself. Then Results compares visitors who saw it with a group who didn't.
Where they're the better pick
Where Chatling is the better choice
More places to answer customers
From Starter, Chatling answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Telegram as well as your website, in one inbox. We answer on your website and a hosted chat page only.
A live chat team
Chatling has a live chat inbox on every plan, office hours, canned replies and, from Growth, round-robin routing, AI handoff summaries and a copilot that drafts replies for your staff. We have no shared inbox: you reply to a lead by phone or email after the alert.
Model choice, actions and workflows
You can pick from 37 models, and each agent can run actions such as HTTP requests, Google Sheets, HubSpot or Zendesk, plus workflows triggered by events. We run one model and send leads on by webhook to Zapier or Make.
Reviews and a track record
Chatling's site shows 4.7 on G2 and 4.3 on Trustpilot, says more than 1,000 teams use it, and states your data isn't used to train AI models. We're new: no customer reviews yet.
Everything AI Chat Bot does
What you get, on every plan
Answers you can trust
Answers from your website and documents
Paste your address and it reads your key pages in about a minute, and up to 40 once you sign up. Add price lists or brochures as PDF, Word or text files, and write your own answers to common questions. How it works.
Says when it doesn't know
An answer has to come from your facts or quote your own pages word for word. When nothing covers a question, it says so and passes it to you instead of guessing. Custom chatbot.
Stays up to date
It re-reads your website every week, or every day on Growth and Pro, and emails you when a price or policy it quotes has changed.
Answers in your customer's language
It replies in the language the visitor writes in, from the same facts, and the chat's buttons switch to that language too.
Leads, bookings and handoffs
Captures the lead
It answers first, then asks for a name, a way to reach them and what they need, and keeps the full conversation with the lead. Lead generation.
Email alerts in seconds
Each lead arrives by email with a one-line summary of what they want. Unanswered, you get one reminder after 5 minutes, then your backup contact is told. Urgent leads are marked urgent. Lead alerts.
Books appointments
It sends customers to the booking page you already use, or connects to Google Calendar and offers your real free times. Bookings.
A person is always one tap away
A Talk to a person button sits under every reply. Asking for you sends you their question and details at once. Human handoff.
Sends leads to your CRM
A webhook passes each lead to Zapier or Make, and from there into HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or anything else. CRM guides.
Control and proof
Check answers before customers see them
The Test page shows its answers to the questions your customers ask. Fix one in a step, and preview what an edit changes before you save it. Test and correct.
Rules for your kind of business
25 business types each come with their own rules: a roofer's assistant never promises what insurance pays, a dentist's never gives clinical advice. Business types.
Results measured against a control group
Hold back a small share of visitors from seeing it, and Results compares the two groups, so you see what it adds rather than every lead it touched. Customers' ratings of their chats show there too. Results.
Your data, yours to take
Download your leads and conversations as a spreadsheet, choose how long they're kept, and delete your account yourself. Security and privacy.
On your website
One line of code, or a plugin
Paste one line into any website, install the free WordPress plugin, or share your own chat page link. Chat widget.
Never in the way
It never pops open by itself, takes your colors, and goes full screen on phones so it's easy to use.
Answers around the clock
Evenings and weekends get the same answers as office hours, and urgent leads can wake you if you want them to. After hours.
Plans: Free for ever with 100 customer messages a month, after a 7-day trial of 200. Paid plans from $19 a month, no setup fee, cancel any time. Compare plans.
What it costs
What it costs at the volumes a small business has
| Customer messages a month | AI Chat Bot | Chatling |
|---|---|---|
| 300 | Starter: $19. Free answers the first 100 in full. | Starter: $25 on either model (300 or 1,200 credits). Free's 200 credits cover 200 replies on a 1-credit model, 50 on a 4-credit one. |
| 1,500 | Starter: $19 | 1-credit model: Starter, $25. 4-credit model: 6,000 credits, so Growth at $75. |
| 5,000 | Growth: $49, covering up to 5 websites | 1-credit model: Starter plus four 1,000-credit add-ons, $65. 4-credit model: 20,000 credits, Growth plus fourteen add-ons, $215. |
Chatling prices from its pricing page, read October 1, 2026. Assumes one Chatling AI reply per customer message and extra credits at $10 a month per 1,000. On Chatling's half-credit models, such as Gemini 2.5 Flash or DeepSeek V3.2, Starter's 1,750 credits cover 3,500 replies, so 5,000 messages cost $35 there, less than our Growth plan. Billed yearly, Chatling is $21, $63 or $246 a month and ours is $17, $43 or $109. To remove the badge add $35 a month on Chatling or $19 on ours.
For whoever signs off
- Cost
- A flat monthly plan from $19, or the Free plan. No setup fee, no per-resolution charge. An optional top-up adds 2,000 messages for $20.
- Risk
- Try it on your own site with no account, then a 7-day trial with no card. Cancel any time; your data downloads as a spreadsheet.
- Security
- Conversations are stored in named regions with named providers, kept as long as you choose, and deleted when you delete your account. Security and privacy.
- Effort
- About a minute to read your site, a few to check its answers, one line of code or a plugin to go live.
Switching
How to switch from Chatling
Paste your website into the demo
It reads your key pages in about a minute and you can chat with it straight away, with no account. Sign up and it reads up to 40 pages in the background. How it works.
Bring over what Chatling knew
Upload the PDF, Word or text files from your Chatling knowledge base (up to 4 MB each), and copy the FAQs and fine-tuned answers you rely on into your own answers, which outrank your website. Flows, actions, workflows and chat history don't carry over; export your Chatling contacts first.
Set alerts and bookings, then test
Choose where lead emails go and add a backup contact, paste your booking link (Cal.com works) or connect Google Calendar, then check its answers on the Test page. If you sent contacts to HubSpot, our webhook does that through Zapier or Make (CRM guides).
Swap the code
Remove Chatling's widget, then paste our one line or install the WordPress plugin. Chatling's credits reset monthly, so the end of a billing month is a good time to cancel.
Questions
Questions buyers ask
Is AI Chat Bot a good Chatling alternative?
Yes, if you're a small or local business and your website is where customers find you. It's built for an owner who gets leads by email, not a team in a chat inbox. If you need WhatsApp or Instagram, live chat routing or model choice, Chatling is the better fit. The quickest test is to try ours on your own site and ask it something your pages don't say.
Is Chatling free?
Yes, Chatling has a free plan of 200 AI credits a month, with 1 agent and 1 seat. How many replies that buys depends on the model: 400 on a half-credit model, 200 on a 1-credit model, 50 on a 4-credit one. Ours answers 100 customer messages a month in full, then shorter answers until the 1st, for as long as you use it.
Will AI Chat Bot make up an answer?
It's built not to. A reply that states something about your business must cite one of your facts, and one that cites nothing is replaced with an offer to have you confirm. It quotes a price only if you publish one. Mistakes are still possible in how it phrases a fact, which is why the Test page and the To check list exist.
Can my staff take over a chat live, as in Chatling?
No. There's no live chat inbox. When a visitor asks for a person, you get an email with their question and contact details at once, and you call or email them back. If several people need to reply inside the chat as it happens, Chatling does that and we don't.
Does AI Chat Bot work on WhatsApp or Instagram like Chatling?
No, not today. It answers on your website and on a hosted chat page whose link you can put anywhere, including your Instagram bio or WhatsApp profile, but the conversation happens on that page, not inside those apps.
Is there a WordPress plugin?
Yes. Our free WordPress plugin adds the assistant without touching code. On Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or any other site, you paste one line into the site's settings, and the Widget screen can email that line to whoever runs your website.
Can I choose the AI model, as on Chatling?
Not yet. Every account runs on one model, the one our checks for grounding, refusals and handoffs were built and passed on, and its cost is inside the message price. That's why every reply counts as one message, whichever question it answers.
Chatling is a trademark of its owner. AI Chat Bot isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Chatling. Competitor details come from their own public pages on the date shown and can change; tell us if something is out of date and we'll correct it.