Search for a free chatbot for your website and you will find dozens of options that call themselves free. Install a few and the pattern becomes clear. Some are free only for 7 or 14 days. Some are free forever but make you write every question and answer by hand. Some give you real AI answers but stop working after a handful of chats and ask for a card in US dollars.
None of that is wrong, but it makes "free" hard to compare. This guide covers what a genuinely useful free AI chatbot should include, the questions to ask before you install one, and exactly what you get on FiveMinChat's free plan - including the limits.
Three kinds of "free" chatbot
1. The free trial
Full features for 7 to 14 days, then the bot stops unless you pay. Useful for testing, but not a free chatbot. If you forget to subscribe, the widget on your site simply goes dead - often without you noticing.
2. The free rule-based bot
Free forever, but the bot only knows what you script. You build a flow of buttons and write each answer yourself. A visitor who types a question in their own words - "kal open hai kya?" - gets a menu instead of an answer. Every time your prices or timings change, you edit the flows.
3. The free AI chatbot trained on your content
The bot reads your website or documents and answers questions in plain language, in the visitor's own words. This is what most people searching for a free AI chatbot actually want. The catch is usually the limit: AI answers cost the provider money for every message, so free plans cap usage. What matters is how generous the cap is and what happens when you reach it.
Five questions to ask before you install a free chatbot
- Does it learn from my website, or do I script every answer? If you have to write the answers, it is not saving you much time.
- Is it free forever, or only for a trial period? Check what happens on day 8 or day 15.
- What happens when I hit the monthly limit? A bot that silently disappears from your site loses enquiries. A bot that switches to a contact form keeps capturing them.
- Does it capture leads? A chatbot that answers questions but never collects a name and phone number is only half useful for a small business.
- Can it reply in Hindi and Hinglish? For Indian websites this matters more than most feature lists suggest. See our guide to Hindi chatbots for websites.
What FiveMinChat's free plan includes
FiveMinChat's free plan is type 3: an AI chatbot trained on your own content, free with no time limit. Every account starts with a 7-day trial at Starter-plan limits, no credit card needed. If you do not subscribe at the end of the trial, your bot is not shut down - it continues on the free plan automatically, with your content and settings intact.
| Feature | Free plan |
|---|---|
| Price | Rs 0, forever. No credit card. |
| Visitor messages | 100 per month |
| Training | Crawl up to 15 pages of your website, plus 1 uploaded file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV or TXT, up to 5 MB) |
| Content refresh | 1 manual re-crawl per month |
| Lead capture | Included - leads emailed to you |
| Hindi, Hinglish, Bengali and other languages | Included |
| "Continue on WhatsApp" button | Included |
| Conversation history | 7 days |
| WordPress plugin and embed code | Included |
| "Powered by FiveMinChat" badge | Shown |
How far do 100 messages go?
FiveMinChat counts messages, not conversations. Each question a visitor sends is one message; the bot's replies are free. Most website chats are 2 to 4 messages long, so 100 messages typically covers 25 to 50 visitor conversations a month. That is enough for a small clinic, salon, tutor or local shop that gets one or two website enquiries a day.
What happens when you reach the limit
You get a 10% buffer beyond the 100 messages. After that, the chatbot does not vanish from your website. It switches to a simple contact form - "leave your details and the team will get back to you" - and every lead is emailed to you. You do not lose enquiries; you just stop getting AI answers until your monthly count resets on your billing date.
See your own website as a chatbot before you sign up. Enter your URL in the free demo and get a working bot trained on your site in about 3 minutes. No signup, no card.
Try the Free DemoSetting it up in under 10 minutes
- Sign up at app.fiveminchat.com with your email. No card.
- Paste your website URL. The bot crawls your pages and learns your services, prices, timings and FAQs. You can also upload one document - a price list, menu or brochure.
- Test it in the dashboard preview. Ask the questions your customers ask most. Preview messages do not count towards your 100.
- Add it to your website. Copy one line of code before the closing body tag, or install the FiveMinChat WordPress plugin and paste your Bot ID.
- Optional: add your WhatsApp number in Settings so visitors who prefer WhatsApp can continue the conversation there with one tap.
Honest limits of the free plan
- 15 pages per crawl. Enough for most small business sites. A larger site, or an online store with many product pages, will only be partly covered.
- No automatic content refresh. When you change your prices or timings, click re-crawl in the dashboard (once a month on the free plan). Paid plans re-crawl automatically.
- 7 days of chat history. Older conversations are deleted. Leads are emailed to you, so you keep those regardless.
- The badge stays. Removing "Powered by FiveMinChat" is a Pro plan feature.
- Inactive bots are paused. To keep the free plan sustainable, a free bot with no visitor messages, crawls or logins for about a month is paused, and after a further month its trained content is cleared. Your account and settings stay, and one click on Reactivate in the dashboard rebuilds it.
When to upgrade
Most businesses outgrow the free plan for one of three reasons: they regularly hit 100 messages before month end, their website has more than 15 pages worth covering, or they want content to stay up to date without remembering to re-crawl.
The next step is the Starter plan at Rs 499 a month - 1,000 messages, 100 pages per crawl, 5 files and an automatic monthly refresh, billed in INR through Razorpay. The Growth plan at Rs 999 a month covers 5,000 messages and 500 pages. Full details are on the pricing page, and our chatbot cost guide compares the wider market.
You do not need to decide upfront. Start free, watch the Usage page in your dashboard - it shows how many visitors saw the chatbot, opened it and asked a question - and upgrade only when the numbers say it is worth it.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a truly free AI chatbot for websites?
Yes. FiveMinChat's free plan is an AI chatbot trained on your own website content, free with no time limit and no credit card. It includes 100 visitor messages a month.
Do I need coding skills to add a free chatbot to my website?
No. You paste your website URL to train the bot, then copy one line of code into your site or install the WordPress plugin.
What happens when my free chatbot reaches its monthly limit?
After 100 messages plus a 10% buffer, the chatbot switches to a contact form instead of disappearing. Leads from the form are emailed to you, and AI answers resume when your monthly count resets.
Does the free plan expire after the trial?
No. Every account starts with a 7-day trial at Starter limits. If you do not subscribe, the bot continues on the free plan automatically with your content and settings intact.
Can the free chatbot reply in Hindi?
Yes. Replies in Hindi, Hinglish, Bengali and most other languages are included on the free plan.
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