title: 'Chatbot pricing by message volume in 2026: what you pay at 500, 2,000, and 5,000 messages/month' slug: 'chatbot-pricing-by-message-volume-2026' description: 'The cheapest chatbot platform depends entirely on your message volume. At 500/month, saavos costs $9. saavos tops out at Builder ($24 for 3,500 messages); above that, SiteGPT and FastBots take over. Full breakdown with verified May 2026 pricing.' publishedAt: '2026-05-29' updatedAt: '2026-05-29' author: 'Saurav' category: 'pricing' tags: [ 'AI chatbot', 'chatbot pricing', 'chatbase pricing', 'fastbots pricing', 'sitegpt pricing', 'chatbot comparison 2026', 'message volume', ] keywords: 'chatbot pricing by message volume, how much does chatbase cost at 5000 messages, chatbot plan comparison 2026, chatbot message limit comparison, chatbot cost calculator 2026, saavos vs chatbase vs sitegpt pricing' wordCount: 1280 draft: false
By Saurav · saavos
[!TLDR] At 500 messages/month, saavos is the cheapest paid option at $9. At 2,000 messages, saavos Builder is $24 and SiteGPT Starter is $39. saavos tops out at Builder ($24 for 3,500 messages) — above that the bot pauses and you'd switch platforms: at 5,000 messages SiteGPT Growth is $79, FastBots Business is $89, and Chatbase jumps to $400. Which platform is cheapest depends almost entirely on your volume tier. All pricing verified from vendor pages, May 2026.
I built saavos to be the cheapest option for indie SaaS founders. It is — but only up to about 2,000 messages/month. After that, the math flips.
This post exists because every chatbot pricing comparison I've seen lists sticker prices without answering the real question: what do I pay at MY volume? The answer changes dramatically depending on where you sit on the usage curve.
The four platforms I'm comparing: saavos, Chatbase, FastBots, and SiteGPT. All four are built for the same buyer — a small SaaS or solo founder who wants a knowledge-base chatbot without enterprise overhead. Pricing was fetched directly from each vendor's pricing page in May 2026.
What does Chatbase cost at 5,000 messages per month?
At 5,000 messages/month, Chatbase costs $400/month. Their Standard plan ($120/month) only covers 4,000 message credits. Exceeding that forces you to their Builder plan at $400/month — which comes with 15,000 credits you won't use. If you hit 4,001 messages in a month on Chatbase Standard, you're looking at a 233% price jump.
This is the sharpest price cliff in the comparison.
The full pricing table by volume
All pricing from vendor pages, May 2026. I've listed which plan you'd need to buy at each volume, not the cheapest plan that exists.
At 500 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | Solo | $9 | 1,000/month cap - 50% headroom |
| Chatbase | Hobby | $32 | 500 credits/month — fits exactly |
| FastBots | Essential | $39 | 2,000/month cap — 75% headroom |
| SiteGPT | Starter | $39 | 4,000/month cap — 87.5% headroom |
At this volume: saavos wins by $13/month.
At 1,000 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | Solo | $9 | At cap - upgrade pressure starts |
| Chatbase | Standard | $120 | Hobby (500 credits) is not enough |
| FastBots | Essential | $39 | 2,000/month cap — 50% headroom |
| SiteGPT | Starter | $39 | 4,000/month cap — 75% headroom |
At this volume: saavos still wins, but Chatbase jumps from $32 to $120. That's the steepest inflection in the comparison — a 2× volume increase that triggers a 275% price increase at Chatbase.
At 2,000 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | Builder | $24 | 3,500/month cap - 43% headroom |
| Chatbase | Standard | $120 | 4,000 credits — 50% headroom |
| FastBots | Essential | $39 | 2,000/month cap — at limit |
| SiteGPT | Starter | $39 | 4,000/month cap — 50% headroom |
At this volume: FastBots and SiteGPT are tied at $39. saavos is $10/month more. Chatbase is $81/month more.
At 3,500 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | Builder | $24 | At cap |
| Chatbase | Standard | $120 | 4,000 credits — some headroom |
| FastBots | Business | $89 | 5,000/month cap — 30% headroom |
| SiteGPT | Starter | $39 | 4,000/month cap — 12.5% headroom |
At this volume: SiteGPT wins at $39. saavos is second at $49.
At 5,000 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | — | n/a | Tops out at Builder (3,500/mo) — not an option here |
| Chatbase | Pro | $400 | 15,000 credits — significant overkill |
| FastBots | Business | $89 | 5,000/month cap — at limit |
| SiteGPT | Growth | $79 | 10,000/month cap — 50% headroom |
At this volume: saavos has dropped out — its top tier (Builder, 3,500 messages) doesn't reach 5,000. SiteGPT Growth is the cheapest at $79, FastBots Business is $89, and Chatbase jumps to $400.
At 10,000 messages/month
| Platform | Plan needed | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| saavos | — | n/a | Tops out at Builder (3,500/mo) — not an option here |
| Chatbase | Pro | $400 | 15,000 credits — 33% headroom |
| FastBots | Premium | $199 | 10,000/month cap — at limit |
| SiteGPT | Growth | $79 | 10,000/month cap — at limit |
At this volume: saavos is out (its top tier caps at 3,500). SiteGPT Growth wins at $79, FastBots Premium is $199, while Chatbase jumps to $400.
What this means in practice
The pricing math points to three different products for three different volume profiles:
Under 1,500 messages/month: saavos at $9–$49 is the cheapest option, by a meaningful margin. If you're here, you're probably a solo founder with a small site and real but low traffic. The $9 Solo plan handles this well.
1,500–5,000 messages/month: This is SiteGPT's territory. Their Starter ($39, 4,000 messages) and Growth ($79, 10,000 messages) plans offer the most messages per dollar in this range. I'll say that honestly even though it's not my product. FastBots Business ($89, 5,000 messages) is comparable.
10,000+ messages/month: SiteGPT Growth at $79 is hard to beat — you get 10,000 messages at a price saavos doesn't even play at, since saavos tops out at Builder (3,500 messages). At this scale you should be measuring exactly which platform's quality + volume trade-off fits your actual support patterns.
The thing nobody puts in the table
Message caps are the headline number, but three other things affect your actual cost:
Overage handling. saavos has no per-message overage on any plan — the bot simply pauses at your monthly cap, so there's no surprise bill (and no higher tier to get billed into above Builder's 3,500 messages). Chatbase's overage model isn't specified on their pricing page; check before committing. FastBots and SiteGPT don't document overage handling prominently either.
Credit vs. message definitions. Chatbase bills in "message credits" — one credit per user-bot exchange. A five-message conversation costs five credits, not one. The 500-credit Hobby plan is closer to ~100 visitor sessions than 500 conversations. SiteGPT, FastBots, and saavos bill per message (single exchange), which is more intuitive.
What happens at the cliff. On Chatbase, hitting the Standard cap at 4,000 messages means you're forced to Pro at $400 — no mid-tier option exists. On saavos, Builder ($24, 3,500 messages) is the top tier — there's no higher plan, so above 3,500 the bot pauses rather than billing you more. FastBots and SiteGPT have more graduated tiers in the 2,000–10,000 range.
Which platform actually fits?
If you want my honest read:
- Pre-revenue or under 1,000 conversations/month: saavos at $9. Frontier Claude on a flat-rate plan, no credit-card required for the no-card preview. The budget is the constraint, and this is the cheapest option.
- Growing fast, expecting 2,000–5,000 messages/month within 90 days: SiteGPT Starter at $39 gives you 4,000 messages and room to grow without hitting a cliff. If you're confident you'll hit 5,000, go straight to SiteGPT Growth at $79.
- Need live agent handoff at the entry tier: FastBots at $39 is the only platform in this group with live agent takeover at their lowest paid tier.
- Need Notion training, WhatsApp, or model selection: Chatbase at $32–$120. The feature set justifies the price if those capabilities are real requirements. If they're not, you're overpaying.
I built saavos for the 0–1,500 message/month range. That's where we're cheapest and where most early-stage founders actually sit. If you're already at 3,000+ messages/month consistently, I'll tell you straight: SiteGPT probably has a better value proposition at that volume.
If you're not sure where your traffic will land, start with the no-card preview — all four platforms offer dashboard preview free. Run the chatbot for two weeks on real traffic, check your conversation logs, and then pick the paid tier that gives you 30–40% headroom above your actual usage. Don't pay for 10,000 messages/month if you're at 800.