# Freshchat review

> What Freshchat's free plan documents, what the paid plans cost as you add people, how its AI is billed and where your data is hosted. Scored on a published rubric, with every figure sourced.

Published: September 18, 2026 · Updated: September 18, 2026 · Prices and limits verified: September 18, 2026 · By the live-chat.reviews team

This page was researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on it. We have not installed or tested these products ourselves. Method: [How we review](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/how-we-review)

Freshchat is Freshworks' live chat and messaging product, with a Free plan for up to 10 agents and paid plans billed per agent from $19 a month on annual billing. Its Freddy AI Agent is sold in packs of 100 sessions for $49, available from the entry paid plan. It suits small and mid-sized teams that want several people on chat for free and may later move up to Freshworks' helpdesk.

**Bottom line**

- **Best for:** Teams wanting many agents on a free plan
- **Not for:** Freshchat is a poor fit for teams that need to remove the vendor's branding or run an AI bot without paying, because both start at the paid Growth plan.
- **Paid plans from:** $19 per seat per month, billed annually
- **The catch:** Freddy AI Agent is billed per 24-hour session whether or not the question gets resolved, and rule-based bot flows and builder previews draw from the same session pool.

## Score breakdown

**Score: 8.1/10**

| Criterion | Weight | Level | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free-plan usability | 25% | 4/5 | A free plan with no documented cap on conversations and at least two seats, but with branding that stays or a short chat history. |
| Cost as you add agents | 25% | 4/5 | More than 50 and up to 125 a month. |
| AI billing clarity | 20% | 5/5 | Price, unit and edge cases are defined in writing, and an allowance is included on the free or entry paid plan, so the AI can be tried before buying usage. |
| Channels and integrations | 15% | 3/5 | Website chat, email and at least one of Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp, with WordPress and one major ecommerce platform. |
| Data location and compliance | 15% | 4/5 | EU hosting for a self-serve customer on every paid plan, plus the vendor's own SOC 2 or ISO 27001. |

> **Scored on a public rubric, from pages you can open.** Every score on this site comes from five published criteria: free-plan usability, cost as you add agents, AI billing clarity, channels and integrations, and data location and compliance. Each price and limit is stored once, links to its source, and shows the same value on every page. Rubric v1.0 · We have not installed or speed-tested these widgets yet, and no page here claims we did. [Read the full method](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/how-we-review)

## Key facts

- **Vendor:** [Freshworks](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/)
- **Headquarters:** San Mateo, CA, USA
- **Pricing model:** Seats plus AI usage
- **Paid plans from:** $19 per seat per month, billed annually
- **Prices published in:** USD
- **Free plan:** Yes — Free
- **AI chatbot:** Freddy AI Agent — billed per session
- **Channels:** Website chat, Email, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS
- **Languages:** Widget in 49+ languages · German: Yes · Spanish: Yes
- **EU data hosting:** Yes
- **Compliance:** SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, CSA STAR Level 1, Cyber Essentials Plus, EU-US Data Privacy Framework
- **Integrations:** WordPress, Shopify, Freshdesk, Salesforce, Slack

**Strengths**

- The Free plan documents up to 10 agents, with the web and mobile chat widget, a shared inbox, connected email, and roles and permissions.
- Freddy AI Agent is available from Growth, the entry paid plan, and the first 500 sessions on a paid plan are free as a one-off.
- Freshworks publishes the session definition, including the catches: what counts, what burns sessions and what happens to unused ones.
- The data location is chosen at sign-up from US, EEA, UAE, India and Australia, and Freshworks holds its own SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications.
- Paid plans add Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and SMS to the same inbox, and Freshworks claims more than 1,000 apps in its marketplace.

**Weaknesses**

- Freshworks branding stays on the Free plan widget; its help article says only paid plans can remove it.
- Freshworks does not publish a conversation cap or a chat history period for the Free plan, so neither can be checked before you rely on it.
- Reporting and dashboards, social channels, SMS and WhatsApp all start at Growth.
- The 500 complimentary sessions are removed as soon as you buy your first session pack, and unused sessions never carry over.
- Voice is Freshcaller, a separately priced product starting at $15 an agent a month, and Freddy AI Copilot is limited to Pro and Enterprise.

## What the free plan allows

| Free plan | Free plan | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free seats | 10 — capped | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Conversations | Not documented — the vendor does not document this | — |
| Chat history | Not documented — the vendor does not document this | — |
| Remove branding | No — blocked or missing | [Source](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004487-how-can-i-remove-the-freshworks-branding-from-the-widget-) |
| AI on the free plan | No — blocked or missing | [Source](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004664-freddy-ai-agent-and-chatbot-sessions-faqs) |
| Beyond website chat | Yes — capped | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |

Freshchat's **Free** plan documents up to 10 agents, a chat widget for websites and mobile apps, a shared inbox, a connected email address, roles and permissions, and 100 campaign contacts a month. It stops at several points: the Freshworks branding cannot be removed, there is no Freddy AI Agent and no complimentary sessions, and social messengers, SMS, WhatsApp, and reporting and dashboards start at Growth. Freshworks does not state a monthly conversation cap or how long chat history is kept on Free; its pricing page is silent on both, which is not the same as "unlimited". The branding article dates from December 2022 and the current pricing page does not mention branding at all. The 14-day trial opens on the Enterprise plan with no credit card required.

[Free-plan audit: does your team fit a free live chat plan?](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/tools/free-plan-audit) · [Is a free live chat plan enough for your team?](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/guides/is-a-free-live-chat-plan-enough)

## Published prices

| Plan | Price | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Growth | $19 per seat per month, billed annually | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Growth | $23 per seat per month, billed monthly | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Pro | $49 per seat per month, billed annually | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Pro | $59 per seat per month, billed monthly | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Enterprise | $79 per seat per month, billed annually | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Enterprise | $95 per seat per month, billed monthly | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Freddy AI Agent (sold in packs of 100 sessions) | $0.49 per session | [Source](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004664-freddy-ai-agent-and-chatbot-sessions-faqs) |
| Freddy AI Copilot (Pro, Enterprise) | $29 per seat per month, billed annually | [Source](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) |
| Freddy AI Copilot (Pro, Enterprise) | $35 per seat per month, billed monthly | [Source](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000009124-understanding-freddy-ai-features-and-pricing) |

_Verified against the vendor's pages: 2026-09-18 · Prices published in: USD_

Freshchat charges per agent: Growth costs $23 an agent a month billed monthly or $19 billed annually, Pro $59 or $49, and Enterprise $95 or $79; Freshworks advertises a 20% saving for annual billing. The pricing page's default view shows only the annual prices; the monthly figures come from the data embedded in the same page. A team of 2, 5 or 10 agents fits the Free plan on seat count alone, but because Freshworks documents no conversation allowance for Free, the worked examples also show what Growth would cost: two, five or ten times the Growth price. AI is on top of the seat price, in session packs, and so are day passes for temporary agents ($2 a day on Growth). The [per-seat vs per-workspace guide](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/guides/per-seat-vs-per-workspace-pricing) explains how this model scales against flat-priced tools.

[Freshchat pricing explained](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/pricing/freshchat)

## How the AI is billed

Freshworks bills Freddy AI Agent per session, sold in packs of 100 sessions for $49, which works out at $0.49 a session; the pack price is the same on monthly and annual billing. Freshworks' sessions FAQ defines a session as all interactions between one end user and the Freddy AI Agent or a chatbot within a 24-hour window, so it is billed whether or not the issue is resolved. The catches are written into the same FAQ: rule-based chatbot flows use the same session pool as the AI agent, previewing a bot while you build it consumes sessions, unused sessions expire at the end of the billing cycle without carry-over, and packs renew each cycle unless you reduce them. Growth, Pro and Enterprise accounts get 500 complimentary sessions once, and they are removed the moment you buy a pack. Freddy AI Copilot, the agent-assist tool, is separate: $29 an agent a month billed annually or $35 monthly, on Pro and Enterprise only. Freshworks claims its AI agents deflect up to 86% of customer requests; that is a marketing figure. Compare billing units in our [guide to how vendors bill for AI](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/guides/how-live-chat-vendors-bill-for-ai). [Source](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004664-freddy-ai-agent-and-chatbot-sessions-faqs)

## Data hosting and languages

Freshworks lets you choose the data location when you sign up: US, EEA, UAE, India or Australia, hosted on AWS, with production and backup instances kept in the same region. Moving an existing account to another region requires contacting support, no UK region is listed, and the sources we read did not confirm that the Free plan can choose its region. Freddy AI uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI, with processing regions listed as US, EU, India and Australia. The Freshworks Trust Center lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, CSA STAR Level 1 and Cyber Essentials Plus, and relies on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers; the sub-processor list is public. Freshworks' multilingual support article lists 49 languages, including German and Spanish (both Spain and Latin America), for widget topics and FAQs, and Pro and Enterprise add conversation translation in over 45 languages. See the [EU-hosted live chat list](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/best/eu-hosted-live-chat) for other tools with an EU region.

> **For buyers in the United States** The United States has no general federal privacy law, so the expensive risk for a website chat widget is California's wiretapping statute. Plaintiffs sue site owners under [Penal Code § 631](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=631) for helping a third-party chat vendor read messages in transit, and [§ 637.2](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=637.2) sets damages at $5,000 per violation with no proof of harm required. Show a short notice at the chat input before the first message: the chat is recorded, a named vendor processes it, and here is the privacy policy. This is general information, not legal advice. [Live chat, privacy and the law: what a US business should check](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/guides/live-chat-privacy-and-the-law)

## Verdict

Freshchat is a sound choice for a team that wants several people answering chats for free and can accept the Freshworks branding, because its Free plan documents up to 10 agents and an EEA region is available at sign-up. It also offers the AI agent on its entry paid plan at a published per-session price, as long as you budget for sessions that are billed whether or not the bot helps. Teams that need a guaranteed conversation allowance on a free plan, or a flat price instead of per-agent seats, should compare [Crisp](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/reviews/crisp) and [tawk.to](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/reviews/tawk-to), and the [best free live chat tools](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/best/free-live-chat-software) lists the rest.

## Related pages

- [Freshchat pricing explained](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/pricing/freshchat)
- [Best live chat software in 2026](https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/best/live-chat-software)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Freshchat free?

Yes. Freshchat has a Free plan for up to 10 agents with a web and mobile chat widget, a shared inbox and connected email. The Freshworks branding stays on the widget, there is no AI agent, and Freshworks does not publish a conversation cap or a chat history period for the plan.

### How much does Freshchat cost per agent?

Growth costs $19 an agent a month billed annually or $23 billed monthly. Pro is $49 or $59, and Enterprise $79 or $95. AI sessions, Copilot and day passes are charged on top.

### What is a Freddy AI Agent session?

Freshworks defines a session as all interactions between one end user and the Freddy AI Agent or a chatbot within 24 hours. Sessions cost $49 per pack of 100, and a session is billed whether or not the question is resolved. Rule-based bot flows and bot previews consume sessions too.

### Can I remove the Freshworks branding from the Freshchat widget?

Only on a paid plan. Freshworks' help article says customers on all paid plans can remove the branding from the widget's appearance settings, so Growth at $19 an agent a month billed annually is the cheapest route.

### Does Freshchat host data in the EU?

Yes. Freshworks lets you choose the EEA as your data location when you sign up, alongside the US, UAE, India and Australia. Changing the region later requires contacting support, and there is no UK region.

## Sources

- [Shopify integration](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000002532-how-to-install-chat-widget-on-my-website-shopify-wordpress-etc-) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [WordPress plugin](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004454-wordpress-integration) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshchat pricing](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freddy AI Agent and chatbot sessions FAQs](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004664-freddy-ai-agent-and-chatbot-sessions-faqs) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Understanding Freddy AI features and pricing](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000009124-understanding-freddy-ai-features-and-pricing) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [How can I remove the Freshworks branding from the widget?](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004487-how-can-i-remove-the-freshworks-branding-from-the-widget-) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Provide multilingual support to your customers](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004403-provide-multilingual-support-to-your-customers) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Where are your data servers located?](https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/235810-where-is-your-data-servers-located-) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshworks sub-processors](https://www.freshworks.com/privacy/sub-processor/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshworks Trust Center](https://trust.freshworks.com/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [What is Freshchat?](https://www.freshworks.com/products/what-is-freshchat/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshchat live chat software](https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshchat developer documentation](https://developers.freshchat.com/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- [Freshworks announces winners of the 2026 Global Customer Awards](https://www.freshworks.com/pressrelease/freshworks-announces-winners-of-the-2026-global-customer-awards/) — Freshworks · September 18, 2026

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Canonical: https://live-chat.reviews/en-us/reviews/freshchat