What Is Freshchat? Features, Pricing, and How It Differs From Freshdesk

Freshchat is Freshworks’ messaging and live chat product for customer support. It puts website and in-app chat, email, and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger into one shared inbox, and uses Freddy AI agents to answer routine questions automatically. It is priced per agent per month, with a free plan for up to ten agents, and its AI agent is billed per session. It is not the same product as Freshdesk, which is ticketing; Freshworks combines the two in Freshdesk Omni.

This explainer covers what Freshchat does, what it costs in 2026, how it differs from Freshdesk, how it compares with Intercom, and where it fits. Prices were checked on Freshworks’ and Intercom’s own pricing pages in October 2026.

What is Freshchat, exactly?

Freshworks describes Freshchat as an AI-powered omnichannel messaging platform for live chat and chatbot support. In practice it does five things:

• Chat on your website and in your app. An embeddable widget for the web, plus SDKs for mobile apps.
• Messaging channels in one inbox. On paid plans, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, SMS and LINE conversations land in the same queue as web chat.
• AI agents and bots. Freddy AI agents answer questions on chat and messaging channels; bots can also be built for websites, apps and messaging apps.
• Proactive messaging. Reaching out to visitors or customers on web or messaging channels before they ask.
• Agent workspace and reporting. Customer context alongside the conversation, plus reports on team productivity and bot effectiveness.

You will see it called Freshdesk Messaging in some older Freshworks documentation and reviews. Freshworks’ current product and pricing pages use the Freshchat name.

How much does Freshchat cost?

From the Freshchat pricing page, per agent per month, billed annually:

How is Freddy AI billed in Freshchat?

Freddy AI Agent is available on Growth, Pro and Enterprise. Each of those plans includes 500 free sessions, once per account. After that, sessions cost $49 per 100. In chat, all interactions within 24 hours of a session starting count as one session, and session packs expire at the end of your payment cycle.

Two things to note about session pricing. First, a session is charged whether or not the customer’s problem was solved, so you pay for conversations the AI started and could not finish. Second, it stacks on top of per-agent fees. We explain why that stacking matters in seat plus usage double billing, and compare the pricing models across vendors in AI support pricing in 2026.

How is Freshchat different from Freshdesk?

Freshworks’ own Freshchat page suggests upgrading to Freshdesk Omni when you need advanced ticketing and a knowledge base. Omni’s pricing page lists Growth at $29, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $119 per agent per month billed annually, with omnichannel support, a customer portal and knowledge base, and the same Freddy AI Agent session pricing.

Put simply:

• Choose Freshchat if most of your support happens in chat and messaging apps and you do not need formal ticketing.
• Choose Freshdesk if most support arrives by email and forms and you want ticket fields, SLAs and a knowledge base.
• Choose Freshdesk Omni if you need both in one place.

For context on where Freshdesk itself stands after its 2026 changes, see the Freshdesk price rise and free Freshdesk alternatives.

Freshchat vs Intercom: how do they compare?

This is the comparison most people make, because both started as chat-first support tools.

Intercom’s figures come from its pricing page. The meaningful difference is less the seat price than how AI is billed: Freshchat charges per session, whether or not it resolves anything, while Intercom charges per outcome. Run both against your own monthly volume and expected AI success rate before comparing. Our Freshchat vs Intercom comparison goes deeper.

Who is Freshchat a good fit for?

• Teams already on Freshworks. If you use Freshdesk or Freshsales, the shared vendor and data reduce integration work.
• Messaging-heavy consumer businesses. WhatsApp and Instagram support from Growth upward, at a lower per-agent price than most competitors.
• Small teams that need a free chat inbox. The free plan’s ten-agent limit is generous for basic web chat.

What are Freshchat’s limitations?

• The free plan has no messaging apps or AI. WhatsApp, Instagram and Freddy AI Agent all start on Growth.
• Session-based AI pricing. You pay per AI session, not per resolved issue, so a weak knowledge base costs you twice: in unresolved customers and in sessions.
• Ticketing needs another product. For a knowledge base and formal ticketing, Freshworks points you to Freshdesk Omni, at a higher per-agent price.
• Routing and SLAs are tiered. Intelligent routing and multiple SLA policies start on Pro; skill-based routing is Enterprise.

What are the alternatives to Freshchat?

• Intercom for a complete AI-first helpdesk with in-app messaging.
• Zendesk for larger teams that need governance and deep reporting.
• Chatwoot for open-source, self-hostable messaging.
• Tidio or Crisp for small websites that want simple chat.

Our Freshchat alternatives page ranks them, and the Freshchat migration guide covers what moving off it involves.

What should you check before choosing Freshchat?

A short checklist, whichever way you are leaning:

1. Count your channels. If customers reach you on WhatsApp or Instagram, the free plan will not cover it. Price Growth at your real agent count.
2. Estimate AI sessions, not just agents. Take your monthly chat volume, assume most chats start a session, and price the sessions beyond the first 500 at $49 per 100. Then estimate what share of those sessions would actually resolve the customer’s problem.
3. Decide whether you need tickets. If email or forms make up a large share of your volume, compare Freshdesk Omni’s per-agent price with running Freshchat plus a separate help desk.
4. Check routing and SLA needs. If you need routing rules or more than one SLA policy, budget for Pro, not Growth.
5. Audit your help content. Any AI agent, Freddy or otherwise, answers from the content you give it. Contradictory articles on refunds or pricing produce wrong answers at scale.
6. Plan for leaving. Check what conversation history you can export before you commit, so that switching later is a project and not a loss.

Work through these with your own numbers and the comparison usually becomes clear within an afternoon.

Adding AI resolution without changing chat tools

If the reason you are looking at Freshchat alternatives is AI cost or quality, rather than the chat product itself, switching tools is not the only option.

Fidiora runs alongside your existing support stack. It answers repetitive questions from your own documentation with cited sources and hands anything it cannot resolve to your team with the full conversation attached. Unlike session-based pricing, it charges $0.69 per genuine resolution, dropping to $0.45 above 1,000 a month: handoffs, abandoned chats and timeouts are free, and a monthly spend cap keeps the bill predictable. See how Fidiora works for the details.