tawk.to vs Tidio in 2026: Free Live Chat, AI Costs and Which to Pick

If you are comparing tawk.to and Tidio, you probably want live chat on your website without a helpdesk-sized bill, and you want to know what the AI will cost once you switch it on. Both products give you a working chat widget for nothing. Both sell the AI separately. They meter it in different units, and that difference decides the invoice more than the plan names do.

This comparison is for founders, store owners and small support teams who will set the tool up themselves. Near the end is a third option for teams whose main need is an AI agent that answers from their own content rather than a human chat inbox: PepoChat. We make it, so weigh that section accordingly.

Every price and limit below was read from tawk.to's and Tidio's own pricing pages and help centers on October 10, 2026. Both vendors change their AI pricing often, so re-check the numbers before you buy.

tawk.to vs Tidio at a glance

tawk.to is free live chat paid for by add-ons; Tidio is a metered live chat and ticketing suite with an ecommerce tilt. The table compares the two as of October 2026, with Tidio's prices at the annual-billing rates its pricing page displays.

Sources: tawk.to's AI Assist billing article and add-on pricing article, and Tidio's pricing page, all read on October 10, 2026.

What is the difference between tawk.to and Tidio?

The difference is the business model. tawk.to gives the chat product away and earns money from add-ons, including its AI; Tidio sells plans metered by how many conversations your team answers, and sells its AI as a second, separate quota.

A free live chat model, as tawk.to runs it, means the core product has no usage limit: the tawk.to FAQ says there are "no limits at all on the number of Agents, chat volumes or sites you can add widgets to." It earns from extras: badge removal, video, hired agents and AI Assist. A team of twelve answering a thousand chats a month pays the same as a solo founder, which is nothing, unless they buy an add-on.

Tidio's unit is the billable conversation, which its pricing page defines as "any live chat, ticket, email or social media channel conversation that includes a message from a human agent." Free includes 50 a month, Starter 100 and Growth from 250, so the bill grows with the number of conversations your people answer. Lyro, the AI agent, has its own meter on top.

So the first question is not which tool is cheaper but who answers most of your chats. If people do, tawk.to's model costs less at any volume. If the AI is meant to carry the first line, you are comparing two AI add-ons, and the units start to matter.

Which free plan is better, tawk.to or Tidio?

For human live chat, tawk.to's free plan is better: unlimited agents, chats and sites, with ticketing and a help center included. Tidio's free plan is a capable small-team tool, but it stops at 50 human-answered conversations a month and 10 seats.

tawk.to's free product includes live chat, ticketing and a hosted knowledge base, and its FAQ says "The Desktop and Mobile apps are all 100% free." The limits are cosmetic and AI-related: the badge stays unless you pay, and the AI is the separate Hobby tier below, with 100 renewing message credits a month.

Tidio Free lists live chat and ticketing; Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email integrations; up to 10 operators; 50 billable conversations a month; the first 100 visitors reached through Flows, its scripted automation builder; and 50 Lyro conversations. Those Lyro conversations are a lifetime allowance, not a monthly one: the pricing page says "Your first 50 conversations are free (lifetime)." Once they are used, the AI stops answering until you buy the Lyro add-on.

How do tawk.to and Tidio charge for AI?

tawk.to charges per AI message, in credits; Tidio charges per AI conversation. A long AI chat costs several credits on tawk.to but one Lyro conversation on Tidio, so which is cheaper depends on how many messages your AI sends per chat.

tawk.to AI Assist: one credit per message

AI Assist is tawk.to's AI product, billed separately from the free chat. Its unit is the message credit, and the billing article puts it plainly: "Each message counts as one credit deducted from your plan's monthly allocation." As of October 2026 the plans are:

Top-up credits cost $30 per 1,000; they do not expire and carry over to the next period. When both the plan's credits and purchased credits are used up, usage continues as excess credits, which, in tawk.to's words, "may result in a negative balance, which you can settle later." That keeps the AI answering, but it also means the bill has no hard ceiling.

Two details matter on the free Hobby tier. tawk.to's getting started guide for AI Assist marks the AI's schedule, its escalation settings and adding more AI agents as "paid plans only," and its help article on WooCommerce says that integration, which lets the AI check order status and create orders, is "available with paid AI Assist plans." The AI can answer on live chat, tickets, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Telegram and WhatsApp.

Tidio Lyro: one charge per conversation

Lyro is Tidio's AI agent. A Lyro conversation is, in the words of Tidio's Lyro page, "a customer interaction initiated through any channel integrated with Tidio" that gets at least one reply from the AI; several replies, or the customer coming back later, still count once. Every account gets 50 Lyro conversations for its lifetime. After that, the Lyro AI Agent add-on starts at $32.50 a month for 50 conversations and can be raised in steps to 1,000 a month. The Lyro page quotes "$0.5 per conversation," and Premium, priced by sales, starts from 3,000.

Lyro answers from support content it scrapes from your site and forwards questions outside that content to a person. Tidio claims its customers "average a 75% resolution rate with Lyro AI," which is a vendor figure measured on its own definition, not a forecast for your site. Lyro Connect, which places Lyro in front of Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce and more than 20 other platforms, is available only on Plus and Premium.

What the AI costs at three volumes

To compare the two units, assume each chat the AI handles involves three AI messages. Prices are list prices as of October 2026: monthly billing for tawk.to, and for Tidio the two rates it publishes, $0.50 per conversation from the Lyro page and the 65 cents per conversation that the $32.50 entry price works out to.

At these assumptions tawk.to's AI costs a fraction of Tidio's, but the assumption carries the result. An AI that sends ten messages per chat costs ten credits on tawk.to, while Tidio still counts one conversation. Count the AI messages per chat in a week of real traffic, and read the exact tier price from Tidio's calculator, since the page text shows only the starting price.

Then add the human side. On tawk.to your people answer for free at any volume. On Tidio, every chat a person replies to is a billable conversation, so a team answering 400 chats a month is past Starter's 100 and on Growth, from $49.17 for 250 on annual billing. Tidio's FAQ says annual billing "costs about 17% less than paying month to month," so monthly prices are higher than the ones shown here.

Which has more channels and apps, tawk.to or Tidio?

Both cover the main messaging apps, and the difference is at the edges: tawk.to adds SMS and Telegram, Tidio adds Instagram, and both give agents free mobile apps.

tawk.to's inbox takes live chat, email tickets, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS and Telegram. Its December 2025 product update brought business WhatsApp numbers directly into tawk.to and let the AI agents answer on every channel, and it listed Instagram, LINE and voice calling on the 2026 roadmap, so check whether Instagram has shipped before you count on it.

Tidio's pricing page lists Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email integrations on all five plans, Free included, alongside live chat and ticketing. It lists no SMS or Telegram channel. For agents on the move, Tidio's FAQ lists iOS and Android apps plus desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux.

List where last month's customer messages arrived. Instagram on the list points to Tidio; text messages or Telegram point to tawk.to; if nearly everything came through the website, channels will not decide it.

How do ticketing, team seats and add-ons compare?

tawk.to includes ticketing and unlimited agents for free and charges per property for extras; Tidio includes ticketing on every plan but keeps automations, advanced analytics and branding removal for Growth and above, and caps self-serve plans at 10 operators.

On tawk.to, ticketing and the knowledge base are part of the free product, and its FAQ says "There are no limits to the number of agents you can add to a property." The add-on pricing article lists Remove Branding at $39 a month or $348 a year, the yearly rate being the "$29/month" the pricing page advertises; video, voice and screen sharing at $49 a month or $348 a year; and hired agents, people who answer your chats, in packages from $129 a month part-time to $728 a month around the clock, with the FAQ quoting $1 an hour. One line matters for agencies: "Add-ons aren't shared across properties," so ten client sites without the badge means ten Remove Branding subscriptions.

On Tidio, ticketing is on every plan, while ticketing automations and advanced analytics start on Growth. The pricing page says "You can add up to 10 agents on self-serve plans and custom numbers on the Plus package." Removing Tidio branding is a $16.67-a-month add-on on Growth, included on Plus and Premium, and not offered on Free or Starter. Plus, from $300 a month, adds premium features, priority support and advanced team management.

Security paperwork also separates them. Tidio's FAQ says it has completed a SOC 2 Type II examination, processes data under GDPR and CCPA, and stores data on servers in the European Economic Area. tawk.to's FAQ says data is housed on encrypted servers on Google Cloud and does not list certifications. If procurement sends a security questionnaire, Tidio has more answers ready.

Which integrates better with Shopify, WordPress and helpdesks?

Tidio has the deeper store integration, especially for Shopify. tawk.to installs on WordPress with a plugin, and its AI can reach WooCommerce, Shopify and custom APIs, with the WooCommerce connection on paid AI plans.

Tidio's FAQ says it "integrates with platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and Wix." Native Shopify actions are on Growth, Plus and Premium. Lyro's Smart Actions, according to Tidio's AI agent page, "Automate order updates or lead qualification, and send tickets to the right department," and Product Recommendations suggest items from your store to shoppers in real time. For a Shopify store that wants the AI to act like a sales assistant, that is the most complete package of the two.

tawk.to's AI connects to other systems through a Tools section where you "connect your AI agent to a variety of platforms, expanding its ability to fetch data." Its help center has setup guides for WooCommerce, Shopify, querying a Google Sheet and custom API integrations, and the December 2025 update added tool calling over MCP, a standard way to expose functions to an AI agent, for fetching CRM data, updating records and triggering workflows. That is flexible, but it is a developer's job rather than a switch. For helpdesks, Lyro Connect puts Lyro in front of Zendesk, Intercom or Salesforce on Tidio's Plus and Premium plans, while tawk.to includes its own ticketing for free.

Whichever tool runs it, the order status guide covers what a safe Shopify or WooCommerce lookup needs.

Who should pick tawk.to and who should pick Tidio?

Pick tawk.to when people answer most chats and you want them to do it for free; pick Tidio when you run a store, need Instagram, or want the AI billed per conversation rather than per message.

Choose tawk.to when

• People answer most chats, and you want unlimited agents, chats and websites at no cost.
• Customers reach you by SMS or Telegram as well as chat, Messenger and WhatsApp.
• Your AI chats are short, so paying per message works out cheaper than paying per conversation.
• You want to hand evenings or weekends to hired agents rather than to an AI.

Choose Tidio when

• You run an online store, especially on Shopify, and want order actions and product recommendations.
• Instagram direct messages are a real share of your support.
• Your AI chats run long, so one charge per conversation beats one per message.
• Procurement needs a SOC 2 report or data stored in the EEA.

When an AI support agent fits better than either

If your real goal is an AI that answers most website questions from your own content, with people stepping in only when needed, both products treat that goal as an add-on. An AI support agent is built the other way round: the AI answers first from your knowledge base, and the human inbox is where it hands off.

PepoChat is one such tool. It answers only from the knowledge base you give it, such as a crawl of up to 200 pages of your site, documents and Notion or Google Drive pages. When it finds nothing relevant, or the visitor asks for a person, it hands the conversation to a shared team inbox and emails your team. Every feature is on the free plan, which includes 200 AI replies and 5 knowledge sources a month for one member, with no credit card. Starter is $49 a month for 2,000 replies and 3 members, and Growth is $149 for 10,000 replies, 10 members and no PepoChat badge. Replies past a paid allowance cost $10 per 1,000 and extra seats $15 a month; the pricing page has the details.

There is one meter, AI replies, and your team's replies in the inbox are free. When a free workspace reaches its 200 replies, new conversations go to the team inbox with a friendly message rather than failing. On the worked example above, 90 AI replies fit the free plan, 900 fit Starter at $49 and 3,000 cost $59: more than tawk.to's $29 at 300 chats, and less than either at 1,000.

The limits are real. PepoChat is a website widget and a hosted chat page only, with no WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS, Telegram or email channels. Seats are 1, 3 or 10 by plan, against tawk.to's unlimited agents. There is no ticketing system, no hired-agent service and no published SOC 2 report. If your customers write on messaging apps or people answer most chats, tawk.to or Tidio is the better tool. Our free AI chatbot comparison lines up nine free plans, tawk.to's among them.

What to do next

Pull three numbers from last month: chats your people answered, chats you want the AI to handle, and the channels they came from. Work your own row of the AI cost table, then try the free plan that fits. If you are still deciding whether people should answer at all, read live chat vs chatbot first, and for another head-to-head with Tidio, see Tidio vs Crisp vs PepoChat.

If an AI-first agent fits, start a free PepoChat workspace, add your site as one knowledge source and watch a week of real conversations in the inbox before paying anyone. For a one-to-one view of each tool, the tawk.to alternative and Tidio alternative pages compare them with PepoChat feature by feature.