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Free chatbot designer: what do you get for 0 ₽ and where will you end up?

September 13, 2026 · updated October 27, 2026 · Command CHBT · Plans, Start

The word “free” in bot designers usually means one of three things: a trial period, functionality reduced to the point of uselessness, or a limit that you hit on the second day. In CHBT the free plan is permanent, with a full set of blocks and all four channels, but with one hard limit: 30 conversations per month. Below is what exactly you get for 0 ₽, how this limit is calculated at the code level, which projects have enough of it, where it ends earlier than it seems, and what signs indicate it’s time to pay 650 ₽.

What is included in 0 ₽: list without footnotes

The free plan in CHBT is tied to the bot (project), and not to the account. No card, no expiration date. Here's what's in it:

One bot to the account. The second one can be created when at least one bot is transferred to a paid plan.
All channels at once: Telegram, MAX, VK and widget on the site. There is no restriction “on free - only one messenger”: one flow works wherever you connect it in the “Channels” section.
30 conversations per calendar month - the only quantitative limit. How it is calculated, we will analyze separately.
Editor "Steps" — simple linear mode. Visual “Canvas” with branches and connections - from Basic.
All flow blocks: “Message” with buttons and variables, “Condition”, “Pause”, “Collect data” with checking phone and e-mail, “Action” (tags, variables, HTTP request, notify operator, random thread), “Operator”. The exception is the “AI Agent” block: AI is entirely on paid Plans; and “Substream” and “Note” are only available on “Canvas”, that is, from Basic.
Triggers: /start, keyword, deep link, AI intent, any message, button click, widget opening, incoming webhook.
28 templates - open with the “Use Template” button and immediately appear in “Flows”. Five more full quizzes are templates from the Basic plan.
“Conversations” (inbox from all channels), “Contacts” with CSV export, «CRM» with kanban of transactions, "QR campaigns" and "Marketplaces" (Ozon and Wildberries by API keys).
One account user - you. You cannot invite a colleague to “Access” with the free plan.
Widget with caption “CHBT” in the corner of the chat window.

What's missing: AI (agents and flow generation), a “Broadcasts” section, a “Canvas”, a second operator and a widget without a signature. This is the border between 0 and 650 rubles - it is about tools, not about channels or blocks.

How are “30 conversations” counted – by code, not by feeling?

Everyone understands the wording “conversation” in their own way, so we will describe what exactly the engine checks CHBT before processing an incoming message.

Counted unique contacts, from which at least one incoming message has been received since the 1st day of the current month. One person writing to a bot forty times in a month is one conversation. Thirty people one “hello” at a time - thirty.
Messages from the bot and operator, as well as opening a widget without text, are not considered - until the visitor writes, he is not in counter.
The counter is reset to zero on the 1st of. Unused balance is not transferred.
Channels add up: 12 people from Telegram, 10 from MAX and 8 from the site - that’s 30. The contact is counted separately in each channel: one person who wrote in both Telegram and MAX - two conversation.
Editor test chat (“Check script”) is not included in the counter.
The incoming webhook limit is consumed by: each new uid in the request, and without uid - each request becomes a new contact of the site channel. When the limit is reached, such events do not trigger the script.

When the limit is reached, the bot is not silent and does not break. With those who have already written this month, the conversation continues as usual: the script, cameraman, “Conversations” - everything works, they are already included in the 30. And to the new interlocutor, instead of the script, the bot responds with one service phrase: Thanks for your message! We can't reply in this chat right now — please write to us later or contact us another way. - and its message does not appear in “Conversations”, so you won’t see the question: only the card will remain in “Contacts”. This is what most often lies behind the complaint “the bot stopped responding on the 20th”: those who have already written this month receive answers, but the rest do not, including regular customers who have not yet written to the bot this month. More details in the analysis of reasons why the Telegram bot does not respond.

How many conversations have already accumulated can be seen in the account: a counter of the form “12 out of 30” is in the plan card on the “Review” page of the bot (in the same place forecast, by what date the limit will end at the current pace) and in the “Payment” section, and at the bottom of the side panel of the account - “12 / 30”.

For whom 30 conversations are enough: four standard projects

Thirty unique interlocutors per month is approximately one new person per day. Let's figure out for which tasks this is a lot, and for which - little.

Project	Stream (example)	Is that enough? Free
Private master, tutor, lawyer - accepting applications and record	10–25 calls per month	Yes, with in stock
Testing the hypothesis before advertising: build a bot, run it among friends and first clients	5–15 test ones conversations	Yes, this is exactly the case
Lead magnet for a post in the channel for 3,000 subscribers	Everyone who opens the bot will have a conversation; 30 conversations is only 1% of subscribers	No: the limit ends if the post is triggered by at least 1%
Support online store with a widget on the website	Every visitor who writes is a conversation; 30 conversations is one person per day	No

The rule is simple: Free is good where there are few incoming people, but everyone is valuable, and where you don’t yet know whether you need a bot at all. As soon as you are going to send traffic to the bot - a post, an advertisement, a QR on a package - count not “messages”, but “people”: each new person eats up one unit of the limit, even if they wrote one word and left.

Five places where Free ends before the thirtieth conversation

The conversation limit is not the only reason to switch to a paid plan. More often they run into tools.

A branching flow in "Steps". Linear mode is useful for “greeting → question → contact → thank you.” When there are three or four branches and they have their own conditions, without the “Canvas” the script turns into a list that is difficult to read. This is not a ban, but an inconvenience, but a noticeable one.
You need to write first. The “Mailouts” section is paid. On Free, the bot responds to those who wrote and continues the chain through “Pause”, but you cannot remind the base about yourself en masse.
Free customer questions. If people write text instead of pressing buttons, the button bot can only handle what you have provided. Block “AI agent” in the knowledge base - from Basic (150 credits, answer - from 1 credit depending on the model).
The second person in the inbox. One operator is you. As soon as leads need to be sorted out by two people or given to a manager, a paid plan is needed: there are operators without restrictions.
Signature in the widget. It’s not critical for a personal website, but usually not for a brand.

In all five cases, there is no need to rebuild the bot: the plan changes in the “Payment” section, the script, channels and contacts remain in place.

What they don't cut on free stuff - and why it's important

It’s more useful to look not at the list of restrictions, but at what remains untouched: this is what determines whether the bot will have to be redesigned when switching to a paid plan.

Channels. All four. You can connect immediately Telegram, MAX, VK and widget and understand where people are really coming from - the “Channel” condition in the script and various tags will show this in “Contacts”.
Blocks and triggers. Apart from AI and two “Canvas” blocks (“Substream”, “Note”) - that’s it. A script built on Free simply continues to run on Basic; you can open it in Canvas if you wish.
Data. “Contacts” with tags and CSV, “CRM”, conversation history. The base accumulated on the free one does not disappear anywhere, and it does not need to be “repurchased” - unlike models where the limit is based on the size of the base.
Integrations. The HTTP request action and incoming webhook are available on Free. From the first day, leads can be sent to your spreadsheet or CRM via Make, n8n or your server - see. channels, webhook and HTTP.
Version history and test chat “Check the script” is also free.

Bottom line: Free in CHBT is a full-fledged bot with a small flow, and not a demo version. The difference with paid plans is in volume and in three tools (AI, broadcasts, canvas), and not in architecture.

Free for other designers: where are the limiters usually located?

No attacks, but honestly: free Plans on the market are arranged according to several standard schemes, and each has its own pitfalls. It is useful to understand which one you are agreeing to.

Limit on database size (subscribers, contacts, “clients”). The base grows - the bot stops accepting new ones or demands payment. The trap is that the base is always growing, even if there are few active conversations: people who wrote once a year ago continue to take up space.
One channel on free. Telegram - yes, website or VK - is already paid. It will not be possible to check omnichannel availability before payment.
Trial period for 7–14 days instead of a permanent rate. Good for looking at the interface, useless for testing a hypothesis with real clients.
Trimmed blocks: no conditions, no data collection, no webhook. The script has to be built “for free” and then rebuilt.
Branding in every bot message or widget - almost everyone, and CHBT is no exception here (signature in the widget).

CHBT chose the “limit on active conversations per month” model and left everything else. The disadvantage of this model is obvious: 30 is a small number. Plus - predictability: you know exactly what will end and when, and the database and settings are not blocked at this moment. Summary comparison of Russian designers by channels, price and AI - in a separate article.

Four signals that it’s time to go to Basic

You shouldn’t pay “just in case” - but you shouldn’t lose leads in order to save 650 rubles either. Here are the signs that the moment has come.

The limit is exhausted until the 20th. This means that by the end of the month, each new person will receive a phrase about the limit instead of a script, and his message will not end up in “Conversations”. Each such person is a lost contact. If the lead brings you at least 650 ₽ margin, the first saved conversation pays off.
You wanted to write to the database first: remind about the appointment, announce the promotion, return those who did not reach the lead. This is the “Newsletters” section, and it is on paid plans.
The script no longer fit in my head. If you draw branches on paper to understand your own bot, you need Canvas.
Need a second person in the inbox or the signature in the widget is in the way.

How this looks in money for specific tasks - a salon, a store, an AI consultant - is discussed in the article how much does a chatbot cost. In short: 650 ₽ for a bot without a conversation limit - this is cheaper than one hour of work for a freelancer who will fix a self-written bot.

How to switch and what will happen to the bot

The transition is in the “Payment” section inside the bot. Payment by card via CloudPayments, the plan is activated immediately, auto-renewal can be disabled there; cancellation does not burn out the paid period - the bot works until the end of the paid period.

The script, channels, contacts, deals and widget settings remain unchanged. Only the set of available things changes: the conversation limit disappears, “Maillists”, “Canvas”, the “AI Agent” block and the “AI Agents” section, invitations to “Access” appear, the signature in the widget is removed.

If you want to try AI and broadcasts first without paying, “Payment” has a trial day for the Business plan. One day is enough to assemble an agent from the knowledge base, run it in a test chat and send a test mailing using a tag. After the trial day, the bot returns to Free: everything you configured is saved, but the “AI agent” block, instead of responding to the neural network, will send a service phrase about the plan and lead the conversation along the fallback branch until the plan is paid.

There is also a way back: if the payment is not renewed, the bot returns to the free plan with its limits. The data is not deleted. Prices and a full list of differences are on the page Plans page.

How to get the most out of Free: five tricks

If you decide to stay on the free plan for longer than a month, you can spend your limit smarter.

Narrow entrance. Don’t put a “any message” trigger on a bot whose link is seen by thousands of people. Let a code word or deep link from a specific post be included in the script - then the limit will be spent by those who really came for your offer.
Press in the same conversation. Repeated messages from already counted people do not spend the limit: a person who wrote in September does not count for all his questions, clarifications and transfer to the operator a second time. Don't force him to "write again next month." And after the 30th interlocutor, the conversation with him will continue as usual - the limit restricts entry only to new people.
Test in the editor. The “Check Script” button opens a test chat directly in “Scripts”, and it does not consume the limit - run threads there, and not from your three phones.
Collect contact immediately. On Free you won’t be able to write first, so a phone number or e-mail from the “Data Collection” block is the only way to get back to the person. Template “Collection of applications” does it in three steps.
Tag. A tag by channel and by source costs nothing, and when you switch to Basic, the first newsletter will go exactly to the desired segment.

The free plan is not a showcase, but a working tool for a small flow. Build a bot, connect channels and see how many people write in a month: this will be the answer to whether you need a paid plan. Create a bot with a free plan →

Plans CHBT How much does a chatbot cost: calculation based on three tasks Comparison of chatbot builders Why does the Telegram bot not respond?