# Tawk.to: Free Live Chat for Your Website, With an AI Assistant for Routine Questions

> Tawk.to is free live chat software with a shared inbox, tickets and an AI assistant that answers from your own files. What is free, what costs money.

Source: https://learn.ynteractive.com/news/2026-10-16-tawk-to-free-live-chat-ai-assistant · Updated 2026-10-16 · Free from Stepthrough (https://learn.ynteractive.com)

By [Robert Breen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/about) · Published October 16, 2026 · Tawk.to news

If customers message your website after hours or ask the same questions all day, this tool gives you a free chat window and an inbox, and an optional AI that answers routine questions from your own material.

## What happened

Tawk.to (tawk.to) describes itself as free live chat software that combines chat, a shared inbox, customer records and AI-assisted support in one platform. The site lists one inbox for web chat, WhatsApp, email, SMS, Messenger, Telegram, forms and voicemail, plus a contact record built from each conversation, a deals pipeline, tickets, a knowledge base and a public feedback portal. Its chat widget can be matched to your brand and installed with one JavaScript snippet, and the site names Shopify, WordPress and Squarespace; native apps are listed for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows. The AI is described as answering routine questions at any hour in multiple languages, drawing on files and FAQ pages you provide, handing the chat to a human with the full history when needed, and improving as your team reviews and corrects its answers. Tawk.to says over 3 billion people interact through it every month and that setup takes about 2 minutes; those are the company’s own figures. The reply, resolution and satisfaction numbers shown on its home page appear to be sample dashboard data, not published results. Source: [Tawk.to home page](https://www.tawk.to/) (October 16, 2026).

## Who gets it, and what it costs

- **Free:** the core live chat software, a hosted knowledge base and ticketing. The site says no credit card is needed to set up.
- **Branding:** free for life if you keep the “Powered by tawk.to” badge. Removing it is $29 a month.
- **AI Assist:** the pricing page lists a forever-free plan for sites with limited chat volume, and paid plans from $29 a month. It does not publish the volume limit or a per-answer cost.
- **Optional services:** Hire Chat Agents (people who answer chats for you, 24 hours a day) is $1 an hour, and Virtual Assistants start at $7 an hour.

Core live chat, knowledge base and ticketing are free. Removing the Tawk.to badge is $29 a month, AI Assist is free for limited chat volume and from $29 a month beyond that, as listed on Tawk.to’s pricing page on October 16, 2026. The page does not state the free AI volume limit, so check it before you rely on it.

## What it means for an office team

The problem is familiar to any small business with a website: visitors ask when you open, what a service costs or where their order is, often when nobody is there to answer. Tawk.to gives you a free chat box and one inbox for those messages, and an AI assistant that can handle the routine ones from the files and FAQ pages you give it.

The most basic use is to put the chat widget on your site, write down the twenty questions you answer most, and let the AI draw on them while you take the rest. Read the AI’s answers for the first few weeks, since it can state a wrong price or policy with confidence, and keep the hand-off to a human easy to reach. Think about what customers type into the chat, and do not ask them for card numbers or other sensitive details there.

See Tawk.to listed with similar tools in the [customer support and chatbot tools directory](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/ai-tools/customer-support-chatbots).

## Try it: the stepthrough

This is Stepthrough’s own practice copy, built from screenshots that tawk.to publishes in its Help Center (help.tawk.to), not from a live account. It is not an official tawk.to course, and your screens may look a little different.

[Start the 45-step practice](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/tawkto-after-hours-website-chat)

**tawk.to: Answer Website Questions After Hours**, about 14 minutes. You do each step yourself in a practice copy; nothing touches your real accounts. [Open full screen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/tawkto-after-hours-website-chat) · [Read the steps](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tawk-to-answer-website-questions-after-hours)

### The 45 steps

1. The questions you miss
2. What a missed question costs
3. Meet tawk.to
4. Open the property list
5. Click Create Property
6. Name the property
7. Click Next
8. Find your widget code
9. Click Done
10. Open Administration
11. Click Chat Widget
12. Copy the widget code
13. On WordPress, add the plugin
14. Install Tawk.To Live Chat
15. Connect your tawk.to account
16. Open Widget Appearance
17. Pick the shape and position
18. Save
19. Open Add-ons
20. Click Get Started
21. Switch AI Assist on
22. Open Automations
23. Add your first agent
24. Tell it about your business
25. Choose what the agent does
26. Decide what happens when it cannot help
27. Keep it from quoting prices
28. Add your business facts
29. Check the FAQs it wrote
30. Test the agent
31. Add more answers later
32. Know what Schedule needs
33. Open a new chat
34. Join the chat
35. Answer from your phone
36. Open your status
37. Choose Away
38. Find the Widget Scheduler
39. Pick your hours, and know the trade-off
40. Go offline when nobody is there
41. Edit the Offline view
42. Add the form
43. Tell visitors when you are back
44. What is free
45. What to check before you rely on it

## Related lessons and courses

- [tawk.to: Answer Website Questions After Hours](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tawk-to-answer-website-questions-after-hours) (the practice on this page)
- [tawk.to: Answer Website Questions After Hours, the step-by-step guide](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/tawk-to-answer-website-questions-after-hours)
- [Customer Support and Chatbot Tools: the AI tools directory](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/ai-tools/customer-support-chatbots)

## Sources

- [Tawk.to home page](https://www.tawk.to/) (October 16, 2026)
- [Tawk.to pricing](https://www.tawk.to/pricing/) (October 16, 2026)

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