SparkGPT vs tawk.to (2026): Free Live Chat, Paid AI Credits

What tawk.to does well

tawk.to has earned its place, and it deserves a fair look first.

Live chat is free. The core chat widget, ticketing and a hosted knowledge base cost nothing. The pricing page puts it plainly: keep the "Powered by tawk.to" badge "and it is free for life." No other tool in this comparison series gives humans a full chat inbox at zero cost.

It is everywhere. tawk.to says it is trusted by more than 6 million businesses. Its WordPress plugin shows 100,000+ active installations and a 4.6 star rating from 142 reviews. Its Shopify app has been listed since November 2015, carries the Built for Shopify badge and has a 3.6 star rating from 89 reviews.

Testing is free. tawk.to's help center says messages generated in the AI Assist Preview section do not count toward your usage, so you can try answers before shoppers see them.

Order lookup is careful. On Growth and above, the Shopify integration lets AI Assist look up a product by name or SKU and check an order by ID. Before it shows order details, the agent asks the visitor to confirm an email address, phone number or postal code, and only shows the order if they match.

Humans are cheap too. tawk.to offers hired chat agents from $1 per hour, which few vendors offer at all.

tawk.to pricing in October 2026

tawk.to's help center lists four AI Assist plans:

Annual billing includes two free months. Store integrations such as Shopify are available only on Growth, Business and Enterprise. Extra credits cost $30 per 1,000, are sold in blocks of 1,000, do not expire and roll over. Plan credits reset at the start of each billing cycle.

Other add ons sit on top. Removing the tawk.to branding costs $39 per month, or $348 a year, which works out to $29 per month. It applies to one property at a time.

How credits are spent

This is the detail most comparison articles miss. tawk.to's help center says "each time AI Assist generates a response, it counts as a message completion," and that "new AI agents use Auto by default, which costs 3 credits per reply." Other models show their own cost in the Completion Model dropdown. AI voice transcription adds 1 credit per started minute of speech, up to 5 credits per voice message, before the reply itself is charged.

So the useful number is not 1,000 messages for $29. It is about 333 AI replies on the default model, or roughly 8.7 cents per reply.

What happens when credits run out

tawk.to uses plan credits first, then purchased credits, then excess usage. Its credits article says that once you are out, "AI Assist can continue existing conversations but won't join new conversations" until you buy more or the month resets. Its billing article adds that excess usage "may result in a negative balance that you can settle later." In practice, a busy week can mean new visitors reach no AI answer until someone tops up the account.

The real difference: what triggers a charge

tawk.to charges for AI replies. A shopper comparing two products might get six AI answers before deciding. On the Auto model that is 18 credits. On Growth, 18 credits cost about $0.52. On Business or Enterprise, about $0.36. Bought credits cost about $0.54 for the same conversation. The cost is the same whether the shopper buys or leaves.

SparkGPT charges for sales. When a visitor chats with the agent, the session is tagged. If that visitor places an order within 24 hours, the order is attributed to the agent, listed in the ROI dashboard and charged at 5%. Conversations that do not lead to an order cost nothing beyond the $2.99 base, however long they run.

The cap matters more than the price per reply. On Growth, 1,000 credits cover about 55 six reply conversations a month. That is fine for a quiet store. During a sale or a holiday rush it can run out in days.

Sales tracking: report or bill?

We did not find any revenue or sales attribution reporting for AI Assist on tawk.to's pricing page, its AI Assist articles or its Shopify integration guide. The Shopify App Store listing describes managing orders from chats and tickets, not crediting sales to the AI. AI Assist does include insights for reviewing conversations and common questions. That is useful for support, but it does not tell you which orders the AI helped create.

SparkGPT's rule is published: an order within 24 hours of a chat counts, and that same number sets the 5% charge. You can match each attributed order to your store's order list. Our guide on how to measure chatbot attributed revenue shows how to check any vendor's figures.

The math: when each one is cheaper

SparkGPT is cheaper than a tawk.to AI Assist bill when your monthly attributed sales are below (tawk.to bill minus $2.99) divided by 0.05.

And here is what SparkGPT costs at different sales levels:

The honest reading: if your agent drives a steady $2,000 a month and your chat volume fits inside 5,000 credits, tawk.to Business at $99 costs a little less than SparkGPT at $102.99. Growth at $29 is far cheaper if about 333 AI replies a month are enough. SparkGPT wins when sales from chat are uncertain, seasonal or still unproven. A month with no attributed sales costs $2.99, or $35.88 over a full year, and a long conversation never costs more than a short one.

If you use tawk.to without AI

Free human chat costs nothing, so the fair question is different: does an AI sales agent add enough new sales to pay for itself? On SparkGPT, the share of attributed sales that needs to be truly new is (0.05 plus 2.99 divided by attributed sales) divided by your gross margin. At $2,000 of attributed sales and a 40% margin, about 13% of those orders need to be ones that would not have happened otherwise. Many stores keep tawk.to for human chat and add an AI agent only for the hours nobody is online.

Growth runs on prepaid credits, where 1 credit equals $1. If the balance runs out, the agent pauses rather than charging you more. The difference from tawk.to is what drains the balance: sales on SparkGPT, AI replies on tawk.to.

Feature comparison

Which one should you pick?

Pick tawk.to if your team answers most chats itself, you want a free inbox with ticketing and a knowledge base, you need order lookup inside the chat, and your AI volume is small and steady enough to size a credit plan.

Pick SparkGPT if you want the AI to handle pre purchase questions around the clock, your chat volume swings with campaigns and seasons, you do not want new visitors to hit a silent widget when credits run out, or you want sales from chat counted on a short, published window. SparkGPT installs on any site with one line of code:

<script src="https://admin.sparkgpt.ai/widget.js" data-api-key="YOUR_WIDGET_KEY"></script>
      

For Shopify, see our guide to adding an AI sales agent to Shopify. For WordPress stores, see AI sales agents for WooCommerce. Before going live with any vendor, run through our pre launch testing checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is tawk.to really free?

Yes, for human live chat. The chat widget, ticketing and knowledge base are free as long as you keep the "Powered by tawk.to" badge. You pay for add ons: AI Assist from $29 per month, branding removal at $39 per month or $348 a year, and hired chat agents from $1 per hour.

How much does tawk.to AI Assist cost in 2026?

As of October 2026, tawk.to's help center lists Hobby free with 100 credits, Growth at $29 per month with 1,000 credits, Business at $99 with 5,000 and Enterprise at $399 with 20,000. Annual plans cost ten times the monthly price. Extra credits cost $30 per 1,000 and roll over.

How many AI replies do tawk.to credits buy?

On the default Auto model, each AI reply uses 3 credits. That gives about 33 replies on Hobby, 333 on Growth, 1,666 on Business and 6,666 on Enterprise each month. Other models have their own per reply cost, and voice transcription uses extra credits.

What happens when tawk.to AI Assist credits run out?

According to tawk.to's help center, AI Assist keeps replying in conversations already underway but does not join new ones until you buy credits or your plan resets. Excess usage can leave a negative balance that is settled later. Human agents can still answer chats.

Is SparkGPT cheaper than tawk.to?

It depends on your sales. Against AI Assist Business at $99, SparkGPT is cheaper while attributed sales stay below about $1,920 a month, and against Growth at $29 the line is about $520. Above those levels tawk.to costs less if your credits are enough. In a month with no attributed sales, SparkGPT costs $2.99.

How does SparkGPT count a sale?

When a visitor chats with the SparkGPT agent, the session is tagged. An order placed within 24 hours of that chat is attributed to the agent, listed order by order in the ROI dashboard and charged at 5%. Orders outside that window, or from visitors who never chatted, are not charged.

Try it on your own store

Enter your store URL at SparkGPT and you will have a sales agent to test on your real catalog in about 10 minutes, free and with no credit card. Test it as many times as you like. When you go live, you pay $2.99 per month plus 5% of the sales it is credited with inside a 24 hour window, and nothing for replies that do not lead to an order. See the pricing page, the FAQ, or compare a free option in SparkGPT vs Shopify Inbox and another credit model in SparkGPT vs Quickchat AI. Questions? Write to hello@sparkgpt.ai.