CometChat Pricing (2026): Plans, Cost Drivers and Buyer Fit

CometChat currently lists four main tiers for Chat and Messaging, verified in May 2026 from cometchat.com/pricing:

Build — $0/month. Up to 100 monthly active users. All features enabled. No credit card required. Includes 10,000 voice and video test minutes. Designed for development and integration testing before committing to a paid production plan.

Basic — from $239/month (annual billing). Production-grade chat for growing products. Scales by MAU with $0.10 per MAU overage above the base. Includes rich in-app chat, push notifications, basic moderation, and the global EDGE network for low-latency delivery. Monthly billing available at higher rates.

Advanced — from $359/month (annual billing). Everything in Basic plus AI rule-based moderation, email and SMS notifications, multi-tenancy, AI smart replies and summaries, in-depth insights, HIPAA/BAA compliance, advanced search, and message translation. The right tier for healthcare, regulated verticals, and products needing AI moderation and multi-tenant architecture.

Enterprise — Custom (from approximately $999/month at 10,000+ MAU). Zero overage exposure through automatic tier upgrades. OpenAI-powered moderation and insights, 10% MAU concurrency included, SAML/LDAP SSO, and custom white-label domain. Designed for high-scale products where overage predictability matters.

Voice and video calling is priced separately, pay-as-you-go: $0.001/minute for voice, $0.003/minute for video, $0.006/minute for recording. The Build plan includes 10,000 test minutes to validate calling features.

The AI Agent platform has separate pricing: a free Sandbox at 1,000 MAU with 1,000 starter credits, and paid Core and Plus tiers. Contact CometChat for AI Agent platform production pricing.

All plans include unlimited messages, unlimited message storage, and 6-month message retention with no hidden bandwidth or storage charges.

Prices and limits can change. Treat this as a checked editorial snapshot, then verify the live pricing page at cometchat.com/pricing before purchase.

Start with the free Build plan every time. It supports up to 100 users with all features, no card required, and includes 10,000 voice/video test minutes. Use it to complete a full integration: SDK setup, real-time message delivery, push notifications, and voice/video if applicable. Do not move to a paid plan until the integration is validated end-to-end.

Move to Basic ($239/month annual) when the product is approaching production launch and expected MAU in the first 90 days will exceed 100. The Basic plan's $0.10/MAU overage means cost scales with user growth — model your user trajectory before committing to annual billing.

Choose Advanced ($359/month annual) when any of the following apply: the product operates in a healthcare or regulated vertical requiring HIPAA compliance, AI-powered moderation is needed for user-generated content, multi-tenancy is needed for separate workspace isolation, or message translation and AI smart replies are part of the product experience.

Only evaluate Enterprise when MAU growth is rapid enough that overage exposure on Basic or Advanced becomes a meaningful financial risk, or when SSO, white-label domain, and enterprise support terms are required.

Three variables determine CometChat's total monthly cost:

Monthly active users (MAU). Both Basic and Advanced are priced from a base MAU level with $0.10/MAU overage for each additional user above the base. A product that grows from 500 MAU to 5,000 MAU over 12 months will see CometChat subscription costs increase proportionally. Model 12–24 month user growth trajectories before annual commitment.

Voice and video usage. Voice and video minutes are billed separately at $0.001/min (voice) and $0.003/min (video). A product with active video calling between users can accumulate meaningful per-minute charges. Example: 10,000 video call minutes per month = $30/month in video charges on top of the plan subscription. Model expected call behaviour before launch.

Concurrency. Peak concurrent connections (users simultaneously active in chat) are included at 2% of MAU on Basic and Advanced. Products with high concurrent usage relative to MAU — real-time collaborative tools, live event platforms, or games — may hit concurrency limits. Enterprise includes 10% concurrency and is the right tier for high-concurrency products.

Annual billing versus monthly billing represents a meaningful cost saving at the Basic and Advanced tiers. Only commit annually once the product is in stable production with predictable MAU growth. Monthly billing during rapid early growth gives flexibility to adjust as the actual MAU trajectory becomes clearer.

SaaS team launching in-app chat for the first time: Start on Build. Complete the SDK integration, test message delivery, and validate push notifications work in the target mobile and web environments. Move to Basic when approaching launch with an expected 500–1,000 MAU in month one. Model whether annual billing is appropriate based on growth trajectory.

Telehealth platform needing HIPAA-compliant messaging: Advanced plan at $359/month (annual). HIPAA/BAA is available on Advanced. Confirm BAA availability and data residency requirements with CometChat directly before committing. Factor implementation time into the launch timeline — HIPAA-compliant messaging requires more careful configuration than standard in-app chat.

Marketplace platform with user-to-user chat between buyers and sellers: Basic plan initially, with a clear eye on MAU growth. Marketplace chat volume grows with GMV — model the MAU trajectory alongside revenue projections. If moderation of user-generated content becomes a concern as scale increases, evaluate Advanced for AI moderation features.

Education platform with student-teacher and peer messaging: Advanced for multi-tenancy if each institution or classroom needs isolated messaging environments. The multi-tenancy feature allows separate workspace configuration per tenant within a single CometChat account, which is operationally important for platforms serving multiple schools or organisations.

Sendbird is the most directly comparable alternative with similar SDK-first approach, MAU-based pricing, and comparable feature depth. Compare CometChat against Sendbird specifically on: SDK quality for your primary platform (React Native, iOS, Android), moderation tooling depth, support quality, and how pricing scales at your specific MAU range. Request pricing from both before committing to either.

Stream Chat (by GetStream) is the strongest alternative for developer experience — it is lower-level and more customisable at the component level. Stream competes on API design and developer documentation quality. Compare both if the engineering team has strong preferences about integration approach.

Twilio Conversations is worth comparing if the messaging use case extends beyond in-app chat to include SMS and WhatsApp channels. Twilio's channel breadth is a strength; CometChat's in-app chat depth and UI kits are stronger for pure in-product messaging experiences.

Tidio is not a direct alternative — it is a website support chat widget, not in-app messaging infrastructure. The comparison only arises if the original buying question conflated website support chat with in-app product messaging. Evaluate them as separate tools for separate jobs.