# Manychat review

> What Manychat costs, what its free plan allows, what you can build with it and where it stops. Scored on a published rubric, every figure sourced.

Published: September 18, 2026 · Updated: September 18, 2026 · Prices verified: September 18, 2026 · By the chatbots.reviews team

Researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on this page. We have not built or tested bots on these platforms yet. Method: [How we review](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/how-we-review)

Manychat is a marketing bot: a visual flow builder that replies to comments and direct messages on Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram, with SMS and email as add-on channels. It is built for creators and social-first shops, not for website support, because it has no website chat widget. It charges a flat plan fee that includes a monthly allowance of Active Contacts, then a per-contact price above that allowance.

**Bottom line**

- **Best for:** Creators and social-first shops that sell through Instagram, TikTok or Messenger DMs
- **Not for:** Teams that need a chat widget on their own website or an AI agent trained on files and a full help center
- **Paid plans from:** $17 per month
- **The catch:** A broadcast makes every recipient an Active Contact for that month, so one send to a large list can use up the whole allowance and start per-contact overage unless you set a cap.

## Score breakdown

**Score: 6.9/10**

| Criterion | Weight | Level | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing clarity | 25% | 5/5 | The full price list is public, the metered unit is defined in writing, and the vendor states what happens and what it costs when you pass the allowance. |
| Access: free plan and time to a first bot | 15% | 4/5 | A permanent free plan, but it cannot run a live bot in practice (no publishing, no AI, or a cap too low for a small site). |
| Builder depth and control | 20% | 3/5 | Visual flows plus AI answers from your own content, with API calls or webhooks. |
| Reach and human handoff | 20% | 2/5 | One or two channels, with handoff only through a third-party tool. |
| Data, compliance and evidence | 20% | 3/5 | A DPA and a stated hosting region, or SOC 2 / ISO 27001, but not both. |

> **Scored from public documentation, on a rubric you can read.** Scores come from five published criteria: pricing clarity, access, builder depth, reach and handoff, and data and trust. Every price and limit is stored once, in one product database, with a link to its source, so no two pages on this site can disagree. Rubric v1.0 · The reference-bot build test has not been run yet. Until it has, no page here says a product was tested. [Read the full method](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/how-we-review) · [The reference-bot test](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/reference-bot-test)

## Key facts

- **Vendor:** [Manychat, Inc.](https://manychat.com) · Palo Alto, California, USA · founded 2015
- **Type of tool:** Messaging-marketing bot
- **Pricing model:** By number of contacts
- **Paid plans from:** $17 per month
- **What the bill grows with:** contacts
- **Free plan:** Yes
- **Free trial:** Yes
- **Self-serve sign-up:** Yes
- **Visual flow builder:** Yes
- **Extensible with code:** Partly
- **Choose or bring your own AI model:** Partly
- **Bot export:** Not documented
- **Self-hosting:** No
- **Built-in inbox for human handoff:** Yes
- **Channels:** Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, SMS, Email
- **Languages:** Not documented · German: Partly · Spanish: Partly
- **EU data hosting:** Yes
- **Compliance:** ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 42001, GDPR DPA, EU-US DPF, PCI DSS SAQ A
- **Integrations:** Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ChatGPT (own OpenAI key)
- **Named customers:** Not documented

**What the documentation supports**

- The full price list is public: five plans, their Active Contact allowances and a per-plan overage price, all on the pricing page.
- You can set an overage threshold, including no overage at all, and Manychat sends alerts at 70%, 90% and 100% of the allowance.
- A shared Inbox for human replies is part of every plan, including Free, so handoff does not need a second tool.
- Manychat AI is included in the Pro plan fee and above, and the documentation publishes no separate per-AI-message charge.
- The security page documents ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 certification and says all production data is stored in AWS data centers in Frankfurt.

**What to watch**

- There is no website chat widget: Manychat removed its Messenger-based website widgets on November 11, 2024, after Meta retired them.
- The Free plan stops at 25 Active Contacts a month and 4 live automations, and it has no AI, WhatsApp, SMS or email.
- Essential, the cheapest paid plan, also excludes AI, WhatsApp, SMS and email, so the real entry price for an AI or WhatsApp bot is Pro at $39 a month.
- The AI knowledge base accepts only pasted text and single public URLs. The help center says each page must be added one by one, and file upload is marked as coming soon.
- Accounts created before March 2, 2026 can still be on the old model, which bills on all stored contacts, never resets and cannot be capped.

## What you can build

Manychat is a no-code visual flow builder. You connect triggers, such as a comment, a direct message or a new follower, to messages, conditions and actions, and the pricing page mentions more than 60 templates to start from. Manychat AI, included from Pro, adds AI replies to DMs and comments, an AI step inside flows and AI goals. It answers from a knowledge base that the help center limits to two content types: pasted text and public links. Each link is one page; adding a homepage does not pull in its subpages, and file upload is listed as coming soon. The always-on AI Replies and AI Comments automations are documented as Instagram-only. The documentation says AI only answers when no other automation matched the message, and an AI Playground lets you check answers against your knowledge before going live. Manychat does not name the model behind its built-in AI; its sub-processor list names OpenAI and Anthropic as generative AI providers. You can bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, but only for the separate ChatGPT and Claude action steps, which those providers bill directly. For your own systems there is an External Request step, which makes HTTP calls from a flow, and the Manychat API from Pro. Research found no custom code step, no versioning or environments, and no documented format for exporting a flow; the only export documented is contact data for privacy requests. Human handoff is built in: every plan has the shared Inbox, the AI can assign a conversation to a person or team when it cannot answer, and Business adds lead routing. Meta's rules shape what a bot can send: the help center explains that automated messages on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp can go out only within 24 hours of the contact's last message, that people can reply by hand from the Inbox for 7 days on Instagram and Messenger, and that WhatsApp requires a paid template after the window closes. See [WhatsApp chatbot rules](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/guides/whatsapp-chatbot-rules) for the details.

## Pricing

Manychat's pricing page lists five plans. Free costs $0 and includes 25 Active Contacts a month. Essential is $17 a month, or $14 a month when billed yearly, with 250 Active Contacts, 2 channels and no AI. Pro is $39 a month, or $29 on annual billing, with 2,500 Active Contacts, any 3 channels including WhatsApp, SMS and email, Manychat AI and API access. Business is $99 a month, or $69 on annual billing, with 7,500 Active Contacts and unlimited channels. Advanced is $199 a month, or $139 on annual billing, with 25,000 Active Contacts; above that Manychat quotes a custom plan. Each extra Active Contact costs $0.10 on Essential, $0.05 on Pro, $0.025 on Business and $0.004 on Advanced when you pay monthly, and a little less on annual billing. Pro includes 2 Inbox seats, Business 3 and Advanced 5; each additional seat is $25 a month. Annual plans are charged upfront, for example $348 for Pro, and the help center says you cannot switch to monthly billing until the term ends. Three costs sit outside the plan fee: WhatsApp message fees, which Manychat passes through from a prepaid wallet; email beyond the plan's monthly allocation at $0.003 per email, charged in blocks of 5,000; and SMS, which runs through your own Twilio account. Prices are in US dollars, exclude tax, and the pricing page says the final price depends on your billing country.

| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Included each month | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 per month | — | 25 contacts | [Source](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800197498652-Free-plan) |
| Essential | $17 per month | $14 per month | 250 contacts | [Source](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800276116508-Essential-plan) |
| Pro | $39 per month | $29 per month | 2,500 contacts | [Source](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800228332572-Pro-plan) |
| Business | $99 per month | $69 per month | 7,500 contacts | [Source](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800254159900-Business-plan) |
| Advanced | $199 per month | $139 per month | 25,000 contacts | [Source](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800308984988-Advanced-plan) |

[Manychat pricing explained](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/pricing/manychat) · [What counts as a conversation in chatbot pricing?](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/guides/what-counts-as-a-conversation)

## What the free plan really allows

The Free plan does not expire and the pricing page says it needs no credit card. It includes 25 Active Contacts a month, 1 user, 1 Inbox seat, up to 2 channels chosen from Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and Telegram, and up to 4 live automations at once. It excludes WhatsApp, SMS, email and Manychat AI, and the first message carries Manychat branding. The help center itself describes the plan as an option for testing and experimenting, and the allowance supports that reading: an account that gets one new DM a day would use it up before the month ends. Every Free account was moved to this plan on March 2, 2026, including older accounts that used to have 1,000 stored contacts. Essential and Pro have a 14-day free trial; Business and Advanced have none. The help center says a first purchase can be refunded within 30 days.

## Claims and who backs them

| Figure | Source | Who says so |
| --- | --- | --- |
| — | — | No figure published |

Manychat publishes no percentage performance claim such as a resolution or conversion rate, so there is nothing to compare against customer results. What it does claim is scale: the About page says more than 1,500,000 businesses use it, while the pricing page says more than 1,000,000, and an April 2025 press release says more than a million businesses in over 170 countries. That same release announced a $140,000,000 funding round led by Summit Partners. These are vendor statements. The only customer figure research found is a one-line creator testimonial on the pricing page about 200 email sign-ups in a day, which is hosted by the vendor and not a case study. We found no independent study and no named-customer case study with figures, and we do not quote review-site star ratings. On security the paper trail is stronger: the security page documents ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 certification, a data processing agreement, a public sub-processor list and production data stored in Frankfurt. The same page also describes transfers to US infrastructure under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and most listed sub-processors are US companies, so this is EU storage, not EU-only processing.

> **For buyers in the United States** No federal law is written for chatbots, but three rules do most of the work. Some states make you say the bot is a bot: California when a bot is used to sell, Maine for any chatbot in commerce, and Colorado for public-facing conversational AI from January 1, 2027. Marketing texts need prior express written consent under the TCPA. And what your bot tells a customer falls under the FTC Act and state consumer-protection law, the same as any other statement you make. [Chatbots and the law in the United States](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/guides/chatbots-and-the-law)

## Verdict

Pick Manychat if your customers reach you through Instagram, TikTok or Messenger DMs and you want comment-to-DM funnels, lead capture and a shared Inbox in one tool with a published price list. Budget for Pro rather than Essential if you want AI replies, WhatsApp or email, and set an overage threshold before your first broadcast. Skip it if you need a bot on your own website, because there is no widget, or an AI agent that learns from files and a whole help center, because the knowledge base takes only pasted text and single pages. For social DMs, compare it with the other tools in [best for Instagram and Messenger](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/best/for-instagram-and-messenger).

## Related pages

- [Manychat pricing explained](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/pricing/manychat)
- [The best Manychat alternatives](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/alternatives/manychat)
- [Manychat vs Chatfuel](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/compare/manychat-vs-chatfuel)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Manychat free?

Manychat has a Free plan that does not expire and needs no credit card. It includes 25 Active Contacts a month, up to 2 channels and 4 live automations, and it excludes AI, WhatsApp, SMS and email. Manychat's help center describes it as an option for testing and experimenting.

### How much does Manychat cost?

Manychat's paid plans start at $17 a month for Essential with 250 Active Contacts, or $14 a month when billed yearly. Pro, the first plan with AI and WhatsApp, is $39 a month with 2,500 Active Contacts, Business is $99 and Advanced is $199. An Active Contact is anyone who sent or received a message through Manychat that month, including every recipient of a broadcast, and each one above the allowance costs from $0.10 on Essential down to $0.004 on Advanced. WhatsApp message fees, extra Inbox seats and SMS are billed on top.

### Does Manychat work with WhatsApp?

Yes, Manychat supports WhatsApp from the Pro plan at $39 a month; Free and Essential do not include it. Meta's message fees are not part of the plan price: Manychat charges them from a prepaid wallet at a per-country rate, for example $0.1569 for a marketing template delivered in Germany. Manychat's WhatsApp pricing guide says that from October 1, 2026 replies inside the 24-hour service window are also charged, after 1,000 free service messages per phone number each month.

### Can I put Manychat on my website?

No. Manychat has no website chat widget: it removed its Messenger-based website widgets on November 11, 2024, after Meta retired them, and the documentation lists no replacement. Manychat works on Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and email. If you need a bot on your own site, look at a tool with a web widget, such as those in our [small business list](https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/best/for-small-business).

### Does Manychat host data in the EU?

Manychat's security page says all production data is stored in AWS data centers in Frankfurt. The same page describes transfers to US infrastructure under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and most of its listed sub-processors are US companies. Manychat also documents ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 certification and offers a data processing agreement. There is no self-hosted version.

## Sources

- [Manychat pricing](https://manychat.com/pricing) — Manychat · September 18, 2026
- [Free plan](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800197498652-Free-plan) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Essential plan](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800276116508-Essential-plan) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Pro plan](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800228332572-Pro-plan) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Business plan](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800254159900-Business-plan) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Advanced plan](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800308984988-Advanced-plan) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Active Contacts](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800323349020-Active-Contacts) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Manychat subscription: How to choose the right one for you](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25800347122716-Manychat-subscription-How-to-choose-the-right-one-for-you) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Billing FAQ (legacy pricing)](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281409288604-Billing-FAQ) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [WhatsApp pricing guide](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281380243740-WhatsApp-pricing-guide) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [How to send emails with Manychat](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281215436188-How-to-send-emails-with-Manychat) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [How to send SMS/MMS through Manychat](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281249064092-How-to-send-SMS-MMS-through-Manychat) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Understanding messaging windows](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/23358636027932-Understanding-messaging-windows) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Power up your chat marketing with Manychat AI](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281227789468-Power-up-your-chat-marketing-with-Manychat-AI) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Manychat AI Knowledge](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25626595060124-Manychat-AI-Knowledge) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Manychat AI Replies](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/23018283889180-Manychat-AI-Replies) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [ChatGPT integration](https://help.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281251371164-ChatGPT-integration) — Manychat Help Center · September 18, 2026
- [Deprecation of Send to Messenger website widgets](https://community.manychat.com/product-updates/deprecation-of-send-to-messenger-website-widgets-3988) — Manychat Community (Manychat team post) · September 18, 2026
- [Security and compliance](https://manychat.com/security) — Manychat · September 18, 2026
- [Service providers (sub-processors)](https://manychat.com/legal/service-providers) — Manychat · September 18, 2026
- [Manychat AI](https://manychat.com/product/ai) — Manychat · September 18, 2026
- [About Manychat](https://manychat.com/about) — Manychat · September 18, 2026
- [Manychat raises $140M to fuel the future of AI-driven customer engagement on social and messaging platforms](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/manychat-raises-140m-to-fuel-the-future-of-ai-driven-customer-engagement-on-social-and-messaging-platforms-302433976.html) — Manychat via PR Newswire · September 18, 2026
- [Messenger Platform policy overview](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/policy/policy-overview) — Meta for Developers · September 18, 2026
- [WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy](https://whatsappbusiness.com/policy/) — WhatsApp · September 18, 2026
- [WhatsApp Business Platform pricing: non-template messages](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/pricing/non-template-messages) — Meta for Developers · September 18, 2026

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Canonical: https://chatbots.reviews/en-us/reviews/manychat