What is AskVault? AI customer support agent for websites and WhatsApp
AskVault in one paragraph
AskVault is software for answering customer questions automatically. You paste your website address and upload your PDFs or documents, and AskVault builds an AI support agent that knows your products, policies and pricing. The agent answers on your website and in the messaging apps your customers already use, shows where each answer came from, and says "I don't know" instead of making things up. When a question needs a person, the conversation lands in a shared inbox for your team on Growth and up.
People usually find AskVault while looking for a Chatbase alternative, a cheaper option than Intercom Fin, or an AI chatbot for a Shopify or WooCommerce store.
Not to be confused with
Several unrelated projects share the name. AskVault at askvault.co is the customer support platform described here, run by AskVault and documented on this site. The Ask Vault plugin for Obsidian, a note-taking app, and an open-source "Ask-Vault" FAQ chatbot on GitHub are separate projects with no connection to askvault.co.
An agent that acts, not only a chatbot that types
Most website chatbots stop at text. They answer a question, and if the answer is wrong there is no safety net. AskVault is built around two different ideas.
It checks its own answers. Every reply is drawn from your indexed content and cites the pages it used. Each answer is scored for groundedness, and low scores are flagged into a Needs Review queue for your team. When nothing in your content covers a question, the agent says it does not know and logs the gap rather than inventing an answer. Read more in hallucination prevention and AI safety.
It can do the task, with permission. On Growth and up, skills let the agent look up an order, share a demo booking link, apply a pre-approved discount or call your own API. Skills that change something are designed to show the customer a confirmation card with exactly what will happen before they run, and server-side enforcement of that approval is rolling out. See skills and custom webhooks.
It works with AI tools in both directions. Each workspace can run its own MCP server, so Claude Desktop, Cursor or ChatGPT can search your knowledge base directly. See the per-workspace MCP server.
Who it is for
Online store owners. Shopify and WooCommerce merchants who want the "where is my order?" and "what is your return policy?" questions answered at 2 a.m. on the website and on WhatsApp, without building flows. On Growth and up, order-status lookups work for Shopify and WooCommerce, and a public product catalog is picked up automatically when the store is crawled. More in AI customer service for online stores.
Software support teams. A support lead with two to ten agents who spends the shift in an inbox. AskVault deflects the repeat questions and hands the rest to a person with the full conversation attached. See AI support for SaaS teams.
What you get today
The Free plan starts at 5 MB and 1 workspace; paid plans go up to 100 MB and 15 workspaces.
| Capability | Plan |
|---|---|
| AI agent trained on your website and PDFs | Every plan |
| Word files | Starter and up |
| Spreadsheets and slides | Business and up |
| Website chat widget and hosted chat page | Every plan, including Free |
| Cited sources on every answer, plus "I don't know" when content is missing | Every plan |
| Groundedness score on each answer | Every plan |
| Needs Review queue in the inbox | Growth and up |
| Replies in the visitor's language | Every plan |
| REST API | Starter and up |
| WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, SMS and email channels | Growth and up |
| Live chat inbox and handoff to a human | Growth and up |
| Ready-made skills: lead capture, order status, demo booking links, discounts | Growth and up |
| Branding removal | Growth and up |
| Shopify product search and cart help in the chat | Growth and up |
| Buyer Radar: nightly ranking of who was ready to buy, and the buying questions left unanswered | Every plan |
| MCP server so Claude Desktop or Cursor can search your workspace | Opt-in per workspace |
Full limits per plan are in the pricing breakdown. The skills overview lists every skill with its plan.
Rolling out next
These features are built and switching on in stages. Ask support if you want early access on your workspace.
- Photo and voice-note answers on WhatsApp Rolling out. A shopper sends a photo of a part or a voice note, and the agent reads the part code or transcribes the message, finds the exact product and replies in the shopper's language with a product card or a Buy now button.
- Show me Rolling out. When the answer is "click Billing, then Invoices", the widget can highlight those buttons on your own site, step by step.
- Product recommendations Rolling out. Suggestions that come only from your synced catalog, never invented products.
- WooCommerce order changes Rolling out. Same-country address changes and cancel-with-refund, always after the shopper confirms a card.
- AI-tool discovery for hosted pages Rolling out. An llms.txt index and a public read-only MCP endpoint, so AI assistants can find and quote your public help content. See AI-tool discovery.
- Voice and phone support Early access. The same agent answering phone calls.
- Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs Early access.
- "Want me to check with a human?" Rolling out. When the agent is unsure, it offers a handoff instead of a shaky answer.
- AI draft replies for agents Rolling out. Suggested answers in the inbox, grounded in your content and never sent automatically.
- Server-checked confirmations Rolling out. AskVault itself verifies that the customer approved the confirmation card before an action runs, so a planted instruction in a web page cannot skip it.
- Connect outside MCP tools In development. Let the agent call tools from MCP servers you already run, so MCP works both ways.
- Browser actions on the visitor's behalf In development. Building on Show me, the agent fills in or clicks through a step on your site after the visitor approves it.
How it works
- Add your content. Paste a URL and AskVault crawls the site, including JavaScript-heavy pages, or upload files. See URL crawling.
- Test it. Ask real customer questions in the chat playground and add Q&A pairs where an answer is thin.
- Deploy it. Paste one script tag for the website widget, or connect WhatsApp, Telegram or Slack.
- Improve it. AI Insights lists the questions the agent could not answer, so you know exactly what to add next.
How AskVault compares
Here is the one-glance version.
| AskVault | Chatbase | Intercom Fin | SiteGPT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat monthly fee | Flat fee plus add-ons | Per outcome plus seats | Flat fee plus add-ons |
| Entry paid plan, month-to-month | $39 | $40 | $39 per seat plus $0.99 per outcome | $59 |
| Agents on entry plan | 2 workspaces | 1 agent | Not applicable | 1 chatbot |
Competitor figures were read from each vendor's pricing page on 2026-10-21; Intercom's month-to-month seat price is from its pricing guide. The detailed, sourced versions are on the Chatbase, Intercom Fin and SiteGPT pages.
FAQ
What is AskVault?
An AI customer support platform at askvault.co that answers customers from your own content, with cited sources, on web chat and messaging apps.
Is AskVault free?
Yes, there is a Free plan with no time limit: 50 messages a month, 5 MB of content and the website widget, no card needed.
Do I need to code?
No. Setup happens in the dashboard. Adding the widget is one script tag, and developers can use the REST API.
Who can see my content?
Your content is indexed for your own workspace, and every search is filtered to that workspace. See data handling.