Use case
Customer support automation, grounded in your own docs
Train an AI support agent on your help center, product guides, and website. Answer repetitive questions in seconds, hand off to humans when it matters, and keep every answer sourced from content you actually wrote.
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Customer support automation is the practice of using AI agents to resolve repetitive support questions without human involvement. Chatref automates customer support by training an AI agent on your own content: help center articles, product documentation, website pages, PDFs, and plain text notes. The agent learns from those sources, then answers incoming questions by finding the most relevant parts of your content and giving a grounded response. Chatref supports 10 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Arabic, and Japanese) with a smart fallback search strategy that handles typos and translated queries. Deploy the agent to a web widget, WhatsApp, or a direct API, with automatic human handoff when a customer asks for a real person. Chatref is pay-as-you-go: $50 free credit on signup, 1 to 5 credits per answer depending on length, $10 minimum topup, unlimited chatbots and unlimited team seats. Every feature, including custom instructions, branded widgets, multi-language support, human handoff, and real-time messaging, is included for every account with no plan tiers or feature gates.
Pay per answer · no seat fees · $50 free credit on signup
At a glance
The short version.
24/7
Always-on coverage
10
Languages supported
<3s
Typical first reply
$50
Free credit on signup
- Chatref answers support questions from your own help center, product docs, website pages, PDFs, and text notes.
- Set up in an afternoon: upload docs or connect your website, customize the system prompt and welcome message, then embed the widget or connect WhatsApp.
- Human handoff is automatic. When a customer asks for a real person, the agent detects the intent, flips the conversation into handoff mode, and preserves full context.
- Ten languages supported with a smart search fallback that translates queries to English and retries on keyword-only matches, so typos and multilingual users still get answers.
- Pricing is pay-as-you-go: $50 free credit, 1 to 5 credits per answer, unlimited chatbots, unlimited team seats, and every feature unlocked from the first day.
The problem
Manual support cannot keep up with product-led growth
Small teams get buried in the same questions every week. Hiring is slow, documentation gets stale, and customers wait hours for answers that already exist in your help center.
Repetitive questions drown the inbox
Shipping, refunds, setup steps, integrations – the same 40 questions fill the queue every week. Each one pulls an agent away from the conversations that actually need a human.
Response times slip past the SLA
Peak hours, weekends, and time-zone gaps stretch first response to hours. Customers churn while waiting, and support morale drops as the backlog grows.
Answers drift from the source of truth
Different agents answer the same question three different ways. Knowledge lives in heads and side conversations, not in a place an AI, or a new hire, can retrieve reliably.
How it works
Four steps from cold knowledge base to live support agent
Connect your sources
Upload PDFs and docs, drop in plain text, or point Chatref at your website. The crawler reads your pages, splits them into sections, and prepares them so the agent can find answers fast.
Build your knowledge index
Chatref learns from every section of your content so the agent can find the most relevant parts for any question in milliseconds.
Customize behavior and branding
Write a system prompt, add special instructions, pick the welcome message, set the primary color and bot name. Every account includes every feature – no locked tiers.
Deploy and let it answer
Embed the widget, connect WhatsApp, or call the API directly. The agent resolves routine questions instantly, and hands off to a human the moment someone asks for one.
In detail
The details.
Why Chatref fits your support team
- Grounded in sources you wrote. The agent finds the relevant parts of your own knowledge base before it answers. It does not browse the open web, does not invent policy, and does not speak for features you never shipped.
- Multilingual without a second setup. Answers in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Arabic, or Japanese. A smart fallback retries the search with translated and keyword-only variants so typos and mixed-language queries still land.
- Deploys beside your existing stack. Embed the widget on any page, connect WhatsApp, or call the API from your own app. Chatref augments whatever helpdesk you already run – it does not ask you to rip it out.
Compare
Chatref vs the usual support automation stack
Most platforms charge per seat, gate core features behind enterprise tiers, or require a migration off your existing helpdesk. Chatref is priced per answer, ships every feature to every account, and embeds alongside whatever you already use.
| Feature | ChatrefOur pick | Chatbase | Intercom Fin | Zendesk AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per answer | Monthly plans | $0.99 per outcome + seat | Per resolution + suite |
| Seat fees | Tiered | $29+/seat | Per agent | |
| Free credit to try | $50 | Trial messages | Trial | Trial |
| Train on docs, website, PDFs, text | ||||
| Languages supported | 10 | 80+ | 45+ | 40+ |
| Human handoff detection | Team plans | |||
| Unlimited chatbots per account | ||||
| Feature gating by plan | ||||
| Requires migration off your helpdesk | Lives inside Intercom | Zendesk ecosystem |
What is customer support automation?
Customer support automation is the use of AI agents to answer repetitive customer questions without a human in the loop. With Chatref, the agent is trained on your own help center, product docs, and website, so every response is pulled from content you control instead of a generic model's memory.
What content can I train Chatref on?
You can upload PDFs and documents, paste plain text notes, or point Chatref at your website so the crawler can read your pages. Every source is learned and stored so the agent can find the relevant parts of your content at answer time.
How does human handoff work?
Chatref listens for phrases like 'speak to a human', 'talk to an agent', or 'customer service' and flips the conversation into handoff mode. The full conversation history is preserved so a human can pick up the thread without asking the customer to repeat themselves.
Which languages does Chatref support?
Chatref supports ten languages out of the box: English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Arabic, and Japanese. The search layer also runs a fallback that translates the query to English and retries on keyword-only matches, so typos and mixed-language questions still resolve.
Do I need to replace my existing helpdesk?
No. Chatref is designed to sit alongside whatever you already run. Embed the widget on your marketing site, connect it to WhatsApp for customer conversations, or hit the API from your own app. Your existing ticketing system keeps doing what it does.
How much does it cost?
Chatref is pay-as-you-go with a $50 free credit on signup and a $10 minimum topup. Every answer costs 1 to 5 credits depending on length. There are no seat fees, no monthly commitments, and no feature gating – unlimited chatbots, unlimited team seats, and every capability unlocked from day one.
How long does setup take?
Most teams are live the same afternoon. Upload your docs, connect your website, set a system prompt and welcome message, then paste the embed snippet onto your site or connect WhatsApp. No engineering support is required.
Explore
Keep exploring.
Train a Chatref support agent on your own docs
Upload your help center, connect your website, customize the behavior, and go live this afternoon. $50 free credit on signup, no credit card required.