What is Sendbird?
Sendbird, Inc. was founded in 2013 and operates from San Mateo, Seoul, and Singapore, selling a communications stack (Chat, Business Messaging, Calls, Desk) alongside an AI layer the company markets as delight.ai.
Sendbird
Sendbird supplies chat, business messaging, voice and video calling APIs plus AI agents so product and engineering teams can run customer conversations inside their own apps across delivery, fintech, retail, and healthcare. Sendbird prices Chat by monthly active users, from $399/month for 5,000 MAU, with a no-credit-card free trial.
- Customer Support
- Starts at $0/month
- Free tier
- Web
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Key facts about Sendbird
Verified facts from the vendor site · Last verified Aug 22, 2026. Independent Sendbird review covering pricing, features, who it is for, and alternatives.
- Product
- Sendbird
- Company
- Sendbird, Inc.
- Category
- Customer Support
- Pricing
- Sendbird starts at $0/month.
- Free tier
- Sendbird has a free tier.
- Address
- 100 S. Ellsworth Ave, Suite 900, San Mateo, California 94401, USA
- Founded
- 2013
- Platforms
- Web
- Official site
- https://sendbird.com/
- Suitable for
- Teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps
Quick answers about Sendbird
How much does Sendbird cost?
Sendbird is freemium. It starts at $0/month. Paid plans include Free trial: monthly $0/mo: yearly $0/yr ($0/mo effective); Starter 5K: monthly $399/mo: yearly $4188/yr ($349/mo effective, save 13%); Pro 5K: monthly $599/mo: yearly $5988/yr ($499/mo effective, save 17%). Check sendbird.com for current prices.
Is Sendbird free?
Sendbird has a free tier. Paid plans start at $399/month.
Who is Sendbird for?
Sendbird is best for teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps.
Should I use Sendbird?
Sendbird is best for teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps. Skip it if sendbird retains messages for only six months unless extended message retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan.
What are the main Sendbird features?
The main Sendbird features are Private 1-to-1 chat and group channels for up to 100 members (300 in dedicated instances), Open channels with dynamic partitioning for millions of participants, Supergroup channels for thousands of participants in a private group, UIKit prebuilt UI components for in-app messaging, and Typing indicators, delivery receipts, read receipts, and presence.
What are the best Sendbird alternatives?
The closest Sendbird alternatives on Citeware are Tidio, LiveChat, Synthflow. Full list: https://citeware.io/alternatives/sendbird.
What are the downsides of Sendbird?
Limitations called out on this listing: Sendbird retains messages for only six months unless extended message retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan; Sendbird caps Peak Concurrent Connections at 5% of the MAU limit on Starter and Pro, counts devices rather than users, and aggregates peak concurrent connections across every app in an organization; Sendbird charges overage fees once an account passes its MAU tier, so costs can move with traffic spikes; Data export, translation, image moderation, and Supergroup channels are withheld from the Sendbird Starter plan; Standard Sendbird group channels are limited to 100 members, or 300 on dedicated instances, pushing larger rooms to Supergroup or open channels; Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing table lists the entry tier as a "Free trial" while the Sendbird FAQ states the Developer plan "is free and remains active as long as you log into the Sendbird dashboard once a year" — both statements appear on the same page; Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing cards show Starter at $399/month and Pro at $599/month billed monthly, while the FAQ price table for the same 5K MAU tiers is labelled as the June 2021 pricing list; Sendbird's cancellation and upgrade guidance cites Terms of Service language that payments already made are non-refundable, and the FAQ references section 11 in one place and section 10 in another.
Does Sendbird work on web and desktop?
Sendbird is available on Web.
Sendbird alternatives and comparisons
Recent discussion
Public threads about Sendbird
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About Sendbird
Citeware analysis
Sendbird, Inc. was founded in 2013 and operates from San Mateo, Seoul, and Singapore, selling a communications stack (Chat, Business Messaging, Calls, Desk) alongside an AI layer the company markets as delight.ai. The Sendbird homepage describes delight.ai as "an AI concierge that provides hyper-personalized customer experiences across the entire customer journey," and the Sendbird about page publishes vendor figures of $220m+ funding, 300m+ monthly active users, and 7b+ monthly messages.
The buyer for Sendbird is usually not a support lead shopping for a ticket queue but a product or platform team that has decided customer conversations belong inside the company's own application. Sendbird provides SDKs, the UIKit component library, a moderation dashboard, and hosted infrastructure so a rideshare, marketplace, healthcare, travel, or banking app can ship 1-to-1 chat, group channels, open channels, and support threads without running message servers. Sendbird lists delivery and rideshare, e-commerce and retail, healthcare, travel and hospitality, and financial services as the industries served.
In daily use, a team registers an application in the Sendbird dashboard, installs UIKit or the Client SDK, and inherits typing indicators, delivery and read receipts, presence, reactions, mentions, unread counts, push notifications, file and multimedia sharing, structured messages, and auto-generated thumbnails. Sendbird's pricing FAQ states that with Sendbird UIKit a team can build chat in an app in less than 15 minutes. Moderators work in a separate Sendbird surface with profanity filters, user reporting, muting, channel freezing, moderation logs, moderator groups, a rule engine, a ticket system, and AI image moderation powered by Hive.
Sendbird meters Chat by monthly active users rather than agent seats, and Sendbird counts an MAU when a user connects to Sendbird servers through the Client SDK within the past 30 days. The Sendbird pricing page publishes a Free trial tier with all Pro features, no credit card, no overages allowed, and community support; a Starter plan at 5K MAU for $349/month billed annually or $399/month billed monthly; a Pro plan at 5K MAU for $499/month billed annually or $599/month billed monthly; and an Enterprise plan quoted by sales for millions of MAU. Every Sendbird paid tier also includes a platform offer Sendbird describes as a "$122/month value" covering Business Messaging with 30K free in-app messages.
The gap between Sendbird tiers is feature depth and support level. Sendbird Starter covers messaging essentials, basic moderation, analytics, and ticketed support. Sendbird Pro adds auto, on-demand, and push translation, data export, image moderation, and Supergroup channels. Sendbird Enterprise adds dedicated or shared servers, MAU limits above 100,000, extended message retention, add-ons such as Advanced Moderation, and support options including an emergency hotline, Slack support, a customer success manager, and an onboarding package.
Several Sendbird limits deserve modeling before a contract. Sendbird retains messages for six months unless extended retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan. Sendbird caps Peak Concurrent Connections at 5% of the MAU limit on Starter and Pro, counts devices rather than users, and aggregates peak concurrent connections across every application in an organization. Sendbird charges an overage fee after an account passes its MAU tier, and Sendbird's cancellation guidance points to Terms of Service language stating that payments already made are non-refundable.
Compared with agent-first help desks, Sendbird sits one layer lower: Sendbird ships the conversational infrastructure, compliance posture (SOC, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA with BAA), AWS region choice, and moderation tooling, while the customer-facing interface stays inside the buyer's product. Against pure messaging APIs, Sendbird bundles prebuilt UI, a moderation console, and the delight.ai agent story, which suits teams that want fewer components to assemble but expect to pay MAU-based pricing rather than per-message rates.
Suitable for
Teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps
- Embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app
- Running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps
- Adding in-app support conversations to a banking or fintech product with HIPAA and SOC posture requirements
- Powering patient-to-clinician messaging in healthcare apps under a BAA
- Launching community open channels and Supergroup chats for live events or social products
- Moderating user-generated chat content with rules, tickets, and Hive image detection
Evidence: Homepage (Primary) · Pricing (Primary) · About (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
Pros and cons
Citeware analysis
Pros
- Sendbird publishes concrete Chat pricing by MAU tier instead of quote-only pricing for small and mid volumes
- Sendbird's free trial includes all Pro features with no credit card and no overages allowed
- Sendbird UIKit reduces build time for common chat UI, with the vendor FAQ citing under 15 minutes to add chat
- Sendbird ships a moderation console with rule engine, tickets, logs, and Hive-powered image moderation rather than leaving moderation to the customer
- Sendbird lets Enterprise customers choose AWS regions across nine geographies and run private dedicated servers
- Sendbird covers SOC, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA with BAA for regulated buyers
- Sendbird bundles Business Messaging with 30K free in-app messages on paid Chat plans
Cons
- Sendbird retains messages for only six months unless extended message retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan
- Sendbird caps Peak Concurrent Connections at 5% of the MAU limit on Starter and Pro, counts devices rather than users, and aggregates peak concurrent connections across every app in an organization
- Sendbird charges overage fees once an account passes its MAU tier, so costs can move with traffic spikes
- Data export, translation, image moderation, and Supergroup channels are withheld from the Sendbird Starter plan
- Standard Sendbird group channels are limited to 100 members, or 300 on dedicated instances, pushing larger rooms to Supergroup or open channels
- Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing table lists the entry tier as a "Free trial" while the Sendbird FAQ states the Developer plan "is free and remains active as long as you log into the Sendbird dashboard once a year" — both statements appear on the same page
- Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing cards show Starter at $399/month and Pro at $599/month billed monthly, while the FAQ price table for the same 5K MAU tiers is labelled as the June 2021 pricing list
- Sendbird's cancellation and upgrade guidance cites Terms of Service language that payments already made are non-refundable, and the FAQ references section 11 in one place and section 10 in another
Evidence: Homepage (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
Features
Verified facts
- Private 1-to-1 chat and group channels for up to 100 members (300 in dedicated instances)
- Open channels with dynamic partitioning for millions of participants
- Supergroup channels for thousands of participants in a private group
- UIKit prebuilt UI components for in-app messaging
- Typing indicators, delivery receipts, read receipts, and presence
- Reactions, mentions, unread message counts, and pinned messages
- Push notifications with do-not-disturb and a push notifications tester
- File, image, audio, and video sharing with auto-thumbnail generation
- Structured messages, polls, scheduled messages, and announcements
- Message threading, message search, and user and channel search
- Offline messaging and smart throttling
- Auto, on-demand, and push message translation
Evidence: Homepage (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
Pricing
Verified facts
Free trial
$0/mo
- Experiment with chat
- No overages allowed
- All Pro features
- No credit card required
- Community support
- Up to 1,000 MAUs
- Up to 20 peak concurrent connections
Starter 5K
$399/mo
Billed monthly
- Get started with chat
- Messaging essentials
- Basic moderation
- Ticketed support
- Overages may apply
- Platform offer: Business messaging with 30K free in-app messages ($122/month value included for free)
Pro 5K
$599/mo
Billed monthly
- Grow your business
- All Starter features
- Translation
- Data export
- Image moderation
- Supergroup channel
- Overages may apply
- Platform offer: Business messaging with 30K free in-app messages ($122/month value included for free)
Evidence: Homepage (Primary) · Pricing (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
Policies
Verified facts
The company behind Sendbird is Sendbird, Inc.
License agreement governing use of Sendbird documentation, packaged software, APIs and SDKs, third-party hosted cloud services and supporting services (collectively 'Sendbird Services'). Grants Customer a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license and right to access and use the Sendbird Services for internal, lawful business purposes. Customer is solely responsible for any use of Customer Data in connection with the Sendbird Services and for procuring all rights necessary for content, data and data streams used. Sendbird also lists other losses and interruptions it does not cover.
Address: 100 S. Ellsworth Ave, Suite 900, San Mateo, California 94401, USA
Terms
Terms pageLicense agreement governing use of Sendbird documentation, packaged software, APIs and SDKs, third-party hosted cloud services and supporting services (collectively 'Sendbird Services'). Grants Customer a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license and right to access and use the Sendbird Services for internal, lawful business purposes. Customer is solely responsible for any use of Customer Data in connection with the Sendbird Services and for procuring all rights necessary for content, data and data streams used. Sendbird also lists other losses and interruptions it does not cover.
What Sendbird offers
- License agreement governing use of Sendbird documentation, packaged software, APIs and SDKs, third-party hosted cloud services and supporting services (collectively 'Sendbird Services')
- Grants Customer a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license and right to access and use the Sendbird Services for internal, lawful business purposes
- Access is for the term expressly agreed in the applicable Order(s); each Order specifies the services and the service period (defaulting to each calendar month)
- Provides Documentation: written guides, guidelines, operating instructions, getting started guides, user manuals and help files
- Covers AI Services and Communication Platform Products, including chat, messaging, and voice/video call functionality with related Call Data
- Sendbird warrants the Sendbird Services shall conform in substantial conformance (Section 10, Limited Warranties and Disclaimers)
What they are not liable for
- Customer is solely responsible for any use of Customer Data in connection with the Sendbird Services and for procuring all rights necessary for content, data and data streams used
- Customer, not Sendbird, must ensure Customer Services, terms, fees and marketing materials comply with all applicable laws (including the TCPA)
- Customer is responsible for processing and handling third-party infringement notices, including DMCA notices, about Customer or End User content
- Customer is responsible for security measures protecting the Customer Service and its data from unauthorized access, tampering or control
- Sendbird reserves the right to block Customer Data or suspend accounts that violate the agreement or applicable law, or to mitigate liability, damages or security risk
- Sendbird may change the Sendbird Services or modify the terms at any time; continued use signifies acceptance
- Warranties are limited and subject to disclaimers set out in Section 10 (Limited Warranties and Disclaimers)
Evidence: Terms (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
AI summary
Citeware analysis
Named models, written separately. These are labeled Citeware analysis, not vendor claims.
Claude Analyst
anthropic · claude-opus-5 · Aug 22, 2026
Sendbird is a mature, enterprise-grade chat infrastructure layer with genuinely deep messaging primitives and moderation tooling, but its pricing page carries stale and self-contradictory details, and the connection and retention limits deserve a hard look before you sign.
Strong chat infrastructure with real moderation and compliance depth. The pricing page contradicts itself in three places, so get every limit in writing.
The engineering substance here is real. Group channels, Supergroups, open channels with dynamic partitioning, threading, translation, offline queuing, and a moderation console with a rule engine and Hive image detection add up to something most teams would spend quarters building.
SOC, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA with a BAA plus AWS region choice make it viable for regulated products, which is rarer than it sounds in this category.
Strengths
- Unusually deep chat feature set — Supergroups, partitioned open channels, threading, polls, scheduled messages, offline queuing — that would take quarters to build in-house
- Built-in moderation console with rule engine, ticketing, logs, moderator groups, and Hive-powered image detection instead of leaving trust and safety to you
- Compliance posture that clears regulated buyers: SOC, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA with BAA, plus nine AWS regions and private dedicated servers on Enterprise
- Published per-MAU pricing at the small and mid tiers rather than forcing every conversation through sales
- UIKit prebuilt components meaningfully shorten time to a working chat surface
Watch-outs
- Six-month message retention by default; extended retention is Enterprise-only, which is a problem for any product where chat history is the record
- Peak concurrent connection cap of 5% of MAU counts devices, not users, and aggregates across every app in the organization — open browser tabs inflate it
- Overage fees trigger past your MAU tier, so a viral week becomes a billing event
- The pricing page contradicts itself: free trial versus a free-forever Developer plan, current cards versus a FAQ table labelled June 2021, and Terms section 11 versus section 10 for the same refund clause
- Starter withholds translation, data export, image moderation, and Supergroup channels, pushing most serious use cases to Pro
- Standard group channels stop at 100 members (300 dedicated), forcing an architecture decision early
GPT Analyst
openai · gpt-5.6-terra · Aug 22, 2026
Sendbird is a strong communications infrastructure choice for products where chat is core to the transaction or service flow, not a support-widget add-on. Its depth and enterprise controls are persuasive, but buyers should model connection limits and get pricing terms clarified in writing.
As of August 2026, Sendbird remains a capable chat platform with unusually deep moderation, but its pricing page needs tighter operational clarity.
Fact: Sendbird pairs mature chat primitives with ready-made UI kits, moderation workflows, search, translation, and APIs for calls and business messaging. Pro adds important operational features such as data export, image moderation, translation, and Supergroup channels; the base Starter plan is materially narrower.
Strengths
- Deep chat architecture spanning private, open, and very large group conversations
- Prebuilt UIKit components accelerate a credible in-app messaging launch
- Robust native moderation tooling, including rules, tickets, logs, and image detection
- Enterprise-friendly compliance, regional deployment options, and dedicated-server availability
- Published entry pricing is more transparent than many enterprise communications vendors
Watch-outs
- Starter excludes several features that growing products often need, including translation, data export, image moderation, and Supergroups
- Peak concurrent connections count devices and can constrain multi-device or always-connected experiences
- Traffic-driven MAU overages make spend less predictable during growth spikes
- Standard private group sizes are modest before moving to a specialized channel type
- Pricing and plan documentation contains contradictions that buyers should resolve contractually
FAQ
Verified facts
Common questions about Sendbird.
What is Sendbird?
Sendbird, Inc. was founded in 2013 and operates from San Mateo, Seoul, and Singapore, selling a communications stack (Chat, Business Messaging, Calls, Desk) alongside an AI layer the company markets as delight.ai. Source: https://sendbird.com/
How much does Sendbird cost?
Sendbird is freemium. It starts at $0/month. Paid plans include Free trial: monthly $0/mo: yearly $0/yr ($0/mo effective); Starter 5K: monthly $399/mo: yearly $4188/yr ($349/mo effective, save 13%); Pro 5K: monthly $599/mo: yearly $5988/yr ($499/mo effective, save 17%). Check sendbird.com for current prices. Source: https://sendbird.com/pricing/chat
Is Sendbird free?
Sendbird has a free tier. Paid plans start at $399/month. Source: https://sendbird.com/pricing/chat
Who is Sendbird for?
Sendbird is best for teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps. Source: https://sendbird.com/
Should I use Sendbird?
Sendbird is best for teams embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app and running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps. Skip it if sendbird retains messages for only six months unless extended message retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan. Source: https://sendbird.com/
What are the main Sendbird features?
The main Sendbird features are Private 1-to-1 chat and group channels for up to 100 members (300 in dedicated instances), Open channels with dynamic partitioning for millions of participants, Supergroup channels for thousands of participants in a private group, UIKit prebuilt UI components for in-app messaging, and Typing indicators, delivery receipts, read receipts, and presence. Source: https://sendbird.com/
What are the best Sendbird alternatives?
The closest Sendbird alternatives on Citeware are Tidio, LiveChat, Synthflow. Full list: https://citeware.io/alternatives/sendbird. Source: https://sendbird.com/
What are the downsides of Sendbird?
Limitations called out on this listing: Sendbird retains messages for only six months unless extended message retention is purchased on the Enterprise plan; Sendbird caps Peak Concurrent Connections at 5% of the MAU limit on Starter and Pro, counts devices rather than users, and aggregates peak concurrent connections across every app in an organization; Sendbird charges overage fees once an account passes its MAU tier, so costs can move with traffic spikes; Data export, translation, image moderation, and Supergroup channels are withheld from the Sendbird Starter plan; Standard Sendbird group channels are limited to 100 members, or 300 on dedicated instances, pushing larger rooms to Supergroup or open channels; Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing table lists the entry tier as a "Free trial" while the Sendbird FAQ states the Developer plan "is free and remains active as long as you log into the Sendbird dashboard once a year" — both statements appear on the same page; Vendor contradiction: the Sendbird pricing cards show Starter at $399/month and Pro at $599/month billed monthly, while the FAQ price table for the same 5K MAU tiers is labelled as the June 2021 pricing list; Sendbird's cancellation and upgrade guidance cites Terms of Service language that payments already made are non-refundable, and the FAQ references section 11 in one place and section 10 in another. Source: https://sendbird.com/
Does Sendbird work on web and desktop?
Sendbird is available on Web. Source: https://sendbird.com/
What are common Sendbird use cases?
Common Sendbird use cases include Embedding 1-to-1 buyer-and-seller chat inside a marketplace or e-commerce app, Running courier, driver, and customer messaging for delivery and rideshare apps, Adding in-app support conversations to a banking or fintech product with HIPAA and SOC posture requirements, Powering patient-to-clinician messaging in healthcare apps under a BAA, Launching community open channels and Supergroup chats for live events or social products, Moderating user-generated chat content with rules, tickets, and Hive image detection, Sending in-app announcements and structured promotional messages to large user segments, Deploying AI agents that handle customer service turns inside an existing chat surface. Source: https://sendbird.com/
Who makes Sendbird?
Sendbird is made by Sendbird, Inc, founded in 2013. Address: 100 S. Ellsworth Ave, Suite 900, San Mateo, California 94401, USA. Official site: https://sendbird.com/. Source: https://sendbird.com/about
How does Sendbird calculate a monthly active user?
Sendbird counts a Monthly Active User when a person connects to Sendbird servers through the Client SD. Source: https://sendbird.com/
Evidence: Homepage (Primary) · Verified Aug 22, 2026.
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