# Chatbox vs LobeChat Chatbox records 567,170 monthly visits with -16.1% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. LobeChat records 11,369 monthly visits with -1.5% growth and Freemium, Free pricing. | Metric | [Chatbox](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbox) | [LobeChat](https://openaitools.app/tool/lobechat) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://chatboxai.app | https://lobechat.com | | Categories | AI Copilot, AI Chatbot, AI Assistant | AI Productivity Tools, AI Chatbot, Large Language Models (LLMs) | | Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium, Free | | Monthly Visits | 567,170 | 11,369 | | MoM Growth Rate | -16.1% | -1.5% | | Primary Market | China | Russia | | Direct Visits | 329,039 | 4,652 | | Review Score | 4.6 | 4.7 | | Saved Count | 1 | 0 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## Chatbox Chatbox is a multi-model AI client rather than a model of its own. Instead of locking you into a single provider, it connects to the APIs you already pay for — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and a long list of others — and gives them a single, consistent workspace. Because you supply the keys, your conversations run against your own accounts and quotas, and Chatbox states plainly that it does not sell or share your data. The app ships for Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux, iOS and Android, and there is also a browser version, so the same conversations and settings follow you between devices. The everyday workflow is chat-plus-files. You can drop in PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, images and code snippets and ask questions about them, then quietly build a local knowledge base so the app remembers and retrieves your own documents over time. A live web search mode pulls current information for questions where the model's training cutoff is not enough, and the rendering layer handles Markdown, Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX formulas properly, which matters for technical and academic work. More recently the product has been pushing beyond plain chat with Work Mode, an agentic layer where an assistant can work with your files, search the web, write and preview code and run tools with less babysitting. There is AI image generation for turning prompts into visuals, plus code generation with live preview for quick prototyping. A free tier covers standard use, and paid plans raise limits or add hosted features aimed at heavier users; the desktop app itself can still be used with your own API keys. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium: a free tier covers everyday chatting, with paid subscription plans that lift usage limits and add hosted AI capabilities. Bringing your own model API keys keeps costs tied to your provider. - **Multi-model support with your own keys:** Switch between GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and many other providers in one client by plugging in your own API credentials. - **File, image and document Q&A:** Upload PDFs, Office documents, images and code, then ask the app to summarise, explain or extract what you need. - **Local knowledge base:** Store documents locally so Chatbox can recall and answer from your own materials while your data stays on your machine. - **Live web search and rich rendering:** Pull current results from the web and display answers with Markdown, Mermaid diagrams, LaTeX formulas and code previews. - **Work Mode agents and image generation:** Let an agent handle multi-step tasks with your files and tools, and generate images directly from prompts. **Strengths:** Supports many leading models in a single interface, so you are not locked into one provider; Available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the web; Local knowledge base and clear privacy positioning keep your documents on your device; Handles files, images, web search, code preview, LaTeX and Mermaid out of the box **Limitations:** Best experience with your own API keys, which means managing separate provider accounts and billing; Model availability and quality depend entirely on which providers you connect; The breadth of modes and settings can be overwhelming for someone who just wants a simple chat window [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbox.md) ## LobeChat LobeChat started as an open-source chat UI for language models and has grown into a full assistant workspace now branded LobeHub. The interface supports OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Mistral, DeepSeek, Qwen, Groq, Ollama and other providers, and you can switch between them mid-conversation or run local models through Ollama. Conversations are organised into assistants and topics, with prompt libraries, branch-and-edit message trees, vision input for image understanding and function calling for tools. The product layer around the chat is what distinguishes it: an assistant marketplace for discovering and sharing agents, a knowledge base that uploads documents and grounds answers in your own files, and a plugin system that lets assistants search the web, generate images, read PDFs or call external APIs. Artifacts render generated code and documents in a live canvas, and text-to-speech adds voice playback. Because it is open source, every part of the experience — including the model gateway and data storage — can be deployed on your own infrastructure. LobeChat is used as both a free personal assistant and a team tool. Individual users get a capable daily chat client without vendor lock-in, while organisations that care about data residency can self-host the whole stack and point it at internal or Azure OpenAI endpoints. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. The open-source client is free to use and self-host at no licence cost; a hosted cloud plan adds convenience, higher limits and team features, with paid tiers on top of the free allowance. - **Multi-model gateway:** Talk to OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, DeepSeek, Qwen, Groq and local Ollama models from one interface, switching providers within a single conversation. - **Assistant marketplace:** Discover, clone and share agents with predefined prompts, tools and knowledge, so you are not building every workflow from scratch. - **Knowledge base with RAG:** Upload documents and files so answers are grounded in your own content rather than the model's general memory. - **Plugins and artifacts:** Extend assistants with web search, image generation and API calls, and render generated code or documents in a live canvas. - **Self-hosting and data control:** Deploy the open-source stack on your own servers or Vercel, keeping conversations, keys and files under your control. **Strengths:** Genuinely open source, so no vendor lock-in and full self-hosting is possible; Supports an unusually wide range of hosted and local models; Rich feature set: marketplace, knowledge base, plugins, artifacts and voice; Generous free tier for personal use plus a hosted option for convenience **Limitations:** Feature breadth means a busier interface than minimalist chat apps, with a learning curve; Self-hosting requires technical setup and ongoing maintenance; Some advanced capabilities depend on the specific model or plugin you connect [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/lobechat.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do Chatbox and LobeChat compare in monthly traffic? Chatbox has 567,170 monthly visits, while LobeChat has 11,369. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? Chatbox has a month-over-month growth rate of -16.1%; LobeChat has -1.5%. ### How does pricing compare? Chatbox: Freemium. Freemium: a free tier covers everyday chatting, with paid subscription plans that lift usage limits and add hosted AI capabilities. Bringing your own model API keys keeps costs tied to your provider. LobeChat: Freemium, Free. Freemium. The open-source client is free to use and self-host at no licence cost; a hosted cloud plan adds convenience, higher limits and team features, with paid tiers on top of the free allowance. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [DeepSeek](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek) | 372,761,591 | +4.3% | Freemium | High-efficiency open-weight and hosted reasoning AI powered by DeepSeek-V4 and R1 at ultra-low token costs. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek.md) | | 2 | [Kimi AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/kimi-chat) | 19,632,261 | -23.4% | Free | Moonshot AI's long-context assistant for research, coding, and agentic work | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/kimi-chat.md) | | 3 | [Poe](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe) | 5,894,702 | +9.1% | Freemium | One app to chat with GPT, Claude, Gemini and hundreds of other AI models | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe.md) | | 4 | [Monica](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai) | 4,512,775 | -11.3% | Freemium | All-in-one AI assistant across web, browser, desktop and mobile | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai.md) | | 5 | [Sider](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider) | 2,644,740 | -10.6% | Freemium | AI sidebar and browser agent for reading, writing and research | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider.md) | | 6 | [Chatbot App](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app) | 2,170,883 | -9.7% | Freemium | Chat with 30+ leading AI models in one clean, fast workspace | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app.md) | | 7 | [Open WebUI](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui) | 804,534 | -2.8% | Freemium | Self-hosted AI workspace for local and cloud models | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui.md) | | 8 | [LobeHub](https://openaitools.app/tool/lobehub) | 654,548 | -25% | Freemium | Put always-on AI agents on your team chat | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/lobehub.md) | | 9 | [Typing Mind](https://openaitools.app/tool/typing-mind) | 533,103 | +12.9% | Paid | The best frontend for AI. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/typing-mind.md) | | 10 | [LibreChat](https://openaitools.app/tool/librechat) | 346,879 | -3.5% | Free | Every AI conversation, one open-source workspace | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/librechat.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/chatbox-vs-lobechat More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)