# tawk.to

> tawk.to is a customer communication platform best known for giving away the world's most widely used live chat software for free. Founded in 2012 and based in Las Vegas, the bootstrapped company bundles live chat, ticketing, a knowledge base, a CRM and AI-assisted replies into a single free product used by hundreds of thousands of businesses across 140+ countries. Instead of charging for features, it earns money at the edges - $1/hour hired chat agents, an optional AI Assist add-on, and a $29/month fee to remove its branding - while roughly 99% of users never pay a cent.

- **Founded:** 2012
- **Headquarters:** Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- **Founders:** Robert D'Assisi (Founder & CEO), Shankar Karuppiah (Co-founder & CTO)
- **Team size:** ~135 employees (2026)
- **Products:** Live Chat, Ticketing, Knowledge Base, CRM & Shared Inbox, AI Assist / Apollo AI bot
- **Notable:** Grew to the world's most widely used live chat software with roughly 20% market share., Reached 1.7 billion+ (later 3 billion+) monthly customer interactions with no advertising spend., Bootstrapped to category leadership with no venture capital funding.

## Products & services

- **Live Chat** — Free, customizable chat widget to monitor and message website and mobile-app visitors in real time, with unlimited agents and no volume caps.
- **Ticketing** — Built-in help desk for turning conversations and emails into trackable support tickets.
- **Knowledge Base** — Free self-service help center so customers can find answers without waiting for an agent.
- **CRM & Shared Inbox** — Auto-built contact profiles and a shared inbox spanning chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS and Telegram.
- **AI Assist / Apollo AI bot** — Add-on AI agent that answers customers 24/7 from your own content, suggests smart replies and supports multilingual chat.
- **Hired Chat Agents** — On-demand human agents to staff your chat around the clock, billed at $1 per hour.
- **Mobile & Desktop Apps** — Native iOS, Android, macOS and Windows apps for answering customers from anywhere.

## Achievements

- Grew to the world's most widely used live chat software with roughly 20% market share.
- Reached 1.7 billion+ (later 3 billion+) monthly customer interactions with no advertising spend.
- Bootstrapped to category leadership with no venture capital funding.
- Serves 265,000+ businesses across 140+ countries and 50+ languages.
- Kept a genuinely full-featured product free while competitors moved upmarket.

## Latest updates

- **2023-01** — Launched AI Assist and the Apollo AI bot, adding 24/7 automated answers drawn from a business's own content.
- **2025-01** — Expanded the platform toward a full customer-communication suite - shared inbox, CRM and sales pipeline - while keeping the core free.
- **2026-06** — Company reported at roughly 135 employees, still bootstrapped and privately held.

## Links

- Website: https://www.tawk.to
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tawk-to
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/tawktotawk
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmmsTnOAYjv1pZl-ueAMM-A
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tawkto/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tawk-to
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-08