Chatvia vs CustomGPT.ai: no cap on questions#

CustomGPT.ai is good at one thing: answers that cite your content and stay inside it. It costs from about $99 a month, and each plan comes with a set number of queries. Chatvia, the self-hosted platform I built, gives cited answers too, on your own server, for free and without a query cap. I compare the two on that one job and on everything around it.

My short take#

If all you want is a bot that cites your content, and you never want to run a server, CustomGPT.ai does that well. I would pick Chatvia when you want the cited answers plus the rest: tools, handoff, ten channels, your documents on your own server, and no limit on questions.

What CustomGPT.ai is#

CustomGPT.ai is a hosted chatbot that answers from your own content. You add your documents and your website, and it replies with links to the sources it used. Its strong point is accuracy: it tries hard to answer only from what you gave it. Everything runs on CustomGPT.ai's servers.

There is no free plan. Plans start at about $99 a month, and each plan has a set number of queries.

What Chatvia is#

Chatvia is a free platform for AI chat agents that you install on your own server with one command. An agent answers from your files, your websites and your Q&A pairs, and it works on your website, in Slack, Teams, WhatsApp and more.

You get the full source code. You can read it, change it and run it.

Cited answers#

Let me be fair first: CustomGPT.ai takes the worry about made-up answers seriously.

So does Chatvia. Answers show the sources they came from and how sure the agent is. Underneath:

• Hybrid search runs vector search and keyword search side by side, so exact names and codes are found as well as meaning.
• A reranker puts the best passages first.
• A short follow-up like "and the price?" is rewritten into a full question before the search runs.
• Each part of a document gets a summary and the questions it answers, so the agent lands on the right part.

Then there is keeping answers right over time, the part people forget. A weak answer gets fixed from the chat log and becomes a Q&A pair. Guardrails keep the agent on topic, and answers can be checked before the visitor sees them. Evaluations score the agent on test questions, so you can prove a change did not make it worse.

A query cap or none#

With CustomGPT.ai you pay from about $99 a month, and your plan holds a set number of queries. Need more? You move up a plan.

Chatvia is free and has no limit on questions. You pay your AI provider for what the model uses, at the provider's price, with nothing added on top. A typical answer from a fast model costs a fraction of a cent. With an open-weight model on your own hardware, the AI cost can be zero.

There is no limit on agents, teams or replies, with or without a key. A Pro license key is $199 a year. It adds more workspaces, the API, capabilities and forms and hides the "Powered by Chatvia" line.

Where the documents live#

A bot that answers from your content needs your content. With CustomGPT.ai, your documents are stored on its servers.

Chatvia runs on a server you choose: your cloud account, your data center, or a machine in your office. The documents never leave it unless you send them to an AI provider you picked. With a local model, nothing leaves at all.

It reads many kinds of files: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, EPUB, Markdown and images. OCR readers handle scanned pages and tables, and audio and video are turned into text. Website imports refresh daily, weekly or monthly. You train a source once and use it in as many agents as you like.

Which model answers#

CustomGPT.ai offers a list of hosted models.

Chatvia lets you choose any model: OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, Groq, OpenRouter, or your own server with Ollama or vLLM. Each agent can use a different one, and you can switch at any time.

Everything after the answer#

CustomGPT.ai is built to answer questions. Tools and handoff are limited, and it reaches people through a widget, an API and integrations.

Chatvia is a full agent:

• Channels. A chat widget, a hosted chat page, voice chats, Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram and a REST API.
• Tools. 24 ready-made connectors or any MCP server. For each tool you choose: it runs, it waits for a person's OK, or it never runs.
• Handoff. Your team takes over a widget chat live when a person should answer.
• Leads. Show a form in the chat and store each answer as a lead.

When CustomGPT.ai wins#

If cited answers from your content are the whole job, you never want to run a server, and your number of questions sits well inside a plan, CustomGPT.ai is a sound choice. I mean that.

My verdict#

CustomGPT.ai does one thing well, and Chatvia does the same thing well. The difference is what comes with it. Chatvia adds tools, handoff, leads and ten channels, keeps your documents on your own server, and never counts your questions. You pick the model, and your costs stay flat while the questions grow.

Install Chatvia, add a few documents, and ask it what your customers ask.

Prices are from CustomGPT.ai's pages and public reviews in October 2026. They change often, so check them before you choose.