1. Sign up and input your AI key
Use the AI account you already pay for — ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Gemini or OpenRouter. Your key is encrypted and used only for your messages. Full instructions are below.
Free to use
IDATHABOT — an AI agent in your WhatsApp
You already have WhatsApp or Telegram. You already pay for an AI key. IDATHABOT joins the two together and gives your AI hands — memory, South African knowledge, and the skills to do the work: your invoices and quotes as real documents, receipts filed, meetings written up and remembered, chasing what you’re owed, research and booking. Nothing to install, and no new number.
Free on Telegram, nothing to install, and WhatsApp from R99 a month. Signing up takes three fields.
Spend more time enjoying life
Your agent runs in the WhatsApp or Telegram you already have. Nothing to install, no new number, and it carries on while you’re on site, on the road, or already at the braai. It takes care of your books, prepares your taxes and makes bookings. It drafts and prepares your paperwork — and you stay in charge of what goes to a client.
The quote and the invoice went out from his agent’s own mailbox, signed on behalf of the business. Tomorrow it will have the reminder for the unpaid one already written and waiting — he sends it with one word.
The morning briefing is waiting for when you have a bar again, the diary is being watched, and Tuesday’s meeting is already written up and searchable.
VAT figures for a return, a management pack built from your invoices and bank together, and a statement of account for any client — all from your own records, not estimates.
Free to start, and no card to try it. Add a plan when your agent starts earning its keep. Get your agent
Why a chatbot can’t do your admin
A chatbot answers. IDATHABOT does. Here is the difference, listed plainly — including the rows where they are every bit as good as we are.
| Skill | IDATHABOTin your WhatsApp | ChatGPT | Grok | Claude | Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs inside the WhatsApp or Telegram you already use | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Remembers your business — books, debtors, contacts — and works from it | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Files a photographed receipt into your books | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Reads your bank statement and reconciles it, naming every unmatched line | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Knows the South African tax calendar — provisional tax, annual returns, COIDA, UIF | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Answers on SARS, CIPC, municipal accounts, medical aid and vehicle licensing | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Chases your debtors, and keeps a record of what was sent and when | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Builds the management pack, the VAT figures and the tax pack for your accountant | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs on the AI key you already pay for | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Where they are just as good as we are | |||||
| Answers general questions, and writes general text | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Searches the web | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Generates images | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
How to read this. Compared for a South African user on each product’s ordinary consumer offering, as at 29 September 2026. ChatGPT and Copilot were both taken off WhatsApp on 15 January 2026 after a change of policy by the platform, and Grok and Claude have never run in it natively — that row is true today and may not stay true, so check with each provider before relying on it. The books, chasing and South African knowledge rows are what IDATHABOT is built for; general question answering, research and image generation are capabilities of the AI model you connect, which is why we tick the same boxes and why your answer depends on the key you bring. Nothing here says the models are bad — four of them are very good, and one of them may be the key running your agent.
How it works
IDATHA is the agent — not the AI, and not the app. It works inside the WhatsApp or Telegram you already use. You connect the AI account you already have; we provide the agent, the memory, the South African knowledge and the skills.
2. Message on WhatsApp or Telegram
Your agent lives in your WhatsApp or Telegram. Ask it anything, the way you would message a person. No new app, no new login.
3. It gains real functions
Per-user memory and scheduled tasks, so it knows your context and follows through without being asked twice.
Add real-world skills to your agent
A chatbot answers questions. An agent gets things done. These are the skills that make the difference. They are grouped by the plan they arrive on, so it is clear what you get now and what a plan adds.
On every plan, including Free
Your model's full brain — plus a tailored South African knowledge base
Nothing is taken away: your agent keeps everything your model already knows, everywhere in the world. On top of that sits a curated South African database — municipal accounts, SARS and tax, medical aid claims, vehicle licensing, the Rental Housing Tribunal, UIF. Real figures, and the real process.
Web lookups — the results, and what they say
Your agent searches the web and answers from the results: the title, the address and the summary each one carries. It tells you where an answer came from and gives you the link, so you can check it yourself. What it does not do is open the pages — so when the answer sits inside a page rather than in its summary, it says so and hands you the link rather than guessing.
On Pro — R249 a month
Email — so it can get real work done
Now your agent sends and receives email on your command, or while you sleep. Draft a letter, chase a supplier, decline politely, clear the backlog overnight. You read it, you approve it, it goes. Nothing is sent without your yes.
Full web browsing — it opens the pages and reads them
The whole page, not the search result. A page that only builds itself once a browser loads it, and a page published as a picture — like a restaurant’s menu sitting on its own site as an image. It reads the details off the page, then acts on them: researching, comparing, booking a table, filling in a form. It hands the payment step back to you, every time. Because it reads the whole page it takes longer than a lookup — a few seconds on a light page, up to a minute on a heavy one.
On Premium — R499 a month
Your books, reconciled
Your invoices, receipts and bank statements come together into one set of books. Reconciliation, with every unmatched line named. VAT figures for a return, with the unconfirmed lines flagged. A tax-preparation pack for your accountant, and a statement of account for any client. 250 MB of memory — five times Pro.
On Enterprise — R2,499 a month, for a small business and above
The business skills — and three people sharing them
Built for a business rather than a person: letters of demand and breach notices, supplier and cost analysis over time, the cash view — what is coming in and going out, from your own records — contract, policy and HR structures, and a tender pack. Shared workspace in progress (accounts@, sales@, management@), all reading and writing the same brain in real time. 1,000 MB of shared memory.
Step 1: sign up and add your AI key
IDATHA does not sell you AI — you already have it. Use the account you already pay for, and we give it the functions. Here is how to get a key from each of the main providers.
An AI subscription is not an AI key. ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and X Premium are the chat websites. They do not include a key. A key comes from the provider's developer platform, and is billed separately for what you use.
OpenRouter
One free key, no card needed, and it reaches hundreds of models from many providers at once. If you are not sure what to use, start here.
openrouter.ai → sign in → Keys → Create Key. Starts with sk-or-
Google Gemini
Genuinely free to start — no credit card, and tokens cost nothing on the free tier. Google does use free-tier prompts to improve their models.
aistudio.google.com → Get API key → Create API key. A long code appears — AQ. on newer keys, AIza on older ones. Either works.
DeepSeek
The best value and very cheap, but there is no free API tier — top up about $2 first or the key will return nothing.
platform.deepseek.com → Top up → API keys. Starts with sk-
ChatGPT
Your ChatGPT Plus subscription does not include a key. You need a separate OpenAI account on the developer platform, with its own card.
platform.openai.com → Billing → API keys. Starts with sk-
Claude
Your Claude Pro subscription does not include a key either. Sign in to the Anthropic console and add credit.
console.anthropic.com → API Keys → Create Key. Starts with sk-ant-
Grok
X Premium is not an API key. Sign in to the xAI console with your X account and create one there.
console.x.ai → API Keys → Create API Key
Got your key? Three fields and you are running — sign up here. Stuck on any step? Message your agent and it will walk you through it.
Choose your plan
Start free. Move up when you want the agent to do more.
Free
R0/month
Telegram
- Eleven languages, on Telegram
- The South African knowledge base
- Web lookups - it searches and answers from the results and what they say
- Reminders and scheduled tasks
- A morning briefing
- Virtual memory - it remembers your business
- Photos and voice notes: it reads them, on your own AI key
- Brief offers, capped at 2 a day
Ad-free
R99/month
or R1,009.80 a year – save R178.20
WhatsAppTelegram
- Everything in Free
- No offers at all, ever
- Priority support
Pro
R249/month
or R2,539.80 a year – save R448.20
WhatsAppTelegram
- Everything in Ad-free
- Give your agent email - its own mailbox
- Invoices, quotes and documents as real PDFs
- Receipts filed; a report on request
- Your inbox read and triaged
- Full web browsing - it opens the pages and reads them, including pages published as pictures
- Your calendar, read-only
- Meetings written up as minutes, kept and searchable
- Bank statements imported
- Contacts - it writes to people by name
Pro runs your day. Premium does your paperwork.
Premium
R499/month
or R5,089.80 a year – save R898.20
WhatsAppTelegram
- Everything in Pro
- Who owes you, worst first
- Chasing on the due date, firmer with age
- A compliance clock for your business
- Supplier fraud check
- Management pack from invoices, receipts and bank together
- Reconciliation, with every unmatched line named
- VAT figures for a return, unconfirmed lines flagged
- Tax-preparation pack for your accountant
- A statement of account
- 250 MB of agent memory - five times Pro
Premium does your paperwork. Enterprise does it for the whole business.
Enterprise
R2,499/month
or R25,489.80 a year – save R4,498.20
Telegramplus your own mailbox
- Everything in Premium
- For a business, not just a person
- For a business - shared workspace in progress
- Letters of demand and breach notices, with the amount checked against your books
- Supplier and cost analysis over time
- Cash view - what is coming in and going out, from your own records
- Contract, policy and HR structures from your own details
- A pack of what is on record, for a tender or application
- 1,000 MB of agent memory - four times Premium
All prices in South African rand, per month, VAT inclusive. Your AI provider bills you directly for the tokens your agent uses. Social posting, image creation and ad creation are add-ons from Premium upwards — what each one does.
What IDATHA does not do
Your agent will never move money, complete a payment, or enter a card number or verification code. It takes you to the final click and then hands over to you. It never acts without your instruction, and it never pretends to be you.
Signing up takes three fields
Your name, your email, and the channel you want — WhatsApp or Telegram. Add email and web browsing whenever you want them.
Get started