ChatGPT-Next-Web with a cash register attached

What it does AIChatWeb is a fork of ChatGPT-Next-Web that adds the missing pieces needed to run a chat interface as a small commercial service: user registration and login, usage quotas, invitation codes, sensitive-word filtering, and a web-based admin console. It requires deploying separate backend and admin frontend services alongside the main web app, and it explicitly drops support for serverless platforms like Vercel in favor of Docker on a traditional server.

The interesting bit Rather than treating the chat UI as the product, this project treats it as infrastructure. The real focus is the operator dashboard—built on vue-element-admin—where you set subscription packages, brand the site, monitor users, and wire up Chinese payment gateways. There is even a gated “professional edition” whose extra features are unlocked through a paid community membership.

Key highlights

• Adds registration, login, quota tracking, and rate limiting atop the familiar ChatGPT-Next-Web interface
• Admin console supports custom site titles, welcome messages, announcement banners, and subscription tiers (day/week/month passes)
• Integrates domestic Chinese LLMs—Baidu Wenxin, Alibaba Tongyi, Zhipu GLM-4, Moonshot—and Midjourney-style drawing tools
• Payment support for Chinese gateways (Hupijiao, Lantu) alongside invitation codes and redeem-code systems
• Docker-centric deployment targeting CentOS 7.9; the README notes other OS versions are untested

Caveats

• Requires coordinating three separate repositories (web, backend API, admin console), so the “one-click” script still needs a server and some patience
• Several advanced features—payment dashboards, WeChat login, phone registration—are reserved for the professional tier, which is tied to a paid community membership
• Default super-admin credentials generated during deployment are intentionally simple and must be changed immediately

Verdict Worth a look if you are building a metered, multi-tenant AI chat service for the Chinese market and would rather buy the business logic off the shelf. Avoid if you need a lightweight personal client or Western payment stacks.