Before you start
- On WordPress.com, any paid plan (Personal or above). WordPress.com's support page "Install a plugin" lists plugins on Personal, Premium, Business and Commerce; free sites can't install plugins or run added scripts.
- On self-hosted WordPress, permission to install plugins.
- Your code from your assistant's Widget page.
Get the free WordPress chatbot plugin
Download ai-chat-bot.zip from the plugin's page, which also has the full setup guide and troubleshooting.
Steps
- Download our plugin, ai-chat-bot.zip, from the WordPress plugin page on this site. Leave it zipped.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, then Add Plugin, and click Upload Plugin. Choose ai-chat-bot.zip, click Install Now, then Activate Plugin.
- Go to Settings, then AI Chat Bot.
- Open your assistant's Widget page in another tab and copy the agent ID from the WordPress box. You can paste the whole snippet if that's easier; the plugin takes the ID out of it.
- Paste it in, make sure "Show the assistant" is ticked, and save.
- Open your website in a new tab and look for the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner, or bottom-left if you've moved it in Settings. Your Widget page shows "Live on your site" once it has been seen there.
Without our plugin
- Sign in, open your assistant's Widget page and copy the one line of code shown there. It starts with <script and ends with </script>.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and add a free header and footer plugin such as "WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers", then activate it.
- Go to Code Snippets, then Header & Footer.
- Paste your code into the Footer box.
- Click Save Changes.
- Open your website in a new tab and look for the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner, or bottom-left if you've moved it in Settings. Your Widget page shows "Live on your site" once it has been seen there.
Platform steps checked on October 1, 2026 against WordPress.com Support: Add code to the WordPress site header
Good to know
- Our plugin stores three settings (your ID, a color and an on/off switch) in one entry, sends nothing anywhere of its own, and adds no dashboard widgets or notices. Deactivating it keeps your ID; deleting it removes the entry.
- If you use a caching or optimization plugin set to combine every script, exclude widget.js. Combining a third-party script with your own is a common way to break both.
- WordPress.com opened plugins to every paid plan on April 2, 2026, in its own announcement "Plugins, Global Styles, and More: Now on Every WordPress.com Paid Plan". Older guides saying you need the Business plan are out of date.
- Developers can instead load the script from a child theme with wp_enqueue_script(), set to load in the footer. Don't edit a parent theme directly: updates overwrite it.
Can't edit your website?
Every assistant has its own chat page. Link to it from your website's menu, your Google Business Profile, social media or email signature. Or use "Email this to my web person" on your Widget page to send the code to whoever runs your site.
Questions
Do I need a plugin at all?
No. Ours exists so you don't have to touch theme files or paste code, but a header and footer plugin works just as well, and so does adding the line to a child theme's footer if you're comfortable doing that.
Does WordPress have a chatbot built in?
No. WordPress itself has no chatbot to switch on, so every WordPress chatbot is added with a plugin or a line of code, as in the steps above.
Does it work on free WordPress.com sites?
No. Free WordPress.com sites can't run added scripts. Use your assistant's chat page link instead, or move to a paid plan.