WordPress AI chatbot with a plugin or a script tag

There are two ways to add an AI chatbot to WordPress. You install a plugin from the WordPress directory, or you paste a hosted chatbot’s script tag into your site’s footer once. The popular plugins are free to install, but the AI costs extra. Either you pay an AI provider for every reply, or you get a set number of free AI conversations and then pay the vendor. We read each plugin’s page and prices below on 22 September 2026.

Deacon is an AI customer support agent that goes onto WordPress as one script tag, with no chatbot plugin to install or keep updated. It answers your customers in seconds from your own pages, and it shows you what they ask about most. The free plan gives you 50 answers a month, needs no card and has no end date.

Plugin or script tag, and what the difference means

WordPress AI chatbot plugins come in two kinds, and the kind decides who runs the AI and who bills you for it.

Some run the chatbot inside WordPress. AI Engine and AI Puffer work this way. You create an API key with OpenAI or another AI provider, paste it into the plugin and pay the provider directly for what the chatbot uses. The chats and settings sit in your WordPress database, and it’s one more plugin to check after every WordPress update.

The others connect your site to a hosted service, as Tidio, Chatway and Jotform do. The AI runs on the vendor’s servers and is priced on the vendor’s plans. The plugin puts the vendor’s chat widget on your pages, and some also pass it data from WooCommerce.

A script tag does the same job without a chatbot plugin. You paste one line into your footer and the chatbot’s own servers do the rest. That’s how Deacon goes in.

What the free WordPress AI chatbot plugins include

Among the first results for “ai chatbot” in the plugin directory, these three chatbot plugins have the most active installs, and between them they show both kinds. Here’s what each gives you without paying, as their own pages put it on 22 September 2026.

The units differ. Tidio and Chatway count conversations. Deacon counts answers, one per reply, and a conversation takes about 2 of them, so 50 answers covers about 25 conversations.

How to add a chatbot’s script tag to WordPress

WordPress has no setting of its own for a script on every page, so the tag goes in one of these three places. The first suits almost every site.

A header-and-footer plugin, which survives any theme change

WPCode’s Insert Headers and Footers is free and has more than 3 million active installs. Install it, open Code Snippets › Header & Footer, paste the tag into the Footer box and press Save Changes. The tag now lives in your site’s settings rather than in a theme, so theme updates, a new theme and a full redesign all leave it where it is.

The footer in the Site Editor, on a block theme

A block theme lets you skip the plugin. Go to Appearance › Editor, open Patterns, then Template Parts, then Footer. Add a Custom HTML block, paste the tag and save. WordPress keeps your edit in its database, so a theme update leaves it alone. Switching to a different theme leaves it behind, because the new theme brings its own footer.

The theme’s footer.php, which a theme update wipes

A classic theme’s footer lives in footer.php, under Appearance › Theme File Editor. WordPress’s own documentation advises against editing there, because updating the theme loses your changes. A child theme avoids that, but it’s more work than the plugin, and a switch of theme still leaves the tag behind.

On WordPress.com

A free WordPress.com site removes script tags when you save. Adding code to your footer needs the Personal plan or above, and then it works as above, with the same WPCode plugin under Code Snippets › Header & Footer. WordPress.com’s guide to adding code has the steps.

What Deacon does on your WordPress site

Most of what your customers ask, your pages already answer. They just don’t find it, so they ask you, and every repeat question pulls you away from building. Deacon answers those questions in seconds, at any hour, from the pages you choose and in whatever language your customer writes in. An answer taken from one of your pages often links to it, so they can read on.

When your pages don’t cover a question, Deacon says it doesn’t know instead of making something up, and asks for the visitor’s email. If they leave it, or ask for a person, you get an email. Reply from the dashboard, and if they still have the chat open, your reply appears there under your name.

Then Deacon gets better. Every question your pages didn’t cover waits in your dashboard with an Answer this button. What you write becomes part of what Deacon knows, so it can answer the next person who asks, and it needs you a little less each time.

You also learn what your customers need, instead of hearing only from the few who email. Every conversation is saved and searchable. Topics groups the questions, counts how many people asked and labels most groups, such as a feature ask, a bug report or a how-to, so you know what to fix and what to build next. The same script counts your site’s visitors, sources, goals and funnels, so there’s no second tag for your footer.

Every feature is on every plan, the free one included. There’s no AI provider account or key to manage, nothing is billed past your plan’s answers and no plan upgrades itself. The pricing page has the paid plans.

Adding Deacon to WordPress

Deacon needs no plugin of its own. The snippet it gives you looks like this, with your own key in place of the placeholder.

<script src="https://heydeacon.com/widget/v1/loader.js" data-key="pk_your_widget_key" async></script>

Setting it up takes a few minutes.

1. Sign up with your email or Google, and give Deacon your site’s address. The free plan needs no card. Deacon reads your home page and up to four pages it links to, such as pricing and help, and learns from them with no more clicks.
2. On the Install page, check your site’s domain is listed, and add it if it isn’t. The website you gave when you signed up is already there, with your snippet ready, and it covers your address with or without www.
3. Copy the snippet into WPCode’s Footer box, or into your block theme’s footer, and save.
4. In Knowledge Sources, add any other page your customers ask about by its link, with Add website.
5. Ask it your customers’ questions in the Playground before anyone else sees it.

What to check after you save

These five checks take a couple of minutes.

1. Clear your caching plugin’s cache, or you’ll keep seeing the page from before you added the tag.
2. Open your site in a private window and look for the chat button, since your own browser may still hold the old page.
3. If a speed plugin delays JavaScript until the visitor moves, scrolls or taps, the button and Deacon’s page view both wait for it. WP Rocket’s Delay JavaScript execution works this way, and adding loader.js to its Excluded JavaScript Files lets the button load at once.
4. Look at the top of the Install page. It says whether Deacon is live on your site and when it was last seen, and it keeps checking by itself.
5. Ask one question your pages answer and one they don’t. The first should get an answer, and the second an honest “I don’t know” with a box for an email address.

Questions about WordPress AI chatbots

Is there a free AI chatbot for WordPress?

Yes, but check what the free part covers. AI Engine’s plugin is free, and your AI provider bills you for each reply. Tidio and Chatway give you a set number of free AI conversations for the life of your account. Deacon’s free plan gives you 50 answers every month, with no card and no end date.

Do I need a plugin to add an AI chatbot to WordPress?

Not a chatbot plugin. A hosted chatbot needs only its script tag in your footer. On most sites that means a header-and-footer plugin such as WPCode, and on a block theme the Site Editor’s footer works too.

Will a chatbot slow my WordPress site down?

Deacon’s tag loads in the background with async, so your page doesn’t wait for it. A chatbot that runs inside WordPress also handles each chat on your own server, which a hosted one leaves to its vendor.

Does it work with WooCommerce?

Yes. WooCommerce runs on WordPress, so the same tag goes in WPCode’s Footer box. A block theme’s footer would miss your checkout, because WooCommerce’s checkout template leaves the site footer out. Deacon answers shoppers from your store’s pages, but it can’t see your WooCommerce admin, so it can’t look up an order. Our WooCommerce guide covers the rest.

Can I add a chatbot on WordPress.com’s free plan?

Not with a script tag or a plugin. WordPress.com removes script tags from free sites, and both adding code and installing plugins need the Personal plan or above.

What happens when Deacon’s free answers run out?

Visitors get a short reply saying Deacon can’t look into that one right now, and are asked for their email unless they’ve already left it. You can still read and reply to every conversation. Nothing is billed, and your plan never upgrades itself.