Bubble.io chatbot, from API Connector to one script

Bubble has no chatbot that answers your users out of the box. Its AI Agent helps you build your app in the editor, so a Bubble chatbot is either one you build with the API Connector and an AI provider’s key, or a script from a chatbot company pasted into your app’s settings. A chatbot your customers can use also needs a paid plan, because Bubble’s Free plan runs only the development version of your app. We read Bubble’s manual, its pricing page and its plan comparison on 23 September 2026.

Deacon is an AI customer support agent you add to Bubble with one line in Settings, so there’s nothing to build. It answers your customers in seconds from your own docs, says so when it doesn’t know, and shows you what they ask about most. The free plan gives you 50 answers a month, needs no card and has no end date.

What building a support chatbot in Bubble takes

Bubble’s AI chatbot page pitches building your own, with visual workflows, streamed replies and whichever AI model you connect. Bubble’s manual shows how, through the API Connector, the plugin that calls outside services. A chatbot that handles support needs five parts.

1. An AI provider account and its API key, stored in the API Connector. Bubble’s guide to the chat call says you need a paid OpenAI plan with billing set up before a call works, even for testing.
2. A data type for messages, and workflows that save each one, call the model and show the reply. Each call stands alone, so the same guide has you send the chat history with every message for the model to follow the conversation.
3. Your help content in Bubble’s database, and a search that picks the right passages for each question, so the model answers from your docs instead of from whatever it learned elsewhere. The manual names semantic search among the things AI can do for an app, but has no guide to setting it up.
4. A rule for the questions your docs don’t cover, and a way for a user to reach you. Bubble’s chatbot page says you control when a conversation escalates and who it goes to, which means you build that part too.
5. A way to read what people asked, so you know which answers to add.

Every part also runs on Bubble’s workload units. Bubble’s list of activity types charges 0.1 units for each call to an outside API, 0.5 for each thing written to the database and 0.6 for each server-side workflow action. So each question costs workload as well as the AI provider’s fee. The Free plan includes 50,000 units a month and Starter 175,000. Past Starter’s allowance, Bubble charges $0.30 per 1,000. If you switch overages off, your whole app goes offline at the limit. Bubble’s pricing FAQ says it stays offline until the next billing period, unless you turn overages back on or buy more workload.

Where a chatbot’s script goes in Bubble

Bubble’s SEO / metatags reference has two fields for code that other services hand you, under Settings › SEO / metatags. Script/meta tags in header goes into the head of every page, and Script in the body goes into the body of every page. The reference warns that improper code in Script in the body can break your app, so paste exactly what the service gives you.

For one page only, each page has a Page HTML Header field in its properties, and the HTML element puts code where you place it on the page. Bubble suggests the HTML element for embedding third-party widgets.

The plan a chatbot’s script needs

Bubble’s manual names no plan for those fields. Its pricing page does say what each plan runs. The Free plan has the development version of your app only, and a live website and a custom domain start on Starter, at $29 a month billed yearly or $32 billed monthly for a web app. Bubble’s plan comparison also lists its SEO features from Starter up, and Chatling’s Bubble guide warns that a widget pasted into these fields doesn’t load on a free account. So plan on Starter for a chatbot your customers use.

Your bubbleapps.io address and version-test

Bubble’s domain guide gives every app two addresses on bubbleapps.io, the live one and the development one under /version-test/. Both sit on the same domain, so a chatbot that runs only on the domains you allow needs that one domain listed to show on both. Once you connect your own domain, Bubble redirects the bubbleapps.io address to it, for the live and development versions alike.

Testing, then deploying

Bubble builds in the development version and moves your changes to live when you deploy. Bubble’s deploy guide says people using the app at that moment see a note asking them to refresh, and can’t carry on until they do. So try the chatbot on /version-test/ first, and deploy when your app is quiet.

What Deacon does on your Bubble app

Most of what your users ask, your docs already answer. They don’t find it, so they ask you, and every repeat question pulls you away from building. Deacon answers them in seconds, at any hour, from the pages and files you choose and in whatever language each person writes in. Its answers run on Deacon’s servers, so they spend none of your workload units and need no AI provider account.

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

Then Deacon gets better. Every question your docs didn’t cover waits in the dashboard with an Answer this button, and what you write becomes part of what Deacon knows. It can answer the next person who asks, so the more you answer, the less often you’re needed.

You also hear from everyone who asks, not only the few who email. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what users asked. Topics groups the product questions, counts how many people asked each one and labels most of them, such as a how-to, a bug report or a feature ask. That’s customer feedback you never had to ask for, and it shows you what to fix and what to build next.

Every feature is on every plan, the free one included, and there’s no badge to pay to remove. Nothing is billed past your plan’s answers, no plan upgrades itself, and every plan answers with the same model, so no credits run out faster on a better one. The pricing page has the paid plans.

Adding Deacon to Bubble

Deacon isn’t a Bubble plugin, so it goes in through Settings. 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>

It takes a few minutes on the Starter plan or above.

1. Sign up with your email or Google. The free plan needs no card.
2. On the Install page, add the domain your app runs on, which is your own domain if you’ve connected one and your bubbleapps.io address if not. Deacon shows the widget only on the domains you list. A question asked on /version-test/ counts toward your answers, like one on your live app.
3. In Bubble, open Settings › SEO / metatags and paste the snippet into Script in the body. It goes onto every page, loads in the background and doesn’t hold the page up.
4. In Knowledge Sources, choose Add website for your public help pages, or add files and text. A crawl sees what a signed-out visitor sees, so help that sits behind your app’s login goes in as files or pasted text. Deacon lists the pages a crawl finds, each one unticked. Tick the ones that answer users’ questions, save, then press Retrain agent.
5. Ask it your users’ questions in the Playground before anyone else sees it.
6. Open your app on /version-test/ and ask a question, then deploy to live.

What to check after you deploy

These four checks take a couple of minutes.

1. Open your live app in a private window, where you’re not signed in to Bubble.
2. Look at the See it live card on Deacon’s Install page. It says whether Deacon has been seen on your real domain, and Check again looks once more.
3. Ask one question your docs 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.
4. Move to another page of your app with the chat open. The conversation should still be there.

Questions about Bubble chatbots

Does Bubble have a built-in chatbot?

Not one for your users. Bubble’s AI Agent is an assistant in the editor that helps you build, fix and understand your app. A chatbot for your users is one you build with the API Connector, a plugin from Bubble’s marketplace, or a script from a chatbot company. If you’re building in Lovable or on Replit instead, Lovable chatbots and Replit chatbots cover what a support chatbot takes there.

Which Bubble plan do I need for a chatbot?

Starter or above, for one your customers use. The Free plan runs only the development version of your app, and Starter adds the live website and a custom domain, at $29 a month billed yearly or $32 monthly for a web app.

Is there a Deacon plugin for Bubble?

No, and you don’t need one. Deacon’s line goes into Script in the body under Settings › SEO / metatags, which puts it on every page of your app.

Can I keep a chatbot I built in Bubble and add Deacon?

Yes. Deacon is a script and changes nothing in your workflows or your database, so what you built keeps working. Keep your own chatbot for things only your app can do, such as looking up a user’s records, and let Deacon answer everyone’s questions from your docs and show you what they asked. Deacon never looks into a user’s own account or data, and declines those questions.

Why can’t I see the chatbot on my app?

Check the domain first. Deacon shows only on the domains you list, so an app on bubbleapps.io needs that address on Deacon’s Install page, and an app on your own domain needs that one. Then look at the See it live card on the Install page, which says whether Deacon’s script has been seen on your domain at all.

What happens when Deacon’s free answers run out?

The chat keeps working. A user who asks gets a short reply saying Deacon can’t look into that one right now, and is asked for an email unless they’ve already left one in that conversation. You can still read and reply to every conversation, nothing is billed and your plan doesn’t upgrade itself.