Table of Contents
- Key takeaways: the best free WordPress chatbots at a glance
- Is there a free chatbot for WordPress?
- How these free WordPress chatbots were ranked
- The 7 best free chatbots for WordPress in 2026
- 1. WPBot: best free native chatbot plugin
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 2. SiteGPT: best paid step when free bots cannot answer from your content
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 3. Hyve Lite: best free AI chatbot trained on your posts
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 4. AI Engine: best free plugin if you already pay for an AI key
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 5. Chatway: best free live chat with optional AI
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 6. Tidio: best free live chat with a short AI trial
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- 7. Collectchat: best free conversational form
- Key features
- Pros
- Cons
- Pricing
- Rating
- Best for
- Free WordPress chatbot comparison table
- Which free WordPress chatbot plugins should you skip?
- What does a free WordPress chatbot cost once you outgrow it?
- How to choose a free WordPress chatbot
- How to add a free chatbot to your WordPress site
- Frequently asked questions about free WordPress chatbots
- Free plans and pricing
- What is the best free chatbot for WordPress?
- Does SiteGPT have a free plan for WordPress?
- Is AI Engine really free?
- AI and training
- Can a free WordPress chatbot answer from my own content?
- Can a free chatbot read my PDFs and Google Drive files?
- Setup and performance
- Will a free chatbot plugin slow down my WordPress site?
- How do I check if a free WordPress chatbot plugin is safe to install?
- Choosing between free and paid
- When should I move from a free chatbot to a paid one?
- Which is cheaper in year one, Tidio or SiteGPT?
- Sources
Created by
Do not index
Created time
Jul 18, 2025 01:20 PM
The best free chatbot for a WordPress website is WPBot, a native plugin that runs FAQ menus and lead forms at no cost and adds AI answers on your own Gemini or OpenRouter key.
For a free AI chatbot with no API key at all, Hyve Lite answers from your posts and pages on free monthly credits. When free answers are not good enough, SiteGPT trains on your site, files and cloud drives, but it has no free plan.
TL;DR
- WPBot is the strongest free native WordPress chatbot: 5,000 active installs, a 94% rating from 124 reviews, and an update on 14 October 2026.
- SiteGPT has no free plan. It has a 7-day free trial with a card, then costs $59 a month billed monthly, or $39 a month billed yearly ($468 a year).
- Hyve Lite is the only free option here that gives AI answers from your posts with no API key to manage.
- AI Engine is free to install, but you pay your AI provider, and its content knowledge base is a Pro feature from $79 a year.
- Chatway and Tidio both give 50 free live chat conversations a month. Collectchat gives 100 free form responses a month.
Key takeaways: the best free WordPress chatbots at a glance
Tool | Best for | What is free | First paid tier |
WPBot | A free native chatbot plugin | The plugin, FAQ menus, lead capture, and AI on your own key | Pro Starter at $39 a year |
Answers from content beyond your WordPress posts | The plugin and a 7-day trial. No free plan | $59 a month billed monthly, or $39 a month billed yearly | |
Hyve Lite | Free AI answers from your posts and pages | The plugin plus free monthly hosted AI credits | Hyve Pro at $79 one time for 1 site |
AI Engine | Developers who already pay for an AI key | The plugin and its chatbot. You pay the AI provider | AI Engine Pro at $79 a year for 1 site |
Chatway | Free live chat with optional AI | 1 seat and 50 conversations a month, forever | Business at $31 a month billed yearly |
Free live chat with a short AI trial | 50 conversations a month and 50 Lyro AI conversations one time | Starter at $24.17 a month billed yearly | |
Collectchat | Free conversational forms | 100 responses a month and 3 forms | Lite at $14 a month billed yearly |
Is there a free chatbot for WordPress?
Yes. There are three kinds of free WordPress chatbot, and each one stops being free at a different point.
Kind of free | Examples | Where the cost appears |
Free plugin, your own AI key | WPBot, AI Engine | Your AI provider bills you for each answer |
Free plan with a monthly cap | Hyve Lite, Chatway, Tidio, Collectchat | A paid plan once you pass the cap or need a locked feature |
Free trial, then a paid plan | SiteGPT | The plan price after 7 days |
A free plugin is not the same as a free chatbot. The plugin in the WordPress plugin directory is often only a connector, and the chatbot behind it runs on the vendor's own plan.
How these free WordPress chatbots were ranked
The ranking uses four criteria, in this order:
- What the $0 version does. A free tier that answers real visitor questions ranks above one that only collects details.
- Whether answers come from your own content. A bot that reads your pages beats one that only follows scripted menus.
- Plugin maintenance. Every plugin here is tested against WordPress 7.1.3 or close to it, and the figures come from the WordPress plugin directory on 16 October 2026.
- The price of the first upgrade. The cost of outgrowing the free tier counts, because most sites do.
SiteGPT is ranked second although it has no free plan. It is the paid step for sites whose answers live outside WordPress, and it is labelled that way. It does not rank first, because WPBot gives more at $0.
The 7 best free chatbots for WordPress in 2026
1. WPBot: best free native chatbot plugin
WPBot is a native WordPress chatbot plugin by QuantumCloud, and it gives the most at $0 of any plugin here. Its free version runs FAQ menus, text responses and lead capture with no AI cost. It can also answer from your site content through your own Gemini or OpenRouter key.
Key features
- Button menu mode and natural language mode in one plugin
- FAQ lists, custom text responses, and email or callback requests in the free version
- Free OpenRouter and Google Gemini connections, with RAG and vector embedding of website content
- A free conversational forms add-on
- Works in any language, including right-to-left scripts
Pros
- 94% rating from 124 reviews in the WordPress plugin directory
- Updated on 14 October 2026 and tested to WordPress 7.1.3
- Pro starts at $39 a year for 1 site
Cons
- AI answers need your own AI provider account and its bill
- Live human chat, multi-language responses and voice sit in the paid Master plan
- More settings to learn than a hosted chatbot
Pricing
Plan | Price (billed yearly) | Sites | What it adds |
Free | $0 | Any | FAQ menus, lead capture, Gemini and OpenRouter on your own key |
Starter | $39 a year | 1 | Chat sessions and histories, basic RAG knowledge base |
Professional | $99 a year | 2 | Conversational forms pro, WooCommerce module, advanced RAG |
Master | $189 a year | 5 | Live human chat with Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger, white label, voice |
Source: WPBot pricing. Lifetime licences are also offered.
Rating
WPBot holds a 94% rating from 124 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
WPBot is best for small WordPress sites that want a working chatbot at $0 today and can add an AI key later.
2. SiteGPT: best paid step when free bots cannot answer from your content
SiteGPT is a hosted AI chatbot that trains on your own content and connects to WordPress through a free plugin. It has no free plan. It is the paid step after a free plugin. Pick it when visitors ask about content that is not in your WordPress posts.
Key features
- Trains on your website by URL or sitemap, file uploads, raw text, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub and YouTube
- A WordPress plugin with one settings field: paste the chatbot ID and the widget loads on every page
- Answers in 95+ languages
- Escalation to a human and lead collection
- Chat integrations from Growth: Google Chat, Messenger, Slack, Crisp, Freshdesk Messaging and Zoho SalesIQ
Pros
- One bot answers from your site, your PDFs and your cloud drives together
- Auto refresh keeps answers current: monthly on Growth, weekly with a daily sitemap scan on Scale
- The plugin is tested to WordPress 7.1.3, and the docs give a manual script for any theme
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 12 reviews on G2
Cons
- SiteGPT has no free plan, and the 7-day trial asks for a card
- The WordPress plugin is new: 80 active installs and no ratings yet in the WordPress plugin directory
- Starter has manual refresh only and no chat integrations
- No Intercom or HubSpot integration today
- A HIPAA BAA is available on Enterprise only, never on Starter, Growth or Scale
Pricing
Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Messages a month | Pages |
$59 a month | $39 a month ($468 a year) | 4k GPT-4.1-mini or 400 GPT-4.1 | 1,000 | |
$129 a month | $79 a month ($948 a year) | 10k GPT-4.1-mini or 1,000 GPT-4.1 | 10,000 | |
$429 a month | $259 a month ($3,108 a year) | 40k GPT-4.1-mini or 4,000 GPT-4.1 | 50,000 | |
Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
On Starter billed yearly, 4,000 GPT-4.1-mini messages cost about 1 cent each ($39 divided by 4,000). Billed monthly, they cost about 1.5 cents each. Removing SiteGPT branding is an add-on at $39 a month billed yearly.
Rating
SiteGPT holds 4.9 out of 5 from 12 reviews on G2. Its WordPress plugin has no ratings yet on WordPress.org.
Best for
SiteGPT is best for WordPress sites whose answers sit in PDFs, help docs or cloud drives, and for teams that need a clean handoff to a person.
3. Hyve Lite: best free AI chatbot trained on your posts
Hyve Lite is a WordPress chatbot by Themeisle that answers from your posts, pages and products. Its free plan includes monthly AI credits hosted by Themeisle, so there is no API key to set up. That makes it the simplest free AI chatbot on this list.
Key features
- Answers from the posts, pages and products you choose, using retrieval-augmented generation
- Hyve Connect hosted AI with free monthly credits, or your own OpenAI key
- Says so when the answer is not in your content
- Keeps your knowledge base and conversations in your WordPress database
Pros
- Free AI answers with no OpenAI account
- 7,000 active installs, updated 28 September 2026, tested to WordPress 7.1.3
- One-time Pro price, not a subscription
Cons
- 86% rating from only 6 reviews, so the score carries little weight
- The free plan reads WordPress content only. PDFs, documents and site crawling are Pro features
- The free credit allowance is not stated as a number on the plugin page
Pricing
Plan | Price | Sites |
Hyve Lite | $0, with free monthly hosted credits | Any |
Personal | $79 one time | 1 |
Growth | $149 one time | 5 |
Agency | $279 one time | 50 |
Source: Hyve pricing.
Rating
Hyve Lite holds an 86% rating from 6 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
Hyve Lite is best for blogs and content sites whose answers all live in published posts and pages.
4. AI Engine: best free plugin if you already pay for an AI key
AI Engine by Meow Apps is the most installed AI chatbot plugin here, with 90,000 active installs. The plugin is free and connects to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and other providers on your own key. The chatbot costs nothing to run beyond what your provider charges.
Key features
- Chatbots with five built-in themes, conversation memory and file uploads
- Connectors for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and more
- An MCP server that lets AI assistants manage your WordPress site
- Content generation and an AI copilot in the editor
Pros
- 98% rating from 871 reviews, the deepest review base on this list
- Updated 14 October 2026 and tested to WordPress 7.1.3
- You pay provider cost only, with no per-message markup
Cons
- You set up and pay for the AI provider yourself
- The knowledge base built from your content and PDFs is a Pro feature
- Many modules beyond chat, so setup takes longer
Pricing
Plan | Price | Sites |
AI Engine (free) | $0, plus your AI provider's usage fees | Any |
Pro Starter | $79 a year | 1 |
Pro Standard | $99 a year | 5 |
Pro Professional | $179 a year | 20 |
Source: AI Engine Pro. Lifetime licences start at $499.
Rating
AI Engine holds a 98% rating from 871 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
AI Engine is best for developers and technical site owners who already have an AI provider account and want control over the model.
5. Chatway: best free live chat with optional AI
Chatway is a live chat plugin with a free-forever plan, and AI is an add-on billed only when it resolves a conversation. It suits sites where a person answers most chats and the bot handles the rest.
Key features
- Free forever: 1 seat, 50 conversations a month and 30 days of chat history
- AI Support Agent at $0.50 per resolved conversation, with 10 AI conversations free
- Bring your own AI through API, webhooks or MCP, included on the free plan
- iOS and Android apps, FAQs and canned responses on the free plan
Pros
- 100% rating from 766 reviews in the WordPress plugin directory
- Updated 14 October 2026 and tested to WordPress 7.1.3
- AI cost tied to resolved conversations
Cons
- 50 conversations a month runs out quickly on a busy site
- Built around live chat first, with AI as an add-on
- The free plan keeps only 30 days of history
Pricing
Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Conversations a month |
Free | $0 | $0 | 50 |
Business | $31 a month | $39 a month | 200 |
Plus | $159 a month | $199 a month | 1,000 |
Source: Chatway pricing.
Rating
Chatway holds a 100% rating from 766 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
Chatway is best for small teams that answer chats themselves and want a free inbox with AI they pay for only when it works.
6. Tidio: best free live chat with a short AI trial
Tidio combines live chat, ticketing and the Lyro AI agent. Its free plan covers live chat, and Lyro gives 50 AI conversations one time before you pay for a monthly AI quota.
Key features
- Free plan with 50 billable conversations a month and 100 visitors reached by Flows
- Lyro AI agent that learns from FAQs, your website and Zendesk articles
- Live chat, ticketing and a mobile app in one inbox
- Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email integrations
Pros
- 96% rating from 395 reviews in the WordPress plugin directory
- Tested to WordPress 7.1.3
- Mature inbox for teams with human agents
Cons
- The 50 free Lyro conversations are lifetime, not monthly
- AI is priced separately from live chat, with Lyro from $32.50 a month billed yearly
- Its plugin was last updated on 1 September 2026
Pricing
Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Billable conversations |
Free | $0 | $0 | 50 a month |
Starter | $24.17 a month | $29 a month | 100 a month |
Growth | From $49.17 a month | From $59 a month | From 250 a month |
Plus | From $300 a month plus usage | From $300 a month plus usage | Custom |
Source: Tidio pricing. For a side-by-side, see SiteGPT vs Tidio.
Rating
Tidio holds a 96% rating from 395 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
Tidio is best for stores and service businesses with human agents who want to test AI on a small free allowance first.
7. Collectchat: best free conversational form
Collectchat builds scripted chat flows that collect leads, bookings and form answers. It does not train on your content, so it works as a form tool.
Key features
- Free plan with 100 responses a month, 3 forms and 1 workspace, with no card
- AI form builder that drafts a flow from a plain-English goal
- Logic jumps, appointment booking and payment collection, depending on the plan
- Email notifications when a visitor finishes
Pros
- Quick to build when the questions are known in advance
- 88% rating from 38 reviews in the WordPress plugin directory
- Paid plans start at $14 a month billed yearly
Cons
- No training on your content, so off-script questions go unanswered
- Tested only to WordPress 7.0.7, one version behind
- Last updated on 17 May 2026
Pricing
Plan | Price (billed yearly) | Responses a month | Forms |
Free | $0 | 100 | 3 |
Lite | $14 a month | 1,000 | 10 |
Standard | $29 a month | Unlimited | 25 |
Unlimited | $149 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Source: Collectchat pricing.
Rating
Collectchat holds an 88% rating from 38 reviews on WordPress.org.
Best for
Collectchat is best for replacing a contact or intake form with a chat-style flow.
Free WordPress chatbot comparison table
Every figure below comes from the WordPress plugin directory on 16 October 2026. Active installs are rounded bands.
Plugin | Active installs | Rating (reviews) | Tested to | Last updated | Free AI answers from your content |
5,000 | 94% (124) | 7.1.3 | 14 Oct 2026 | Yes, on your own Gemini or OpenRouter key | |
80 | No ratings yet | 7.1.3 | 13 Aug 2026 | 7-day trial, no free plan | |
7,000 | 86% (6) | 7.1.3 | 28 Sep 2026 | Yes, from posts and pages on hosted credits | |
90,000 | 98% (871) | 7.1.3 | 14 Oct 2026 | Chat on your own key. Content knowledge base is Pro | |
30,000 | 100% (766) | 7.1.3 | 14 Oct 2026 | 10 free AI conversations, then $0.50 per resolution | |
70,000 | 96% (395) | 7.1.3 | 1 Sep 2026 | 50 Lyro conversations, one time | |
6,000 | 88% (38) | 7.0.7 | 17 May 2026 | No, scripted flows only |
For the full ranking of eleven WordPress chatbot plugins on the same data, free and paid, see the best chatbot for WordPress website ranking.
Which free WordPress chatbot plugins should you skip?
Skip any free plugin that has not been updated in over a year. Three well-known names fail that check in the WordPress plugin directory today.
- Chatbase: last updated 3 March 2025, tested to WordPress 6.7.10, and rated 68% from 13 reviews.
- Botsonic: last updated 29 October 2023, tested to WordPress 6.3.13, with 100 installs and no ratings.
- Crisp: last updated 14 April 2025 and tested to WordPress 6.8.11, though the Crisp product itself is still developed.
If you already use one of these products, add its widget with a script tag instead of the stale plugin.
What does a free WordPress chatbot cost once you outgrow it?
Most free tiers cap conversations or lock the AI features. The first paid tier costs between $39 and $468 in its first year.
Tool | First paid tier | First-year cost, billed yearly | First-year cost, billed monthly | Yearly billing saves |
WPBot | Pro Starter | $39, plus AI provider fees | Not offered | Not applicable |
AI Engine | Pro Starter | $79, plus AI provider fees | Not offered | Not applicable |
Hyve | Personal | $79 one time | Not offered | Not applicable |
Collectchat | Lite | $168 ($14 x 12) | See Collectchat pricing | See Collectchat pricing |
Tidio | Starter | $290 ($24.17 x 12) | $348 ($29 x 12) | $58 (17%) |
Chatway | Business | $372 ($31 x 12) | $468 ($39 x 12) | $96 (21%) |
Starter | $468 ($39 x 12) | $708 ($59 x 12) | $240 (34%) |
The cheapest upgrades are the native plugins, but WPBot and AI Engine add your AI provider's bill on top. SiteGPT costs the most in year one and includes the AI usage in its message quota. For a wider view of chatbot pricing models, see how much a chatbot costs.
How to choose a free WordPress chatbot
Pick by what the bot must answer and who answers when it cannot.
If you need | Pick | Why |
A chatbot at $0 today, with AI later | WPBot | Free FAQ menus now, AI on your own key when you add one |
Free AI answers from your posts with no API key | Hyve Lite | Hosted free credits and answers from your WordPress content |
Answers from PDFs, Drive, Notion or YouTube | Trains on those sources directly. No free plan | |
Full control over the AI model | AI Engine | Connects to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Mistral on your key |
A free inbox where people answer chats | Chatway | 50 free conversations a month, AI paid per resolution |
Live chat now and an AI test later | Tidio | 50 free conversations a month and 50 one-time Lyro conversations |
A lead or booking form in chat style | Collectchat | 100 free responses a month with scripted flows |
A human handoff when the bot cannot answer | Escalation to a person is built in |
How to add a free chatbot to your WordPress site
Install the plugin from your WordPress admin, or paste the vendor's script into your site footer. Both take a few minutes.
- Open Plugins, then Add New Plugin, and search for the chatbot by name.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
- Open the plugin's settings and paste the chatbot ID or API key it asks for.
- Open your site in a private window and ask the bot a question you know the answer to.
Use a code-snippets plugin for the script method, not your theme files, because a theme update overwrites direct edits. SiteGPT's install guide has a WordPress tab for the script method.
The full walkthrough, with fixes for a widget that does not appear, is in how to add a chatbot to WordPress. SiteGPT's own plugin setup is on the SiteGPT for WordPress page.
Frequently asked questions about free WordPress chatbots
Free plans and pricing
What is the best free chatbot for WordPress?
WPBot is the best free native chatbot for WordPress. The free version runs FAQ menus and lead capture at no cost, holds a 94% rating from 124 reviews, and was updated on 14 October 2026. For free AI answers with no API key, pick Hyve Lite.
Does SiteGPT have a free plan for WordPress?
No. SiteGPT has a 7-day free trial that asks for a card. After the trial, Starter costs $59 a month billed monthly, or $39 a month billed yearly ($468 a year). The WordPress plugin itself is free to install.
Is AI Engine really free?
The AI Engine plugin is free, but every AI answer is billed by your AI provider, such as OpenAI or Anthropic. The knowledge base built from your content and PDFs needs AI Engine Pro, from $79 a year for one site.
AI and training
Can a free WordPress chatbot answer from my own content?
Yes, two can. Hyve Lite answers from your posts and pages on free hosted credits. WPBot's free version supports RAG over your website content through your own Gemini or OpenRouter key.
Can a free chatbot read my PDFs and Google Drive files?
Not on the free plans in this guide. Hyve and AI Engine put file and PDF training in their paid versions. SiteGPT trains on files, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub and YouTube on every paid plan. For the general method, see how to train a chatbot on your own data.
Setup and performance
Will a free chatbot plugin slow down my WordPress site?
Hosted widgets load their script in the background, so they do not block the page. Native plugins that call an AI provider add work on your server instead. An unmaintained plugin is the larger risk, so check the last updated date in the WordPress plugin directory first.
How do I check if a free WordPress chatbot plugin is safe to install?
Open the plugin's page in the WordPress plugin directory and read "Last updated" and "Tested up to" in the sidebar. Skip a plugin that has not been updated in over a year or is not tested against your WordPress version.
Choosing between free and paid
When should I move from a free chatbot to a paid one?
Move when the free cap runs out or when visitors ask questions your free bot cannot answer. A free bot that only reads posts cannot answer from PDFs, help docs or product files. See the free chatbot for website guide for free options beyond WordPress.
Which is cheaper in year one, Tidio or SiteGPT?
Tidio Starter costs $290 in the first year billed yearly, against $468 for SiteGPT Starter billed yearly. Tidio's AI agent is priced separately, from $32.50 a month billed yearly, while SiteGPT includes 4k GPT-4.1-mini messages a month on Starter.
Sources
All pages below were opened on 16 October 2026.
Written by
