What is an AI chatbot for a website?

An AI chatbot for a website is a chat widget, powered by a large language model, that answers your visitors' questions in natural language using your own business content. Unlike old rule-based bots, it understands questions it has never seen before and replies conversationally, 24/7 — so customers get instant, accurate answers without waiting for your team.

What can an AI chatbot do for my business?

It answers the repetitive questions your team types out every day, works around the clock in any language, captures leads with the visitor's email or phone, opens support tickets when someone needs a person, and shows you what visitors actually ask. In practice that means fewer inbound tickets, faster replies, and enquiries captured at 2am instead of lost.

How do I add an AI chatbot to my website?

Create a bot in the SpideyChat dashboard, teach it your business (describe it in plain language, point the crawler at your website, or upload documents), then paste one line of code before your closing tag. It works on WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, and custom React or Next.js sites — no plugin, and your AI chatbot is live in minutes. You can do the whole thing on the free plan first.

Can a chatbot answer from my website?

Yes — that's the default way to teach one. Point the crawler at your site and SpideyChat reads your pages, extracts the content, and keeps it as part of the bot's knowledge, so answers come from what you already published. Re-crawl whenever your site changes and the bot updates with it.

How do I train an AI chatbot — and do chatbots need training?

There's no model training on your side. The Knowledge Learner gives you four ways to teach your website chatbot: describe your business in plain language, point it at your website and let the crawler do the rest, upload documents (PDF, DOCX, TXT, CSV, or Markdown), or add manual Q&A pairs. Everything is chunked and embedded into a private vector index, and the AI answers using only the most relevant passages.

How do chatbots learn my business?

By indexing the content you give them, not by memorising conversations. Your description, crawled pages, uploaded files, and Q&A pairs are split into passages and stored in a private index for that bot. When a visitor asks something, the bot retrieves the closest passages and answers from those — which is why the answers sound like your business rather than generic AI.

Do I need to code an AI chatbot, or hire a developer?

Neither. Teaching your bot and customizing the widget all happen in the dashboard. Installing it is a single copy-paste script tag — the same kind you'd use for any analytics tool — so anyone who can edit their website's footer can ship it.

Do AI chatbots hallucinate?

General-purpose chatbots can. SpideyChat's answers only from the content you gave it and is instructed not to guess, which is what keeps it grounded. When it doesn't have the answer it says so rather than inventing one, and the visitor can open a support ticket from the same chat.

What happens when a chatbot doesn't know the answer?

It tells the visitor it doesn't have that information instead of improvising, and offers the widget's “Report an issue” option, which files a numbered support ticket right inside the chat. On the Pro plan and above those tickets land in your dashboard inbox so your team can pick the conversation up.

How accurate are AI chatbots?

Accuracy comes from the content, not the model. Every bot runs on a state-of-the-art large language model tuned for fast, high-volume support, and it answers from your own material — so it's as accurate as what you taught it. Thin or out-of-date content is the usual cause of a weak answer, and you can fix that by editing the knowledge base or re-crawling.

Do AI chatbots really work?

For the questions your content already answers — pricing, hours, policies, how-to, availability — yes, and those are the bulk of what most sites get asked. They're not a replacement for human judgement on complex or sensitive cases, which is why handoff and tickets matter: the bot clears the repetitive volume and routes the rest to you.

Can AI chatbots reduce support tickets?

That's the main reason teams install one. Repeat questions — shipping, refunds, opening hours, “how do I…” — get answered instantly from your own content instead of becoming emails. What's left reaches you as a ticket with the conversation attached, so you start with context instead of a blank thread.

What languages do AI chatbots support — can they handle multiple languages?

Your bot replies in the visitor's own language automatically, and one bot handles all of them. Because it runs on a multilingual language model, a single website chatbot can greet and answer visitors around the world in their native language, even when your knowledge base is written in just one language. There's nothing to configure.

Can AI chatbots capture leads?

Yes. Bots can collect visitor details like email and phone during a conversation (lead capture on Starter and above), so an after-hours question becomes a contactable lead instead of a closed tab. Captured leads appear in your dashboard alongside the conversation that produced them.

How do chatbots qualify leads?

By asking the same few questions a good salesperson would — what they're looking for, budget or timeline, and how to reach them — inside a normal conversation. You get the visitor's answers with the full chat transcript, so you can tell a serious enquiry from a browser before you spend time on it.

Can a chatbot hand off to a human?

Yes. Any visitor can open a numbered support ticket through the widget's “Report an issue” option, and on the Pro plan and above those tickets land in your dashboard inbox with the conversation attached. Both you and the visitor get an email, so nothing sits unnoticed.

Can a chatbot book appointments?

It captures appointment and booking requests — what the visitor needs, preferred times, and their contact details — and routes them to your team to confirm. It doesn't write directly into your calendar, so you stay in control of what actually gets booked.

Can AI chatbots replace live chat?

For most of the volume, yes — the bot answers instantly, 24/7, without anyone staffing the queue. What it doesn't do is judgement calls, so treat it as the first line: it handles the repetitive questions and hands the rest to you as a ticket rather than leaving someone waiting for an agent.

Is a chatbot better than a contact form?

A contact form takes a message and gives nothing back; a chatbot answers on the spot, and still collects the visitor's details when it can't. For anything already covered by your content, the visitor gets their answer immediately instead of waiting a day for a reply — and you get fewer “just checking” emails.

Are AI chatbots secure — is my data safe with an AI chatbot?

Your data stays yours. Everything you use to teach a bot — your description, crawled pages, uploaded documents, and Q&A pairs — is stored privately in your account and indexed separately for each bot, so information never bleeds between bots. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and you can review every conversation and edit the knowledge base at any time.

Which website platforms does the chatbot work with?

Any website. Installation is a single tag (or an iframe embed), so SpideyChat drops into WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, Ghost, Framer, and custom React or Next.js sites alike — the same kind of snippet you'd paste for an analytics tool. No plugin, framework, or platform lock-in required.

How much does an AI chatbot for a website cost?

There's a Free plan at $0 forever — one chatbot and 100 messages a month, no credit card required. Paid plans are Starter at $20/month (3 bots, 2,000 messages, website crawler, and lead capture), Pro at $59/month (10 bots, 9,000 messages, the support-ticket inbox, and branding removal), and a custom-priced Enterprise tier for unlimited bots and volume. Annual billing lowers the monthly rate, and you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime.

Is there a free AI chatbot for websites?

Yes — SpideyChat's Free plan is free forever: one chatbot and 100 messages a month, no credit card required. It's the whole product at a smaller size, so you can train a bot and put it on your site before paying anything. Upgrade when you outgrow it, and downgrade or cancel anytime.

What is the best AI chatbot for a small business?

The one you can actually get live and keep current. For a small team that usually means no-code setup, a free tier to test with, one-line installation, and answers grounded in your own content — which is exactly what SpideyChat is built around. If you need deep CRM workflows and a dedicated admin, a heavier enterprise suite may suit you better.

How long does it take to set up a chatbot?

Minutes. Create a bot, teach it your business — paste a description, point it at your website, or upload a few documents — customize the widget, then copy one line of code onto your site. There's nothing to install and no model to train yourself: your AI chatbot is live the moment you paste the snippet.

Eight Security Questions to Ask an AI Chatbot Vendor

A chatbot is a script on every page of your website, connected to a service that stores your content and your visitors' messages. That is not alarming, but it earns the same scrutiny as any other vendor.

Eight questions, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Where is our data stored, and for how long?

Good answer: a named region, a stated retention period, and a way for you to shorten it. Bad answer: "securely in the cloud".

2. Can we delete everything, and what happens if we cancel?

Good answer: a clear deletion path and a stated position on what happens to conversation history after cancellation.

3. What certifications do you actually hold?

Ask for evidence. SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are audited certifications, not adjectives, and a vendor that holds one can produce the report.

A vendor claiming a certification they do not hold has told you something important about everything else they claim. This is worth checking rather than assuming — it is one of the most commonly overstated items on a marketing site.

4. Is our data used to train models?

Good answer: a plain no, or a clear explanation with an opt-out. This matters if visitors may type anything sensitive.

5. Can we restrict which domains the widget runs on?

An embed code with a bot id can, without a domain allowlist, be pasted onto any site. A good product lets you restrict it.

6. How is tenant data isolated?

You want confidence that another customer cannot see your content or conversations. Ask how it is enforced, and whether it is tested.

7. What happens to personal data visitors type in?

People will paste things they should not. Ask what controls exist and whether you can configure the bot to avoid collecting particular categories.

8. Will you sign a DPA?

If you are subject to GDPR and visitors can enter personal data, expect a data processing agreement to be available.

Our own answers, for the record

Traffic is encrypted in transit. Stored credentials, including per-account API keys, are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. Data is isolated per account, and a per-bot domain allowlist restricts where the widget will run. Visitor analytics honours Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control, raw IP addresses are erased after 90 days, and conversation retention windows are configurable per account.

We do not currently hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, and we would rather say so than let you discover it during procurement.

Related: our privacy policy.

Frequently asked questions

Is a chatbot a security risk?

It is a script running on every page of your site and a service holding your content and your visitors' messages. That is not alarming, but it deserves the same questions you would ask any vendor.

What should I ask about data retention?

How long conversations are kept, whether you can set a shorter window, and what happens to the data if you cancel.

Do I need a DPA?

If you operate under GDPR and visitors can enter personal data into the chat, you should expect the vendor to offer one. Confirm your own obligations rather than assuming.

How do I check claims about certifications?

Ask for the report or the certificate. A vendor that holds a certification can produce evidence; a vendor that cannot should not be claiming it.