> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://wiredesk.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Website chat

> Put the agent on your site as a chat bubble: switching it on and off, what visitors see, and how their conversations are kept.

Website chat is a chat bubble on your own site. A visitor clicks it, asks a question, and the agent answers from the same knowledge, instructions and actions it uses on the phone and by email. Every conversation lands in **Conversations** next to your calls and emails.

## Turn it on or off

Open **Agents → your agent → Channels**. The **Website chat** card has a switch in its header. Only owners and admins can change it.

* **On:** the card shows the embed snippet with copy buttons for **HTML / help center**, **Google Tag Manager** and **Shopify / WordPress**, plus links to **Install guide** and **Colours & look**.
* **Off:** the bubble stops answering. The widget key and snippet stay as they are, so you can leave the embed on your site and switch chat back on later without touching it. If you want the bubble gone from your pages, remove the snippet.

**Wording for chat →** on the card opens the chat channel's own page. It has the snippet again, a shortcut to **Opening message & suggested questions**, and an **Instructions** card for [wording that applies to chat only](/docs/persona/channel-wording).

<Note>
  The setup checklist marks chat as done the first time the widget loads on a page that isn't wiredesk.ai. The in-app preview and test chat don't count, so open your own site once after installing.
</Note>

## Put it on your site

The snippet is one `<script>` tag. [Install the widget](/docs/widget/install) has the steps for each platform and the per-page options. Before you go live, [lock the widget to your domains](/docs/widget/allowed-domains) so a copy of your snippet doesn't work on someone else's site.

To change how the bubble looks and what it says before anyone types, use the [Playground](/docs/widget/appearance).

## What visitors get

A launcher in the corner of the page. Clicking it opens a panel with:

* Your header name, icon and tagline.
* An opening message. By default this is the agent's greeting; the Playground can set a different one for chat.
* Up to five suggested questions, shown until the visitor sends something.
* A message box. A message can be up to 2,000 characters; anything longer is cut off.

Replies can use line breaks, bold and bullet lists, which the panel renders.

The panel's menu has three options:

| Option                | What it does                                                                                                                 |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Start a new chat**  | Ends the open conversation and starts again from the opening message.                                                        |
| **End chat**          | Ends the conversation. The transcript stays on screen; the message box goes. Only shown once the visitor has said something. |
| **View recent chats** | Lists this visitor's earlier conversations. Tapping one reopens it, and typing carries on where they left off.               |

If the visitor asks for a person and [request a human](/docs/actions/request-a-human) is on, someone on your team can take the conversation over from the dashboard. The agent stays quiet while they do. See [handover](/docs/concepts/handover).

## How conversations are kept

The widget remembers the visitor in their browser's local storage, so the same visitor keeps the same conversation across page loads, reloads and tabs.

* **Resuming:** a conversation stays open for 24 hours after the last message. Come back within a day and it's still there; after that the visitor starts fresh, and the old one is still in **View recent chats**.
* **Closing:** a chat with no activity for 30 minutes is closed on our side and summarised for your dashboard. If the visitor comes back to it within the day, it reopens.
* **Moving between pages:** whether the panel is open is kept per tab, so clicking through your site doesn't close a conversation in progress.
* **Private browsing:** if the browser won't let the widget store anything, chat still works, but the conversation won't survive a reload.

For signed-in users, [verified visitors](/docs/widget/verified-visitors) ties conversations to the person rather than the browser.

## Limits visitors might hit

**Sending too fast.** To stop scripts from running up your bill through a public widget key, each widget allows about 30 requests a minute per visitor, and separately per network address. Sending messages, checking for new replies and loading recent chats all count. A visitor over the limit sees "You're sending messages too quickly. Give it a moment." and can carry on after a minute. People typing normally don't get near it. Several visitors behind one shared connection, such as an office network, share the per-address allowance.

**Spend cap reached.** When your workspace reaches its [spend cap](/docs/account/spend-cap), the agent stops answering and visitors see: "Sorry — this assistant is temporarily unavailable. Please reach the business directly." Their messages are still saved in **Conversations**.

**A failed reply.** If the agent can't produce a reply, the visitor sees "the agent had trouble replying — try again". Their message is already saved.

**Chat is off.** The bubble doesn't answer. See [turn it on or off](#turn-it-on-or-off).

## What it costs

Each agent reply in chat counts as one reply of usage. Messages your team writes don't count. Test chats in the Playground are real conversations: they appear in **Conversations** and count like any other reply. See [plans and limits](/docs/reference/plans-and-limits).

## Related

* [Install the widget](/docs/widget/install)
* [Customise the chat bubble in the Playground](/docs/widget/appearance)
* [Allowed domains](/docs/widget/allowed-domains)
* [The chat bubble is not showing up](/docs/troubleshooting/widget-not-showing)