Add an AI chatbot to your website

Add an AI chatbot that answers visitors from your own FAQ. Your agent builds a small app that keeps your AI key private and puts the chat bubble on your site.

An AI chatbot for a website is a chat bubble that answers visitors’ questions with an AI model such as Claude or ChatGPT. The safe way to build one has two parts: a small app that holds your private AI key and talks to the model, and one line added to your site that shows the bubble. Your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex or Cursor) writes both and puts the app on aidrop.it. You paste one paragraph and your FAQ. The build takes minutes; a good FAQ takes longer.

What you will have at the end

A chat bubble on your website, wherever the site is hosted.
Answers from your own FAQ, and “I don’t know, here is how to reach us” for the rest.
Your AI key kept private, never visible in the browser.
A limit per visitor, and a monthly spending cap at your AI provider.
If you want, a record of what people ask.

Words you will meet

AI model: the “brain” behind the answers, rented from Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI (ChatGPT) and paid by how much text it handles.
API key: the password that lets your app use that provider, billed to you. Whoever has it can spend your money.
Secret: where the key is kept: your project’s secrets on aidrop.it, never the code.
Rate limit: a cap on how many messages one visitor can send in a given time.
Database: a safe place that keeps conversations through restarts.

What you need

A free aidrop.it account with your agent connected: see Quickstart.
A paid plan or the trial. The smallest plan runs the chat app. If your site also runs on aidrop.it, two separate apps need Pro or higher; on a smaller plan, have your agent serve both from one app. Saving conversations needs the trial, Pro or higher. Plans are on aidrop.it.
An API key from Anthropic or OpenAI.
Your FAQ as plain text, and access to edit your site.

First, cap your spending

The chat app has a public address. Anyone can send it messages, even programs that skip your website, and each message costs a little. So first set a monthly spend limit at your provider: Anthropic has it in each workspace’s spend limits settings, OpenAI in each project’s limits. Make it a hard limit, not only an alert. When it is reached, the chatbot stops answering until next month instead of running up a bill.

Say this to your agent

Add an AI chatbot to my website, with its backend on
aidrop.it. Read aidrop.it's runtime rules first and follow
them. Use my aidrop.it project, or create one.

Build one small Python app that:
- answers through the Anthropic API with the official Python
  SDK (or OpenAI's, if I say so), which works with
  aidrop.it's outgoing proxy as is. Pick a current fast,
  low-cost model from the official model list; tell me which.
- reads the API key from a project secret. Tell me its name;
  I will add the value myself.
- answers only from faq.md in the repository; otherwise says
  it does not know and gives my contact: [your email].
- serves the chat bubble and gives me one line for my site.
- accepts browser requests only from [https://example.com].
- limits each visitor (about 20 messages per 10 minutes,
  1,000 characters each) by their real address, keeps
  answers short, and has a daily total cap.

Ask me whether to save conversations. If yes, use a
PostgreSQL database on aidrop.it (check for one first, ask
before creating it), never files.

Warn me before the first deploy that the address is public.
Build it, check it runs, fix anything that fails. Report the
address, the line for my site, the model, and how to update
the FAQ.

What your agent does

Finds or creates your project, and writes the chat app and the bubble.
Tells you the secret’s name and waits while you add your key on the Project Secrets page.
Saves the code on aidrop.it, builds it and checks it answers. If not, it reads the error, fixes it and builds again.
Gives you the address and the line for your site.

To change what the bot knows, edit the FAQ and ask your agent to update the app. A few pages of FAQ fit in the model’s instructions, so a small site needs no search system or “vector database”.

What protects you, and what does not

The key stays on aidrop.it, so nobody can copy it from your pages. Browsers on other websites are refused, so nobody can reuse your bubble on their site. That rule does not stop a program calling your app directly; the visitor limit, the daily cap and your spend limit keep that from becoming a bill.

If you save conversations, mention it in your privacy notice. aidrop.it keeps no backup copies; ask your agent for one when you need it (Taking your work with you).

Check that it works

Add the line to one page of your site. The bubble appears.
Ask a question from your FAQ. The answer matches it.
Ask something the FAQ does not cover. The bot says so and gives your contact.

When something goes wrong

What you see	What to tell your agent
The bubble does not appear	“The bubble does not load. Check the line, and whether my site blocks outside scripts.”
The bubble appears, but every message fails	“Allow requests from my site’s exact address, with and without www, and read the error log.”
Answers never arrive	“Requests to the AI provider time out. Follow aidrop.it’s rules for outgoing connections.”
The build is refused	Add the key on the Project Secrets page under the name your agent gave you, then say “build again”.
Answers are made up	“Answer only from the FAQ, and say you don’t know otherwise.”

FAQ

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a program that answers messages in a chat window. Older ones followed fixed scripts and buttons. AI chatbots use a language model, so they understand questions in any wording and reply in normal sentences. On a website they answer what a FAQ page would, at any hour.

What is the best chatbot for a website?

Ready-made chat tools are quick to add, bill monthly and keep your data in their system. A chatbot you own costs only what the AI model uses, answers from exactly the text you give it, and can change any way you like. For a small site, answering from your own FAQ covers most questions.

Can my AI coding agent build and host the chatbot?

Yes. Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can write the whole thing. Connected to aidrop.it, the same agent also puts it online, keeps your key as a secret, reads the error log when something breaks, and updates the bot when your FAQ changes. You add the key and paste one line into your site.