AskAny – AI Chatbot with RAG, Live Agent and Order Tracking vs AI Chatbot Free Models – Customer Support, Live Chat, Virtual Assistant

AskAny is a free AI chatbot for WordPress built on RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). Before it answers anything, it retrieves the most relevant sections of your actual site content using semantic search, then generates a grounded, cited answer from that content instead of guessing from general AI knowledge. Several other WordPress AI chatbot plugins, including AI Engine and MxChat, also use retrieval to ground responses in site content. AskAny’s difference is what comes included in the free version: native WooCommerce order tracking by email or order ID, real-time SSE streaming that cuts server load compared to polling-based chat widgets, live agent handoff with full conversation history preserved on transition, and a choice of six AI providers, all without a Pro upgrade required to use any of it. It indexes your posts, pages, products, PDFs, and external sources first, then retrieves the right content for each question before the AI generates a response. Every answer includes a source citation, so visitors (and you) can see exactly where an answer came from. AskAny Website | Documentation | Pro Support AI Chatbot with RAG for WordPress Index – AskAny crawls your posts, pages, products, PDFs, Q&A pairs, and external URLs into a semantic search index automatically. Retrieve – When a visitor asks a question, AskAny finds the most relevant content chunks using hybrid semantic and keyword search. Respond – The AI generates a cited answer using only your indexed content. It cannot answer from general knowledge, so responses stay specific to your business. RAG is what separates an AI chatbot that answers accurately from one that hallucinates plausible-sounding nonsense. If a visitor asks about your return policy, a chatbot without RAG guesses. AskAny looks up your actual policy page first. Semantic Search and Content Indexing The RAG and semantic search system is what makes AskAny different from keyword-triggered chatbots. It understands meaning and context, so it can find the right answer even when a visitor’s question doesn’t exactly match the wording in your content. Content types indexed: posts, pages, custom post types, WooCommerce products and categories, custom fields, comments, menus, PDF documents, external URLs, Q&A pairs, and FAQs. Indexing is designed to keep API costs low. Content hash caching reuses embeddings whenever content has not changed, cutting API usage by up to 90%. Batch embedding processes multiple texts in a single API call. Smart update detection only re-embeds content that has actually been modified. Hybrid search runs both semantic understanding and keyword matching together. This covers cases where exact phrase matching is needed alongside conceptual retrieval, so a product SKU or an exact price still matches correctly. Live Agent Handoff for WordPress Chat Agents manage conversations from the WordPress admin chat panel. When a visitor needs a human, the agent takes over in one click. Full conversation history carries over instantly with no visible interruption for the visitor. The live agent system includes role-based access, online/offline status tracking, an unread message badge, and Slack integration so agents get notified and can reply without opening the WordPress admin. A Mobile App Push Bridge lets agents respond from Android. Unlike chatbot plugins that gate live agent seats or Slack notifications behind a paid tier, AskAny includes this in the free version. WooCommerce Order Tracking in Chat Customers can check their order status directly inside the chat widget. They can look up by email address, order ID, or transaction ID, with no need to visit a separate order tracking page. The WooCommerce integration also handles product information queries, real-time stock checks, smart product recommendations based on the conversation, and direct add-to-cart from chat. Product data is indexed automatically for RAG retrieval, so answers about pricing, stock, and specs stay current as your catalog changes. Telegram, WhatsApp, and AI-Assisted Live Chat AskAny now reaches visitors beyond the website widget, and gives live agents AI backup when they reply. Telegram Bot – Connect a Telegram bot under AskAny AI > Integrations, and visitors can message it directly. Every message routes through the same RAG pipeline as the website widget, so replies stay grounded in your indexed content, order data, and Q&A pairs instead of generic answers. WhatsApp via Twilio – Connect your Twilio WhatsApp number under AskAny AI > Integrations, and customers get the same AI-powered, cited responses over WhatsApp. No separate bot logic to maintain: WhatsApp, Telegram, and the website widget all draw from one content index and one conversation history. AI-Reviewed Compose for Live Agents – When a human agent takes over a conversation, they can draft a reply and run it through AI review before sending. The AI checks tone, clarity, and accuracy against the indexed content and suggests a refined version, so agents reply faster without sounding scripted. Attachments in Live Chat – Agents and visitors can now send file attachments directly inside the conversation, not just images. Attachments appear inline in both the admin chat panel and the visitor-facing widget, with previews available in conversation details. Six AI Providers, No Lock-In Switch between providers at any time without losing your indexed content or chat history. OpenAI – GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4.1, O4-mini DeepSeek – Cost-effective with strong reasoning Google Gemini – Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Anthropic Claude – Advanced reasoning, safety-focused X.AI Grok – Real-time knowledge OpenRouter – 100+ models through a single API Most competing WordPress chatbot plugins lock you into one AI provider or require the paid tier to switch. AskAny lets you change providers from Settings at any time with no re-indexing needed. Fallback Mode When your AI provider API is unavailable, AskAny keeps the chatbot running using indexed content and pattern matching. Visitors never see an error or a broken widget. Knowledge Base and Content Sources PDF Import – Upload PDFs and the plugin extracts and indexes every page automatically. Works for product manuals, documentation, policies, and specs. External Sources – Index any external URL, REST API endpoint, JSON feed, or XML source as an additional knowledge base. Q&A Management – Add custom question-answer pairs with Markdown support. Bulk import and export included. Automatic Site Indexing – WordPress content is indexed automatically on publish and on update. Analytics and Performance Track API request counts, success rates, token usage, and estimated costs per provider. Response time and popular question data helps you spot content gaps. Database tools include table size overview, one-click clean, optimize, and export, with date-range filtering. Customization Options The widget can be placed as a floating button (bottom-left or bottom-right) or embedded anywhere using the [askany_chat] shortcode. Configurable options include: custom avatar, logo, header text, welcome message, suggested messages with predefined Q&A responses, typing animation speed (Regular, Fast, Faster, Instant), and response tone (Human, Professional, Friendly, Robotic). A homepage FAQ section and custom links support Markdown. Full RTL and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance is included. Multi-Language Support The chatbot detects the visitor’s language and responds accordingly. Supported languages include English, Bengali, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and more. Competitor Analysis Search the WordPress plugin directory for an AI chatbot and a handful of names come up again and again, so it is worth being clear about where AskAny actually fits among them. AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress is the biggest name in the category by far, with chatbots, content generation, AI forms, and MCP server tools built on a huge add-on ecosystem. It is a genuine alternative to AskAny for chatbot use cases, but its RAG and vector database embeddings sit behind the Pro tier. AskAny includes RAG-based retrieval, WooCommerce order tracking, and live agent handoff in the free version, with a narrower focus on chatbot support rather than a full AI framework. MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress is the closest match. Its free version also trains on site content using RAG and includes WooCommerce integration and Slack-based live agent handoff, so anyone comparing the two is comparing like for like. Where AskAny pulls ahead is in the details: native order lookup by order ID, email, or transaction ID inside the chat widget itself, SSE streaming for instant responses instead of polling, and a Mobile App Push Bridge so agents can reply from Android without opening wp-admin. A newer wave of WordPress AI chatbots has also shown up in directory searches, and each falls into a different bucket relative to AskAny. AxiaChat AI, Hyve Lite, Bubblibot, Chatbot with ChatGPT WordPress (SmartSearchWP), and Vitxi Converse are all single-AI-provider chatbots, most locked to OpenAI, with WooCommerce order tracking, live agent handoff, and multi-provider support either absent or reserved for a paid tier. Hyve Lite and SmartSearchWP train only on posts and pages by default, with PDFs, custom post types, and WooCommerce sold as add-ons; Bubblibot ships a free core but keeps WooCommerce product indexing Pro-only; Vitxi Converse leans on templated FAQ branching rather than semantic RAG retrieval. AskAny includes RAG retrieval, WooCommerce order tracking, and six interchangeable AI providers in the free version, with none of that behind a paywall. AxiaChat AI, Muchat, and ILACHAT are the closest matches on the WooCommerce side, each combining an AI chatbot with product data and, in ILACHAT’s case, live human handoff and rich media messaging. None of the three currently offers native order lookup by order ID, email, and transaction ID together, SSE streaming, or a Telegram and WhatsApp bridge alongside the website widget, which is where AskAny’s free tier pulls ahead. WebChatAgent and Social Intents take a different architecture entirely: both are SaaS platforms with a WordPress plugin as the front door, so the chatbot logic, training data, and conversation history live on the vendor’s servers rather than in your own WordPress database. Social Intents in particular is built around routing chats into Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, or Zoom, with plans starting at $39/month once the trial ends. AskAny keeps everything, including chat history and the content index, in your own WordPress database, with no subscription required to use the AI chatbot, WooCommerce tracking, or live agent features. Beyond those two, most of the other names that show up nearby are solving a different problem entirely, not a weaker version of the same one. Wise Chat and Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots are both built for people talking to each other, real-time chat rooms and private messaging between site members, with AI chat bots tucked away as a paid add-on rather than the core product. CleanTalk Anti-Spam. Spam Firewall & Bot Protection has nothing to do with chatbots at all, it blocks spam in comments, forms, and checkouts, and runs perfectly fine on the same site as AskAny. AI Agent by SiteGround is an admin-side tool, letting a site owner manage posts and WooCommerce products through a chat interface in wp-admin, not something a visitor ever sees. And AI Share & Summarize adds AI summaries and share buttons to blog posts, useful, but no chat widget involved. So of everything that turns up in an “AI chatbot for WordPress” search, only AI Engine and MxChat are actually built for the same job as AskAny: answering visitor questions from your own site content. Between those two, AskAny’s combination of free RAG retrieval, native WooCommerce order tracking, real-time SSE streaming, and live agent handoff, all in the free version, is what sets it apart. Privacy and Security All chat data is stored in your own WordPress database. Built-in GDPR controls cover data export, anonymization, and retention. Session security and XSS protection are included. See the External Services section below for exactly which third-party services are contacted, and only when you configure them. External Services This plugin connects to external services only for the features you configure. You supply your own API key for whichever AI provider you choose in Settings, and only that provider is contacted. OpenAI – Purpose: Generates chat responses and creates embeddings for semantic search when OpenAI is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message, retrieved content snippets used for grounding, and site content submitted for embedding during indexing. – When it connects: On every chat response and during content indexing, only if OpenAI is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://api.openai.com/v1/ – Privacy Policy: https://openai.com/privacy/ – Terms of Service: https://openai.com/policies/row-terms-of-use/ DeepSeek – Purpose: Generates chat responses when DeepSeek is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message and retrieved content snippets used for grounding. – When it connects: On every chat response, only if DeepSeek is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://api.deepseek.com/v1/ – Privacy Policy: https://www.deepseek.com/privacy-policy – Terms of Service: https://www.deepseek.com/terms-of-use Google Gemini – Purpose: Generates chat responses when Google Gemini is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message and retrieved content snippets used for grounding. – When it connects: On every chat response, only if Gemini is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/ – Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy – Terms of Service: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms Anthropic Claude – Purpose: Generates chat responses when Anthropic Claude is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message and retrieved content snippets used for grounding. – When it connects: On every chat response, only if Claude is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://api.anthropic.com/ – Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy – Terms of Service: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms X.AI Grok – Purpose: Generates chat responses when X.AI Grok is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message and retrieved content snippets used for grounding. – When it connects: On every chat response, only if Grok is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://api.x.ai/ – Privacy Policy: https://x.ai/legal/privacy-policy – Terms of Service: https://x.ai/legal/terms-of-service OpenRouter – Purpose: Routes chat responses to any of 100+ supported models when OpenRouter is selected as the active AI provider. – Data sent: The visitor’s message and retrieved content snippets used for grounding. – When it connects: On every chat response, only if OpenRouter is the selected provider. – Service URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/ – Privacy Policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy – Terms of Service: https://openrouter.ai/terms Telegram – Purpose: Delivers AI-powered chat responses to visitors who message your connected Telegram bot. – Data sent: The visitor’s Telegram message, retrieved content snippets used for grounding, and the AI-generated reply routed back through the Telegram Bot API. – When it connects: When Telegram integration is enabled under AskAny AI > Integrations, on every message sent to your bot. – Service URL: https://api.telegram.org/ – Privacy Policy: https://telegram.org/privacy – Terms of Service: https://telegram.org/tos Twilio (WhatsApp) – Purpose: Delivers AI-powered chat responses to customers who message your connected Twilio WhatsApp number. – Data sent: The visitor’s WhatsApp message, retrieved content snippets used for grounding, and the AI-generated reply routed back through Twilio’s messaging API. – When it connects: When WhatsApp integration is enabled under AskAny AI > Integrations, on every message sent to your Twilio number. – Privacy Policy: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/legal/privacy – Terms of Service: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/legal/tos WPAzleen Settings API – Purpose: Loads display settings for the Pro upgrade modal in the plugin admin area. – Data sent: No personal …

AI Chatbot Free Models is a fully self-contained AI chatbot platform for WordPress. It provides everything you need to run professional live chat, customer support and virtual-assistant experiences on your website while leaving the choice of the AI model entirely in your hands. There is no paid SaaS behind this plugin. No mandatory subscription, no premium gateway, no external dashboard, no account required with the plugin developer. The only thing you need is access to an AI model: a hosted provider (many of which offer generous free tiers) or a self-hosted, local inference server. Every other component – interface, conversations, knowledge base, notifications, styling – runs on your own WordPress installation and your own database. Bring your own model, keep control of your data Connect OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Run completely free with free-tier models or a local server (llama.cpp, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, gateways and proxies). Conversations are stored only if you enable it, in dedicated tables inside your own database. The knowledge base is built from your own published posts and pages – no external crawling, no third-party index. Core features Provider-agnostic AI connection with configurable endpoint, API key and model Dynamic model selection where the provider supports model discovery Streaming responses with live typing indicator Stop generation at any time while a response is being streamed Retry failed responses and start a new conversation without reloading the page Configurable maximum response tokens and streaming timeout with inactivity watchdog Conversation context maintained with a configurable token budget Optional pre-chat form to collect name and email for support and lead generation Live knowledge base with FULLTEXT-indexed search over titles and content, response caching and clickable source citations in answers Per-IP rate limiting and server-side sanitization of conversation history Dedicated database storage with optional message and IP retention (disabled by default) Unread conversation notifications, search and conversation management in the WordPress admin Floating widget (bottom-left or bottom-right) or embedded chat via the [newcodebyte_chatbot] shortcode Extensive appearance customization: colors, images, sounds, widget position Translatable frontend interface, responsive layout, multilingual AI support Modern object-oriented codebase following current WordPress standards Requirements WordPress 5.0 or later (tested up to 7.1) PHP 7.4 or later (compatible with current PHP 8.x releases) MySQL 5.6 or later / MariaDB 10.0 or later (required by the FULLTEXT knowledge base index) An API key for the provider you choose – or none at all, if you use a local OpenAI-compatible server How it works A visitor sends a message from the floating widget or the embedded chat. WordPress receives the request and the plugin prepares the conversation context. The configured provider or endpoint is selected and the request is sent. The response is streamed back to the visitor when streaming is supported. The conversation can optionally be stored in your own database for review. A note on costs The plugin is free and adds no usage fees of its own. AI costs depend exclusively on the provider and model you configure: free models and free quotas are fully supported, and a self-hosted server removes usage costs entirely. Looking for a platform-independent version? A standalone build for non-WordPress websites (HTML, PHP and more) is available on GitHub: https://github.com/NewCodeByte/chatbot-ai-free-models Configuration Open the Chatbot settings page. Depending on the selected provider you can configure: Provider (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or OpenAI-compatible endpoint) API endpoint and API key Model, selected from discovery or entered manually Maximum response tokens and streaming timeout Knowledge base, pre-chat form, storage options, appearance and sounds Free models on OpenRouter are identified by the :free suffix. When using a local or self-hosted OpenAI-compatible server, simply point the endpoint to your server (for example http://localhost:8080/v1): no external account is required and your traffic never leaves your infrastructure. External Services The plugin can transmit the content of a visitor’s message to the AI provider you configure (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or a custom endpoint) in order to generate a response. The terms of service and privacy policy of the selected provider apply to that processing. The plugin developer does not control and is not responsible for external providers’ pricing, availability, retention policies or data processing. Privacy Message and IP storage are optional and disabled by default. When enabled, data is stored in dedicated tables inside your own database and can be reviewed, exported or deleted from the admin area. The plugin itself sets no cookies. If you enable storage or the pre-chat form, update your privacy policy to describe the processing. You are responsible for compliance with applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR. Disclaimer AI-generated content can be inaccurate. The plugin developer is not responsible for AI responses, decisions made based on them, provider outages, pricing or API changes, or data processing performed by external providers. Always verify important information independently. Supporting the project AI Chatbot Free Models is developed and maintained as an independent free project. If you find it useful, consider keeping the optional “Powered by NewCodeByte” attribution enabled or supporting development with a donation. Contributions fund development, maintenance, testing and infrastructure.