AI Chatbot Free Models – Customer Support, Live Chat, Virtual Assistant

AI Chatbot Free Models empowers you to integrate a cutting-edge AI chatbot into your WordPress website! It is a multi-provider solution: connect directly to OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini), DeepSeek, Groq, xAI (Grok), Together AI, Mistral, Perplexity, or OpenRouter (over 500 models with a single API key), and you can even point it to any custom OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Choose from a wide array of both free and premium models to perfectly match your needs and budget. Unlike many other plugins, all management and customization happen entirely within your WordPress backend, no need to visit external sites for configuration. The only account required is to obtain your API key. Looking for a platform-independent version?\ This chatbot is also available as a standalone version for use in non-WordPress websites (HTML, PHP, etc.).\ Get it on GitHub Use Cases Here are several practical ways to use Chatbot AI Free Models on your WordPress website:

• 24/7 Customer Support\ Provide instant answers to visitors at any time, improving engagement and reducing support workload.
• Lead Generation Assistant\ Qualify visitors and collect contact information through conversational interaction.
• Product Recommendation Bot\ Help users find suitable products or services using natural language queries.
• Content Navigation Helper\ Guide users to the right blog posts, categories, or pages based on their questions.
• Automated Live Chat for Immediate Engagement Deploy an automated assistant that mimics a live chat operator. It can greet visitors, answer initial questions, and guide them, ensuring every user feels supported.
• Knowledge Base Access\ Offer a conversational interface to your FAQ, help articles, or documentation.
• Idea Generation for Writers and Bloggers\ Suggest article topics, headlines, or summaries directly within your website.
• Multilingual Support\ Serve users in multiple languages by selecting models with multilingual capabilities.
• Chatbot-Powered Helpdesk Turn your chatbot into a powerful first-line helpdesk. It provides instant, automated support 24/7 and captures visitor details with an optional pre-chat form.
• Free AI Integration\ Use free models from OpenRouter or other supported providers without additional costs or complex setup.

2.0.7

• Security: Avatar, icon and notification sound URLs are now validated before being saved. Only files hosted on this site are accepted, and the file extension must match the field (images: png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, avif, svg — audio: mp3, wav, ogg, m4a, aac, flac). Previously any external URL could be stored and would then be requested by every visitor, tracking their IP address and User Agent.
• Fix: the Images tab no longer reports "Settings saved successfully" when a URL was rejected; the rejected field is now named in the error notice.

2.0.6

• Security: the per-IP rate limiting of the public message endpoints now resolves the real visitor address. Behind a CDN or a reverse proxy REMOTE_ADDR is the address of the proxy, which put every visitor of the site in the same bucket; the forwarded headers (CF-Connecting-IP, X-Forwarded-For, X-Real-IP) are now read only when the proxies are declared as trusted through the NEWCODEBYTE_CHATBOT_TRUSTED_PROXIES constant, which prevents header spoofing. Without the constant the behaviour is unchanged.
• Dev: the rate limit counter is now incremented atomically when an object cache is available, so parallel requests cannot slip past the limit.
• Dev: conversations now store the real visitor address when a trusted proxy is configured, instead of the proxy address.
• Dev: table identifiers in every query are escaped with %i through the new ncb_table_name() helper (with a validated fallback on WordPress below 6.2), and LIKE patterns use esc_like(). The queries were already safe, but they now follow the WordPress database coding standards.

2.0.5

• Security: the API key is no longer printed in the page source. It was localized into the admin JavaScript without ever being used there; the field keeps working because it is filled server-side.
• Security: the TLS certificate check of the AI provider connections is never disabled anymore. When the WordPress certificate bundle is missing, cURL now falls back to the system CA store instead of accepting any certificate.

2.0.4

• New: the Send button has been redesigned: a paper plane icon pointing right, like WhatsApp and Telegram, on a round button with a soft shadow. On hover the plane moves forward; on tap the button scales slightly.
• Accessibility: the label is preserved for screen readers (aria-label, tooltip and visually hidden text), and the button has a visible keyboard focus ring.

2.0.3

• New: "Chat Window Height (mobile)" setting in the Style tab, a height dedicated to phones and small tablets where the desktop height would not fit the screen. Set it to 0 to keep the automatic size (70% of the visible height); values larger than the available space are reduced automatically.

2.0.2

• Fix: the chat window no longer spills out of the screen on phones. The position rules of the desktop layout were more specific than the mobile rule, so the window stayed anchored 20px from the right edge while being 100% wide, cutting off the avatar and the input field on the left.
• Fix: on phones the window is now a centred panel with a comfortable top margin instead of covering the whole screen.
• Fix: the window title no longer slides under the header icons when the name is long.
• Fix: the input field is 16px on mobile, which stops iOS Safari from zooming the page when it gets the focus.
• Fix: the floating button and the proactive bubble stay above the home indicator on iPhone.
• Fix: messages no longer overflow horizontally on narrow screens.
• Fix: the embedded shortcode keeps its own inline layout on mobile.

2.0.1

• Fix: Fixed vertical alignment of the header icons (new conversation and close) across all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, etc.). The text symbols were rendered with different heights depending on the fonts installed on each system; they are now inline SVG icons, guaranteeing pixel-identical rendering on every browser.
• Fix: Hardened the header icon CSS with !important on critical layout properties so themes can no longer displace or resize the icons.
• Dev: The new-conversation control is now a semantic-friendly element with keyboard and screen-reader support.

2.0

• New: Pre-chat form for collecting user name/email before the conversation.
• New: Live typing indicator ("I'm writing...") while the bot is generating a response.
• New: Source links are now clickable URLs in bot responses.
• New: All frontend-facing strings are now translatable (italiano, english, etc.).
• Performance: Knowledge base uses FULLTEXT index, transient cache, SUBSTRING.
• New: Configurable streaming timeout (30/60/90/120s) — reduces CPU load on shared hosting.
• Fixed: Stop button "↺" icon alignment in header.
• Fixed: Textarea height starts at single line.

1.7.8

• Fix: The chat no longer hangs with a blinking cursor when the model is slow. An inactivity watchdog (60s) now aborts the request and shows an error with a Retry button; the fallback request also has a 60s timeout.

1.7.6

• New: Live knowledge base. The bot can search this site's own published posts and pages (a single SQL query per question, no content stored or duplicated) and use the most relevant results as context, citing the source URL. Configurable in the Settings tab. Search matches both the title and the body, so pages with little text are still found.

1.7.5

• New: "Max tokens per response" setting (Settings tab) now caps the model output length on all providers (OpenRouter/OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), preventing endless or excessively long responses.

1.7.4

• New: The Stop button now uses the theme colors and is configurable from the Style tab (background and text color).
• Fix: Trailing empty line removed from bot messages and the welcome message (caused by the markdown renderer's trailing newline).

1.7.3

• New: The widget input is now a multi-line textarea (Enter sends, Shift+Enter for a new line) with a Stop button to interrupt streaming responses.
• New: Failed responses show an error bubble with a "Retry" button.
• New: "New Conversation" button in the chat header to start a fresh chat without reloading the page.
• New: Unread message counter badge on the widget button, shown when the chat is closed.
• New: Admin "Messages" tab now includes search, "Mark all as read", and per-conversation delete actions.
• New: "Clear model cache" button in the Settings tab.
• New: Conversation context is now trimmed to a token budget (default 3500, filter newcodebyte_chatbot_context_budget) before being sent to the model, preventing context-overflow errors on long chats.

1.7.2

• Dev: Reworked the update mechanism. Database migrations are now a versioned registry: each migration runs automatically when needed, no manual version bump required.
• Fix: Extra blank lines in stored messages are no longer displayed duplicated in the admin Messages tab.
• New: Sound preview (Play button) in the Sounds settings tab.

1.7.1

• Security: Added per-IP rate limiting on the public message endpoints to prevent API credit abuse and denial-of-service.
• Security: The conversation history sent from the browser is now sanitized server-side (only user/assistant roles, capped size), preventing prompt injection.
• Security: Model cache is now keyed by API key hash, preventing stale model lists when switching keys.
• Fix: The proactive message bubble is now actually displayed with the configured text and delay, and can be dismissed.
• Dev: Removed the unused PHP session start on the frontend for better performance and cache compatibility.

1.7.0

• New: Streaming responses (token by token) via Server-Sent Events, with automatic fallback to the standard request when streaming is not supported.

1.6.7

• Enhancement: The conversation history is now managed via sessionStorage, making it more robust and independent from PHP sessions.
• Enhancement: Session storage keys are now unique to each site, preventing chat history from being shared across different sites on the same domain (e.g., in a local development environment).
• Enhancement: Improved CSS for chat bubbles to ensure consistent height and layout across different browsers and themes.
• Fix: Corrected a critical caching issue that prevented styles and scripts from loading for non-logged-in users on sites with aggressive server-side caching.
• Fix: Resolved a bug where the first message of a new conversation would not appear in the admin panel until a second message was sent.
• Fix: Corrected all remaining incorrect asset paths (images, sounds) following the code refactoring.
• Fix: The chatbot widget button and proactive message no longer appear when the shortcode display mode is active.

1.6.6

• Security Fix: Hardened the CSV export function to prevent formula injection. All fields are now sanitized to neutralize potentially malicious input. Props to Wordfence for the responsible disclosure.
• Dev: Complete code refactoring for better performance, maintainability, and scalability. The plugin is now fully object-oriented and follows modern WordPress standards.
• Enhancement: The CSS for the embedded shortcode view has been completely redesigned for a more professional and integrated look.
• Fix: The chatbot widget button no longer appears incorrectly when the shortcode display mode is selected.
• Fix: Resolved a critical bug that prevented new conversations from being displayed in the admin panel after updating from a previous version.
• Fix: The unread message notification counter is now correctly cleared upon plugin uninstallation.
• Fix: Corrected all asset paths (CSS, JS, images) to work with the new modular file structure.
• Tweak: Separated frontend and backend CSS files to ensure only necessary styles are loaded.

1.6.4

• New: Unread conversation notifications! A red badge will now appear on the 'Chatbot' admin menu item, showing the count of unread conversations.
• New: Conversation IDs are now clean and sequential (e.g., Chat_1, Chat_2) instead of the long, timestamp-based string.
• Enhancement: The admin message list has been improved. Unread conversations are now highlighted in bold for easy identification.
• Enhancement: Added a descriptive tooltip to the admin menu badge, showing the exact number of unread conversations on hover.
• Dev: Major refactor of the database schema. A new conversations table has been introduced to manage conversations more robustly and enable sequential IDs.

1.6.3

• New: Added a "Display Mode" option to show the chatbot either as a floating widget or embedded directly into a page/post using the [newcodebyte_chatbot] shortcode.
• Tweak: The CSS has been hardened to prevent layout issues caused by aggressive themes or other plugins.

1.6.2

• Feature: The chatbot's position can now be set to the bottom-left or bottom-right corner via the Style settings, improving compatibility with themes and other widgets.
• Feature: The API Key field now masks the input (shows dots) and includes a toggle button to show/hide the key for better security and usability.
• Tweak: The API Key input field now dynamically resizes to fit the entire key, preventing it from being cut off.
• Tweak: The admin conversation view has been restyled for better readability, with full-width message bands and improved spacing.
• Fix: Resolved a major stability issue where conversations would fail to save on certain hosting environments (like AlterVista) due to session handling conflicts.
• Fix: Corrected a CSS conflict that prevented the chat button from moving to the selected position on both desktop and mobile views.
• Fix: Addressed a layout bug on mobile devices where the chat window would be partially cut off.
• Fix: Resolved a JavaScript error that displayed an [object Object] alert after deleting messages.

1.6.1

• Tweak: The proactive message bubble now automatically resizes to fit the text content, improving its appearance.
• Tweak: The text formatting (line breaks) in the proactive message is now correctly displayed.
• Fix: Corrected a CSS issue that could cause the chat button to appear distorted or deformed on some themes after the recent update.
• Added a new "NewCodeByte Plugins" tab to display a list of other plugins by NewCodeByte.

1.6

• New Feature: Added an optional Pre-Chat Form to collect user's name and email before the conversation starts. This can be enabled in the "Settings" tab.
• New Feature: Added a proactive welcome message bubble that appears next to the chat button to encourage user engagement. The text and appearance delay can be customized in the "Settings" tab.
• Major Improvement: The "Messages" tab in the admin panel has been completely redesigned. Messages are now grouped by conversation for a much clearer and more professional overview.
• Improvement: The conversation view in the admin panel now displays the user's provided name or email instead of the generic "User" label, making it easier to identify conversations.
• Improvement: The conversation view in the admin panel now uses the same custom colors chosen for the frontend chat, ensuring a consistent design experience.
• Improvement: The database schema has been updated to store conversation data more efficiently, including a unique conversation ID and user details. An automatic update script ensures a seamless transition for existing users.
• Improvement: The conversation export feature has been updated to export data grouped by conversation, making the exported files (TXT, CSV, MD, HTML) significantly more useful and organized.
• Tweak: The file naming convention for exported conversations is now simpler and more user-friendly (e.g., conversations_YYYY-MM-DD.txt).
• Tweak: Added a cursor: pointer to the conversation list in the admin panel to improve usability and indicate that a conversation is clickable.
• Tweak: Added an option to customize the height of the chat window in the "Style" tab.
• Fix: Ensured the uninstall process is complete, removing all plugin options and data from the database for a clean removal.
• Under the Hood: Refactored the plugin's code to improve security, stability, and adherence to WordPress best practices.

1.5

• Upgraded: Introduced conversation history for a more intelligent and context-aware chatbot experience.

1.4

• Fixed: Fixed mobile chat window display Issues on different screen sizes.

1.3

• Fixed: Bug fix release: Various bugs and security fix.

1.2

• Fixed: Bug fix release: Security fix for message exporting.

1.1

• Fixed: Resolved an issue where checkbox settings for "Show Powered by NewCodeByte" and "Save Messages" could not be toggled off after being enabled.

1.0

• Initial release of Chatbot AI Free Models.
• Added basic chatbot functionality using OpenRouter.ai.
• Implemented settings page for configuration.
• Added options for customizing the chatbot's appearance.
• Added message and IP saving functionality.
• Added "Powered by NewCodeByte" attribution.