Set up a chatbot

Written by Owner

Updated at August 20th, 2025

+ More

Table of Contents

Add a chatbot Create a directive and a greeting Give your chatbot knowledge Limitations Next steps Data retention Provide feedback and get help

With Zapier Chatbots, you can offer a custom-branded chat experience using the power of AI directly within your website.

Beta

This product is in open beta. It’s available for use but still in active development and may change.

Add a chatbot

From the Chatbots home, click Create.
In the dialog box that will appear, type a name for your new chatbot.
Click Create.

Note

In Team and Enterprise accounts, users with the Zapier account role of Owner or Super admin have the same level of access to a chatbot as the chatbot owner.

Create a directive and a greeting

The directive tells your chatbot how to respond to questions within a conversation. You can add information about the chatbot's role, who its audience is, its objectives, and more. Learn how to set up a directive.

You can also use the chatbot's greeting to guide users in interacting with it. Select between a static greeting or a tailored one generated when the conversation starts.

Give your chatbot knowledge

One of the most powerful ways to customize a chatbot is by using knowledge sources. Add a text-based file or link your chatbot to Zapier Tables or a webpage, to provide a definitive source of information for answering users' questions.

Limitations

With Zapier Chatbots, the limitations are determined by the Chatbots plan you select. The plan selection determines:

The number of chatbots you can build.
The features that are available on your chatbot.

The number of conversations a chatbot can have is unlimited, but each conversation will be limited to the number of tokens available, which depends on the AI model you select. Use your own API key to get access to models with a larger number of tokens.

Tip

If you need more chatbots than the standard plans offer, you can reach out to the Chatbots team to request a custom plan.

Next steps

Your chatbot can be tailored to different contexts and needs by tweaking settings such as creativity, colors, and icons. You can also use it as a standalone chatbot or embed it directly on a page.

Here are some ways you can customize your chatbot:

Learn more ways to customize your chatbot.

Data retention

Zapier's Data Retention, deletion, and export practices vary depending on the product. Learn more about the specific guidelines for the product you're using.

Provide feedback and get help

Submit a feature request, provide feedback on existing features, or get help from the Zapier Chatbots team.