WordPress and WooCommerce integration
Install the Paperchat chat widget on a WordPress site, including WooCommerce stores. Use the official plugin or paste a single tag in your theme.
This guide covers two ways to install Paperchat on a WordPress site, including WooCommerce stores. The plugin is the easier path. Pasting the embed tag manually is the fallback if you cannot install plugins.
Paperchat works on any WordPress site, with or without WooCommerce. The official plugin handles the script injection for you, exposes a settings page for picking which chatbot to embed, and gives you a per page toggle in the post editor.
Install the Paperchat plugin for WordPress
Free, official, and listed on WordPress.org. Install from the Plugins screen, paste your API key, and pick a chatbot from a dropdown. WooCommerce supported out of the box.
Get the plugin on WordPress.orgWhat you will need
- A published Paperchat chatbot. If you have not built one yet, follow the How to use Paperchat guide first.
- Your chatbot ID from the Embed tab of your Paperchat dashboard.
- A Paperchat API key from Dashboard > Settings > API Keys. Only required if you use the plugin.
- Administrator access to the WordPress site.
Add your WordPress domain to the allowed list
In the Paperchat dashboard, open your chatbot's Setup tab and add your live domain to Allowed Domains. Add the staging domain too if you have one. The widget refuses to load on domains that are not on the list.
Option 1: Install the official plugin
This is the recommended path. The plugin keeps your theme files untouched, so future theme updates will not wipe out the install.
Open the Plugins screen
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New.
Search for Paperchat
Type Paperchat into the search box in the top right. The plugin should appear as the top result, published by Paperchat.
Install and activate
Click Install Now, then Activate once the install finishes.
Open the Paperchat settings
After activation, a new Paperchat entry appears in the WordPress admin sidebar. Open it.
Connect your account
Paste your Paperchat API key. The plugin will fetch your list of chatbots and let you select one from a dropdown, so you never need to copy the chatbot ID by hand.
Choose where the widget loads
By default the widget loads site wide. You can also toggle it per page, per post, or per WooCommerce product from the editor sidebar.
Save
Click Save Changes. The widget is live on the next page load.
WooCommerce specifics
The plugin recognizes WooCommerce templates automatically. The widget appears on product pages, the cart, and checkout pages where customer support is most valuable. If you would rather hide the chat bubble on checkout to reduce distraction, toggle it off from the Paperchat settings under Where to load.
Option 2: Paste the embed tag manually
Use this path if you cannot install plugins, for example on a managed host with a restricted plugin list.
Open your theme's header or footer
In your WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Theme File Editor. In the file tree on the right, choose either footer.php or header.php. Footer is preferred for performance.
Paste the embed snippet
Add the snippet below just before the closing </body> tag in footer.php, or just before </head> in header.php. Replace YOUR_CHATBOT_ID with the ID from your Paperchat dashboard.
<script async src="https://paperchat.co/widgets/livechat/v1.js" data-paperchat-id="YOUR_CHATBOT_ID"></script>Update file
Click Update File at the bottom of the editor. The widget appears immediately on every page that uses this theme.
Editing theme files directly is fragile. If you switch themes, or if your theme is updated and the changes overwrite your edit, you will need to reinstall the snippet. Use a child theme to make the change durable, or install the official plugin instead.
A note about caching plugins
WordPress sites often run caching plugins such as WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache. After installing Paperchat, clear your cache so the updated HTML is served to visitors. If your host uses an edge cache, purge that too.
Verify the widget is live
Open your site in a fresh browser tab or an incognito window. The chat bubble should appear within a couple of seconds. If you do not see it, check that:
- Your domain is in the chatbot's Allowed Domains list.
- Your chatbot ID is correct.
- No other chat widget is occupying the same corner. If you previously installed Intercom, Tidio, or Crisp, disable the old widget before installing Paperchat.
Troubleshooting
The widget appears in admin previews but not for visitors. Most often this is a caching layer serving stale HTML. Purge the WordPress cache and any CDN cache, then retest.
The widget appears for a moment, then vanishes. Your domain is not in the chatbot's Allowed Domains list. Add it in the Paperchat dashboard.
The plugin cannot find any chatbots after I paste the API key. Confirm the key was copied without surrounding spaces and that it has not been revoked in Dashboard > Settings > API Keys.
The chat opens but replies feel generic. The chatbot has no trained data yet. Open the chatbot's Sources tab and add files, URLs, or text. Wait for training to finish before testing again.
If you are still stuck, email support@paperchat.co with a link to your site.