Written by the Off Hours product team. Updated . This guide describes our product, not an independent review.
Your website supplies the business facts. You approve them.
The scanner reads accessible pages and extracts a business profile: what you do, services or products, contact details, opening hours and other available facts. It uses that material to identify your business category. You can add information, correct the profile and remove anything you do not want the assistant to use. Check it before switching the chat on, especially prices, locations and availability.
A scan is a snapshot, not a live booking system. It may miss pages, misunderstand ambiguous text or encounter an inaccessible site. Review the result after a scan and update it when your business changes. Instructions hidden in a scraped page or typed by a visitor are not supposed to replace the assistant's business rules.
Business-specific answers and related general guidance
Claims about your business should come from the reviewed profile. General educational guidance can draw on the model's knowledge only when it relates to your business. The assistant is instructed to decline unrelated requests and offer contact with your team when an answer needs information it does not have.
Example: a dental practice
It can explain the practice's published hours and services, then discuss general tooth-care habits. A request for hair-shampoo recommendations is outside that business scope. Questions needing diagnosis, treatment decisions or urgent care should be directed to an appropriate dental professional. The chat is not a clinician.
These are product safeguards, not a promise of perfect answers. AI can make mistakes. Test relevant and unrelated questions, review conversations and correct the profile when you find a problem.
How conversation credits work
One conversation credit covers up to 20 successful AI replies. Reply 21 uses a second credit. Each visitor chat stops at 40 AI replies and shows a contact form. Failed AI replies do not consume credits.
A chat ending after 5 replies uses one credit. A chat reaching 20 replies still uses one. If the assistant gives reply 21, that same chat uses two credits in total. After reply 40, the visitor can leave contact details instead of continuing AI replies. A new chat uses a new credit when its first successful AI reply is delivered.
| Plan | Monthly price | Included allowance |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | $29 before tax | 200 conversations included. 1 website. |
| Standard | $49 before tax | 400 conversations included. 1 website. |
| Growth | $99 before tax | 1,000 conversations included. 1 website. |
| Scale | $197 before tax | 2,500 conversations, pooled across up to 5 sites. Up to 5 websites. |
Scale pools its allowance across up to five websites. When the monthly allowance is used, chat becomes a contact form for the rest of the month. There are no automatic overage charges. See pricing and trial terms.
What limits spam and oversized uploads?
The service checks request size and message length before calling the AI provider. Rate limits, site caps and conversation limits reduce repeated requests. Usage is reserved on the server so simultaneous messages cannot all claim the same remaining allowance. Signed reply history helps stop a visitor from inserting a fake earlier assistant answer.
The customer widget supports bounded images rather than arbitrary file uploads. It resizes images before sending them; the server checks file type, size and image dimensions. Oversized or unsupported input is rejected. Our public sales chat is text-only and has its own stricter limits.
These controls reduce abuse and bound AI usage. They cannot make a public website impossible to attack, or prove that every allowed request came from a genuine buyer. Contact us if you see suspicious activity.
Set it up and test it before launch
- Choose a plan. Your licence key is emailed to you by Lemon Squeezy the moment you finish checkout, trial or not, so you can set up straight away. Keep that email: it is where the key lives, and it is not shown on this page. If it has not arrived within a few minutes, check your spam folder and then email us.
- On WordPress, install and activate the plugin. On another site, use the setup page to create an HTML embed.
- Register the site with your licence, scan the website, then review and save your business profile.
- Check hours, pricing, services and callback details. Try an unrelated question and a question whose answer is missing.
- Confirm that the contact form reaches your team, then publish the widget. Keep the profile current as your business changes.
When is Off Hours a good fit?
It is designed for small businesses that want routine website questions answered and callback requests collected after hours, with a known monthly allowance. It does not answer telephone calls. If you need a full helpdesk, a staffed live-chat team or guaranteed real-time inventory and appointment availability, check those requirements before choosing it.
Compare the website chatbot options, try the live demo, or read our chatbot affiliate program. Affiliates earn commission for eligible referrals; the product does not automate affiliate marketing campaigns.