# Authyo ChatLead – Chatbot Lead Capture

> Add a chatbot to your WordPress site that captures leads in a conversation and verifies email and phone with OTP. Optionally add an AI assistant that answers visitor questions from your own knowledge base.

Source: https://authyo.io/authyo-docs/authyo-chatlead/

## At a glance

- **What it does:** A chatbot that collects lead details step by step, verifies email and phone with OTP, and saves every lead in WordPress. It can also answer questions with AI.
- **Three chat modes:** **AI + Lead Capture (Unified)**, **AI Only** and **Lead Capture Only**.
- **Shortcodes:** `[authyo_chatlead]` (also the older `[chatlead_by_authyo]`) and `[authyo_ai_chat]`. Or turn on the floating widget for every page.
- **OTP verification:** Email OTP and phone OTP (by SMS) for lead capture. Needs an Authyo account with an App ID, Client ID and Client Secret.
- **AI providers:** OpenAI (ChatGPT), Claude, Google Gemini, Mistral AI, DeepSeek, Groq and Cohere. You bring your own API key.
- **Field types:** Name, Email, Phone, Message, Number and Address.
- **Settings location:** WordPress admin, under **Authyo ChatLead**.
- **Get the plugin:** [WordPress.org: Authyo ChatLead](https://wordpress.org/plugins/authyo-chatlead/)

## Overview

**Authyo ChatLead** puts a friendly chatbot on your site. Instead of a long form, visitors answer one question at a time, and you capture their name, email, phone and message. Email addresses and phone numbers can be verified with a one-time password (OTP), so you collect real contacts.

You can also switch on an **AI assistant**. It answers visitor questions using the content you give it (your knowledge base) and, when it cannot answer, collects the visitor’s details so your team can follow up. Choose the mode that suits you: lead capture only, AI only, or both in one conversation.

- **Conversational lead capture:** A chat-style form that asks for each detail in turn, with a robot assistant and a greeting.
- **OTP verification:** Verify the visitor’s email address and phone number with a one-time password before the lead is saved.
- **Form Builder:** Drag to reorder and switch fields on or off. Set each field’s label, placeholder, bot question, required and Verify OTP options.
- **AI chatbot:** Answers questions from your knowledge base with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq or Cohere.
- **Knowledge base and parameters:** Teach the AI with text and web pages, and set instant answers for common questions to save AI costs.
- **Lead management:** View, search and filter leads, mark them New, Read or Connected, and get an email for every new lead.
- **Analytics and costs:** Track conversations, fallback rate, lead conversion, and AI token usage and estimated spend.
- **Works with CF7 and WPForms:** Use a Contact Form 7 or WPForms form as the chatbot’s lead form.

## Requirements

- WordPress **5.0** or later and PHP **7.2** or later.
- For OTP verification: an **Authyo account** with an application, and its **App ID**, **Client ID** and **Client Secret**.
- For the AI chatbot: an **API key** from one of the supported AI providers. The AI provider bills you directly for usage.
- Optional: Contact Form 7 or WPForms, if you want to use one of their forms as the lead form.

## Installation

Install and activate the plugin, then open its menu.

### Step 1: Install the plugin
Go to **Plugins → Add New**, search for **Authyo ChatLead**, then click **Install Now**. You can also upload the plugin ZIP using **Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin**.

### Step 2: Activate it
Click **Activate**.

### Step 3: Open the plugin menu
A new **Authyo ChatLead** item appears in the WordPress admin menu. It includes **Dashboard**, **Settings**, **Knowledge**, **Leads & Chats**, **Analytics**, **Form Integrations**, **Usage & Costs** and a **Setup Wizard**. The Knowledge and Analytics pages appear when AI features are on.

## Set up lead capture

These steps give you a working chatbot that captures and verifies leads.

### Step 1: Get your Authyo credentials
Go to [app.authyo.io](https://app.authyo.io/account/welcome) and create a free account. Then open [your applications](https://app.authyo.io/application/userapplication) and copy the **App ID**, **Client ID** and **Client Secret**. Create an application first if you do not have one.

### Step 2: Enter them in Settings
Go to **Authyo ChatLead → Settings**. Under **OTP Verification (Authyo API)**, enter the **App ID**, **Client ID** and **Client Secret**, then save. The secret is stored encrypted. OTP verification is optional.

### Step 3: Test the configuration
Under **Test Configuration**, enter a test email address and click **Send Test OTP**. Then enter the code and click **Verify OTP**. Save any changes before you test.

### Step 4: Refresh the country list
Click **Refresh Country List** (under Utilities) to download and cache the countries used by the phone field.

### Step 5: Build your form
Go to **Authyo ChatLead → Form Builder** and choose the fields the chatbot collects. See the Form Builder section below.

### Step 6: Choose the chat mode
In **Settings → General**, pick the **Chat Mode**. Use **Lead Capture Only** if you do not want AI. Changing the mode shows or hides tabs, so save and refresh the page.

_If you want the AI assistant too, continue with “Set up the AI chatbot” below._

## Put the chatbot on your site

You can show the chatbot on every page with the floating widget, or on specific pages with a shortcode.

### Step 1: Option 1: the floating widget
In **Settings → General**, switch on **Enable Widget** (“Display chatbot widget on all pages”). The chat button appears in the corner of every page. Set the **Widget Title**, **Welcome Message**, **Input Placeholder** and **Widget Position** (Bottom Right or Bottom Left).

### Step 2: Option 2: a shortcode for lead capture
Add this shortcode to any page or post to show the lead capture chatbot there.

```
[authyo_chatlead]
```

_The older shortcode `[chatlead_by_authyo]` still works._

### Step 3: Option 3: a shortcode for the AI chatbot
Add this shortcode to any page or post to show the AI chatbot there.

```
[authyo_ai_chat]
```

### Step 4: What visitors experience
The visitor opens the chat, answers each question in turn, and verifies their email or phone with a code where Verify OTP is on. The lead is then saved and you can email yourself a notification.

### Step 5: Look after your leads
Open **Authyo ChatLead → Leads & Chats → Leads**. See the Leads section below for the details.

## Settings reference

The main settings, grouped by where you find them under **Authyo ChatLead**.

### Settings: chat mode

- **Mode**: **AI + Lead Capture (Unified)** (recommended): the AI answers from your knowledge base and collects contact details when it cannot answer. **AI Only**: the AI answers questions, with no lead capture. **Lead Capture Only**: the conversational form with OTP, with no AI.

### Settings: widget and appearance

- **Enable Widget**: Display the chatbot widget on all pages.
- **Widget Title / Welcome Message / Input Placeholder**: The text in the chat window.
- **Widget Position**: Bottom Right or Bottom Left.
- **Dark Mode**: **Auto (follow system)**, **Always Light** or **Always Dark**.
- **Hide Branding**: Hide the “Powered by Authyo ChatLead” link.
- **Color Customization**: Theme Color, Robot Accent Color, Robot Eye Color, Bot Message Background and Bot Message Text Color.
- **Robot Greeting**: Show a greeting bubble from the robot. Enter one message per line, or leave empty for automatic time-based greetings (good morning, afternoon, evening).

### Settings: OTP verification (Authyo API)

- **App ID, Client ID, Client Secret**: Your Authyo credentials, needed for OTP verification. The Client Secret is stored encrypted and shows that it is set. Enter a new one to update it.
- **Test Configuration**: Send a test OTP to an email address and verify it, to check your credentials.
- **Refresh Country List**: Download and cache the country list for the phone field.

### Settings: email notifications

- **Enable Email**: Send an email when a new lead is submitted. It uses the standard WordPress mail system (`wp_mail`), so set up SMTP separately if you need it.
- **To Email**: The recipient. Use commas for several addresses.
- **From Email**: The sender address for the notification.
- **Email Subject** (Default: New Lead from {site_name}): The subject line. Tags you can use: `{site_name}`, `{name}`, `{email}`, `{phone}`.

### Form Builder

- **Active Fields**: The fields the chatbot asks. Drag to reorder and switch fields on or off.
- **Available Fields**: Click to add **Name**, **Email**, **Phone**, **Message**, **Number** or **Address**.
- **Label and Placeholder**: The field’s name and hint text.
- **Bot Prompt (Question)**: What the bot asks the visitor for this field.
- **Required**: Whether the visitor must answer.
- **Verify OTP**: For Email and Phone fields. When on, the visitor must verify the value with a one-time password.
- **Save Configuration / Reset to Default**: Save your changes, or return the form to its default fields.

### Leads

- **Lead list**: Shows name, email, country, phone, message, status and date, with a **Verified** mark next to verified emails and phone numbers.
- **Status**: Each lead is **New**, **Read** or **Connected**. Change it from the lead’s actions.
- **Search and filters**: Search leads, filter by status and date range, and filter by verification: **Email Verified**, **Phone Verified** or **Both Verified**.
- **Lead details**: Open a lead to see every field it captured and the date it was submitted.
- **Delete**: Delete a lead, or several at once.

### AI provider

- **Provider**: OpenAI (ChatGPT), Claude (Anthropic), Google Gemini, Mistral AI, DeepSeek, Groq or Cohere.
- **API Key**: Your key from the provider. It is stored encrypted. Enter a new key to update it.
- **Model**: The AI model used for replies.
- **Test Connection**: Save your settings first, then click to check that the key and model work.

### AI behavior and fallback

- **Max Tokens** (Default: 1024): The maximum length of AI replies. Higher values cost more per reply. Allowed range: 100 to 4096.
- **Temperature** (Default: 0.7): How varied replies are. Lower is more focused and higher is more creative. Allowed range: 0.0 to 2.0.
- **Custom Instructions**: Extra instructions added to the AI’s guidance, for example “Keep replies under 3 sentences.”
- **When AI Cannot Answer** (Default: Show Contact Form): **Show Contact Form** displays your lead form so the visitor can leave their details. **Show Custom Message** shows your own message instead.
- **Fallback Message**: The text shown when the AI cannot find an answer. It is used before the contact form, or as the final message.
- **Suggested Questions (Quick Replies)**: Up to 6 questions, one per line, shown as clickable buttons in the chat.

### Business hours and advanced

- **Business Hours**: Show different behavior outside your hours. Set an **Offline Message** and a schedule for each day of the week, or mark a day **Closed**.
- **Response Cache (hours)**: Reuse answers to identical questions to save AI tokens. Set 0 to turn caching off.
- **Webhook URL**: Send lead data to a URL when a new lead is submitted. Works with Zapier, Make, n8n and similar tools.
- **URL Auto-Refresh**: Re-fetch imported web pages to keep the knowledge base current: **Manual only**, **Daily** or **Weekly**.
- **Auto-Delete Old Chats**: Delete old conversations and expired cache entries: **Never**, **30 days**, **60 days**, **90 days**, **180 days** or **1 year**.
- **Multi-Language KB**: Turn on Unicode keyword extraction for non-English knowledge bases, such as Arabic, Chinese or Hindi.

### Analytics and usage

- **Analytics**: Total conversations, average messages per chat, fallback rate, lead conversion and satisfaction rate, with charts for conversations over time, response sources and token use. Choose the last 7, 30 or 90 days.
- **Top Unanswered Questions**: Questions the AI could not answer. Add them to your knowledge base to improve coverage.
- **Usage & Costs**: Tokens and estimated cost for today and this month, tokens saved by the cache and by parameters, and a breakdown by provider. Costs are estimates from public list prices, so your provider’s bill may differ.
- **Chat Records**: Every conversation between visitors and the AI, with filters for fallback and leads, and a transcript for each.

## Set up the AI chatbot

The AI chatbot is optional. You can use the Setup Wizard, which walks you through five steps: AI Provider, API Key, Content, Questions and Enable. Or follow these steps.

### Step 1: Choose your chat mode
In **Settings → General**, set **Chat Mode** to **AI + Lead Capture (Unified)** or **AI Only**. Save and refresh the page.

### Step 2: Pick your AI provider
Open the **AI Provider** tab. Choose **OpenAI (ChatGPT)**, **Claude**, **Google Gemini**, **Mistral AI**, **DeepSeek**, **Groq** or **Cohere**, and select a model.

### Step 3: Add your API key
Paste the API key from your provider’s dashboard. It is encrypted before it is stored.

### Step 4: Test the connection
Save, then click **Test Connection**. A message tells you whether the key and model work.

### Step 5: Add content for the AI
Give the AI something to learn from. See “Build your knowledge base” below.

### Step 6: Switch on the widget
Switch on **Enable Widget**, or add `[authyo_ai_chat]` to a page. The Dashboard shows whether the chatbot is active.

## Build your knowledge base

The AI answers from the content you add. Open **Authyo ChatLead → Knowledge**.

### Step 1: Add text
On **Add Text**, enter a **Title / Label** (for example “About Us”, “Services” or “FAQ”) and paste your **Content**, such as company information, service descriptions and contact details. Click **Add to Knowledge Base**.

### Step 2: Import a web page
On **Import URL**, enter the **Webpage URL** and click **Import URL**. The page content is extracted and added. Set **URL Auto-Refresh** to keep imported pages current.

### Step 3: Review your sources
The **Knowledge Base Sources** list shows everything you added, with the number of sources, words and chunks. You can delete a source, or use **Clear Entire Knowledge Base**. Clearing cannot be undone.

### Step 4: Add instant answers with Parameters
Open the **Parameters** tab to set predefined answers for common questions. Give each a **Parameter Name**, a **Value** (the factual answer), **Trigger Keywords** (comma-separated) and an optional **Response Template** that uses `{value}`. You can ask the AI to phrase the answer naturally using very few tokens.

_The chatbot checks in this order: Parameters (instant), then the response cache, then the knowledge base with the AI. Parameters save AI tokens and give faster, more accurate answers._

### Step 5: Index WooCommerce products
If WooCommerce is active, the plugin can add your products to the knowledge base automatically, so the AI can answer product questions.

## Use a Contact Form 7 or WPForms form

Instead of the built-in Form Builder, you can use a form from another plugin as the chatbot’s lead form.

### Step 1: Open Form Integrations
Go to **Authyo ChatLead → Form Integrations**. Under **Lead Capture Form Source**, choose **Built-in Form Builder**, **Contact Form 7** or **WPForms**. The option is available only when that plugin is active.

### Step 2: Select the form
Choose a form and save. The plugin detects its fields and lists them under **Detected Form Fields**.

### Step 3: How it works
The form’s fields are shown one at a time in the chat. When a lead is collected, the data goes to both the form plugin, so its emails and integrations still run, and to the ChatLead leads table. OTP verification, the webhook, CSV export and chat records all keep working.

## Troubleshooting

### The chatbot does not appear on my site
Check that **Enable Widget** is switched on in **Settings → General**, or that the shortcode is on the page. Make sure the chat mode includes the feature you expect, and clear your page cache.

### I changed the chat mode but the tabs did not change
Changing the mode shows or hides tabs. Save and refresh the page to see the new tabs.

### OTP verification does not work
Check your **App ID**, **Client ID** and **Client Secret** in Settings. Use **Test Configuration** to send yourself a test OTP and verify it. Make sure the field has **Verify OTP** switched on in the Form Builder.

### The country list is empty in the phone field
Go to **Settings** and click **Refresh Country List**. Check your credentials if it still fails.

### The AI says the connection failed
Check the provider and API key, and that you picked a valid model. Save first, then use **Test Connection**. Check that your provider account has billing or credit.

### The AI gives wrong answers or says it does not know
Add the missing information to your knowledge base, or add a **Parameter** for common questions. Check **Analytics → Top Unanswered Questions** to see what visitors asked. You can also add **Custom Instructions**.

### The AI always shows the contact form
That is the default **Fallback Action**. It appears when the AI cannot find an answer in the knowledge base. Add content to cover the question, or change the fallback to a custom message.

### AI costs are higher than expected
Turn on the **Response Cache**, add **Parameters** for common questions, lower **Max Tokens**, and review **Usage & Costs**. The costs shown are estimates, so check your provider’s bill.

### I do not get an email for new leads
Check that **Enable Email** is on and the **To Email** is correct. The plugin uses `wp_mail`, so set up an SMTP plugin if your host does not send mail reliably. Also check your spam folder.

### Visitors see “Too many requests. Please try again later”
The plugin limits how often requests can be made, to prevent abuse. Ask the visitor to wait a little and try again.

### My non-English content is not matched
Turn on **Multi-Language KB** (Unicode keyword extraction) in the Advanced settings.

### I do not see the Knowledge or Analytics pages
They appear only when AI features are on. Set **Chat Mode** to **AI + Lead Capture (Unified)** or **AI Only**, then save and refresh.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I get Authyo API credentials?
Create an account at [app.authyo.io](https://app.authyo.io/account/welcome), then copy your App ID, Client ID and Client Secret from your application in the dashboard.

### Do I need the AI chatbot?
No. Choose **Lead Capture Only** for the conversational form with OTP and no AI. The AI chatbot is optional.

### Which AI providers are supported?
OpenAI (ChatGPT), Claude, Google Gemini, Mistral AI, DeepSeek, Groq and Cohere. You use your own API key, and the provider bills you directly.

### Can I choose which fields the chatbot asks?
Yes. Use the **Form Builder** to add, remove, reorder and configure fields. You can set labels, placeholders, the bot’s question, required and Verify OTP for each field.

### Can I use the chatbot on only some pages?
Yes. Add the `[authyo_chatlead]` or `[authyo_ai_chat]` shortcode to specific pages, or switch on the floating widget for all pages.

### Can I use my Contact Form 7 or WPForms form?
Yes. In **Form Integrations**, choose Contact Form 7 or WPForms as the lead form source. The form’s own notifications and entries keep working alongside ChatLead.

### How do I teach the AI about my business?
Add text and import web pages in the **Knowledge** page, and add instant answers as **Parameters**. If WooCommerce is active, products can be indexed automatically.

### Can I send leads to another tool?
Yes. Set a **Webhook URL** and lead data is sent there when a new lead is submitted. It works with Zapier, Make, n8n and similar tools.

### Is the plugin GDPR compliant?
The plugin stores lead data in your WordPress database, and registers WordPress personal data export and erase tools for leads and conversations. You are responsible for meeting GDPR and other privacy rules, so add privacy notices and get consent before collecting personal data.

### What happens to my data if I uninstall the plugin?
Deactivating keeps your data. Uninstalling (deleting) the plugin permanently removes the settings, the lead table, the cached country list and scheduled events.

## Support

If this guide does not answer your question, submit the support form: https://authyo.io/support/