How to Add an AI Chatbot to Your WordPress Contact Form

Most contact forms are a dead end. A visitor has a question before submitting — about your pricing, your process, your availability — and there’s nowhere to ask it. They leave.

The AI Contact Form addon embeds a live chatbot inside your form. Visitors ask questions and get AI-generated answers in real time, without leaving the page.

What you can do with it:

• Let visitors ask questions while filling out your form
• Send AI-generated email replies on submission
• Analyse user responses automatically using custom prompts

What you’ll need:

• Everest Forms Pro (Get it from here →)
• AI Contact Form addon — activated from Everest Forms → Addons
• OpenAI account with an API key

Looking for something different? If you want AI to build your form structure from a text prompt — no API key needed — that’s the Everest Forms AI Form Builder →

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Setup and Configuration

The setup has four steps: install Everest Forms Pro, activate the AI Contact Form addon from your dashboard, generate an OpenAI API key, and connect it to your site. Do them in order — the addon requires Pro, and the chatbot won’t work without a valid API key.

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Step 1: Install Everest Forms Pro

The AI Contact Form addon requires Everest Forms Pro. If you’re on the free plugin, upgrade your plan first.

If Everest Forms Pro is already installed and active on your site, skip to Step 2.

1. Log in to your WPEverest account and download the Everest Forms Pro zip
2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
3. Choose the downloaded zip file
4. Click Install Now, then Activate
5. Enter your license key under Everest Forms → Settings → License

Once activated and licensed, you’ll see Everest Forms in your WordPress dashboard sidebar.

If you’re setting up Everest Forms for the first time, the getting started guide covers the initial configuration.

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Step 2: Activate the AI Contact Form Addon

With Everest Forms Pro active, the AI Contact Form addon is available directly from your dashboard — no download or file upload needed.

1. Go to Everest Forms → Addons
2. Find AI Contact Form in the addons list
3. Enable the addon using the toggle.

The addon activates instantly. You’ll see its status change to Active on the same screen.

After activation, the AI field appears in your Everest Forms field panel the next time you open a form. You won’t see it in use until the OpenAI API key is connected in Step 4.

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Step 3: Generate an OpenAI API Key

The AI Contact Form addon connects to OpenAI’s API. You need a paid OpenAI account — the free tier does not include API access.

1. Go to platform.openai.com and log in
2. Click your account icon at the top right
3. Select View API Keys
4. Click Create new secret key
5. Give the key a name (optional but useful for tracking usage)
6. Click Create secret key
7. Copy the key immediately — OpenAI only shows it once. If you close the modal without copying it, you’ll need to generate a new one.

A note on cost: OpenAI charges per token — roughly per word processed. For typical contact form interactions, costs are low.

Check OpenAI’s pricing page for current rates before going live on a high-traffic form.

Keep your API key out of your codebase and out of any shared documents. Anyone who has it can make requests charged to your account.

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Step 4: Connect OpenAI to Everest Forms

With the API key copied, connect it to your site:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Everest Forms → Settings
2. Click the OpenAI tab
3. Paste your API key into the OpenAI API Key field
4. Click Save Changes

The connection applies site-wide. Every form on your site can now use the AI field once it’s added to the form builder.

To confirm the connection worked, open any form in the Everest Forms builder — the AI field should appear in the field panel on the left.

If it’s missing, go back to Everest Forms → Addons and confirm the AI Contact Form addon status shows as Active.

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1. Add a Live Chatbot to Your Form

This is the core use case. Visitors type a question into your form and the AI responds in real time — without submitting the form or leaving the page.

How to set it up:

Go to Everest Forms → Add New and create a new form or open an existing one

From the field panel on the left, drag a Single Line Text field onto your form — this is the input box where visitors type their questions

Drag an AI field onto the form — this displays the AI-generated response

Click the AI field to open its settings.

Under Advanced Options, enable Chatbot.

Under Field Mapping, select the Single Line Text field you added in step 2.

Set Field Type to TextArea or HTML depending on how you want the response displayed.

Save the form.

When a visitor types a question into the text field and submits, the AI field populates with a response from OpenAI before the form is submitted. They can read the answer, ask a follow-up, or proceed with submitting.

What users see:

Tip: Pair this with a multi-step form to put the chatbot on an early step and the con

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2. Send AI-Generated Email Replies

Instead of a standard confirmation email, you can send a personalised AI-generated reply based on what the visitor submitted.

You write a prompt that tells OpenAI what kind of email to generate. OpenAI reads the form submission and writes the email body. The result lands in the visitor’s inbox seconds after they submit.

How to set it up:

1. In the form builder, go to Settings → Emails
2. Open any notification (Admin or User)
3. Enable Email Prompt by checking the checkbox
4. Write your prompt in the field — reference specific form fields using smart tags. For example: “Write a warm welcome email to {field:name} who submitted an enquiry about {field:subject}. Keep it under 150 words.”
5. In the Email Message body, add the {ai_email_response} smart tag where you want the AI-generated content to appear
6. Save the form

The more specific your prompt, the better the output. Include the tone, length, and any details you want the email to reference from the submission.

For more on setting up email notifications in Everest Forms, see how to customise WordPress form emails.

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3. Analyse User Responses with AI

Use OpenAI to process form submissions automatically. You write a prompt that tells the AI what to look for — sentiment, intent, topic classification — and the analysis appears in your form entries.

This is useful for support forms, feedback forms, or any form where you want a quick read on what the submission is about before a human reviews it.

How to set it up:

1. Add a Single Line Text field to collect user input
2. Add an AI field to the form
3. Click the AI field to open its settings
4. Under Advanced Options, make sure Chatbot is disabled
5. A prompt text area appears — write your analysis prompt. For example: “Based on the message in {field:message}, classify the sentiment as positive, neutral, or negative and summarise the main concern in one sentence.”
6. Reference the relevant input field using the <> field selector
7. Save the form

The AI field is hidden on the front end.

After a visitor submits the form, go to Everest Forms → Entries and open the submission — the AI analysis appears alongside the other field data.

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Publishing the Form

Once your form is ready, add it to any page or post using either method:

Everest Forms Block: In the block editor, click +, search for Everest Forms, add the block, and select your form from the dropdown.

Shortcode: Copy the shortcode from the top-right of the form builder and paste it into any Shortcode block on your page.

For a full walkthrough of publishing options, see how to create a WordPress contact form.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does the AI Contact Form addon require Everest Forms Pro? Yes. The AI Contact Form addon is a Pro feature. You need an active Everest Forms Pro license to activate it. Once Pro is active, go to Everest Forms → Addons to enable it — no separate download required.

How much does the OpenAI API cost? OpenAI charges per token — roughly per word processed. For most contact form interactions, costs are low. Check OpenAI’s pricing page for current rates. There is no fixed monthly fee; you pay for what you use.

Can I use this without an OpenAI account? No. The addon connects to OpenAI’s API and requires a valid paid API key. If you want AI functionality without an external API or a Pro license, the Everest Forms AI Form Builder generates form structures from a plain-English prompt — free on all plans, no API key needed.

Can I control what the chatbot says? The chatbot responds based on whatever OpenAI’s model returns for the visitor’s input. You can’t restrict it to specific topics through the addon settings alone. For controlled responses, write a system prompt in your OpenAI account settings to constrain the model’s behaviour before connecting the API key.

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Want to build the form itself faster? The Everest Forms AI Form Builder generates your entire form structure from a plain-English prompt — no API key, no external service, free on all plans.