A HubSpot chatbot is a rule-based chatflow that sends visitors a series of questions and automated replies to qualify leads, book meetings or create support tickets before someone on your team takes over. You build it in Service > Chatflows by choosing Rule-Based Chatbot, once a chat channel is connected to your conversations inbox or help desk.
Here's the catch. On Starter and free, you can't add if/then branches to bot actions. Branching, where the bot sends a visitor down a different path depending on their answer, a contact property or your team's availability, is for Professional and Enterprise users only. Without it, every visitor follows the same script.
And if your website isn't hosted on HubSpot, add the HubSpot tracking code to your pages before you create the bot. HubSpot's help is blunt about it: the bot won't appear if the tracking code isn't installed.
The bot templates and who gets them
| Template | What it does | Plan, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Start from scratch | Build your own flow from bot actions | No extra plan noted |
| Qualify leads bot | Gathers details about the visitor and why they're there | No extra plan noted |
| Meetings bot | Shares a meeting link so visitors can book time | No extra plan noted |
| Tickets bot | Collects a support query and creates a ticket | No extra plan noted; needs access to edit tickets |
| Concierge bot | Routes visitors to the knowledge base, a person or a meeting | Service Hub Professional or Enterprise |
| Knowledge base and support bot | Shares articles, then offers your team or a ticket | Service Hub Professional or Enterprise |
| Offline bot | Routes chats in business hours and collects emails when you're offline | Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional and Enterprise |
If the chatflow is connected to help desk, you can only pick Support bot, Knowledge Base plus support bot or Offline bot. You need Chatflow permissions to create and edit any of them.
How to create a rule-based chatbot
- Go to Service > Chatflows (under More if you see it) and click Create chatflow.
- If it's your first chatflow, click Set up chat and choose your accent colour, chat heading, welcome message and team availability.
- Select the inbox or help desk, change the language if you need to, and choose Rule-Based Chatbot.
- Pick a template or Start from scratch.
- On the Build tab, edit the welcome message and add actions with the plus icon: questions, property values, knowledge base articles or meetings.
- Set targeting on the Target tab, display behaviour on the Display tab and extra settings on the Options tab.
- Click Preview to test it, then switch it on to add it to your website pages.
When you add a personalisation token to the welcome message, set a fallback value for contacts who don't have that property. To hand a chat to a person, use Send to team member, which needs Account access permissions, and the person you route to must have an assigned Sales or Service seat. One editing trap: you can't delete an action that's using an if/then branch until you delete the branch first.
Where and when the bot appears
Targeting decides which pages show the bot. You can match by website URL or by query parameter, add exclusion rules for pages like your privacy policy, and target known contacts or unknown visitors by their details. There's no mobile switch: to hide a chatflow on mobile, you add an exclusion rule for mobile devices.
Display triggers decide when it opens. You can trigger on exit intent, when the mouse moves to the top of the browser window, after a set time on the page, or once the visitor has scrolled a set amount. For time on page, HubSpot recommends a delay of 5 seconds or more for a faster page load.
Here's a trick most people miss. Once the bot's set up, add #hs-chat-open to the end of a page URL and the chat widget opens automatically when that page loads. Use those links in emails and landing pages to send people straight into the chat.
Options worth checking before you go live
The Session timeout resets a chat to the start once a visitor stops replying, but if they've reached the last step, the session won't reset. You can show the widget always, or only when someone's available. If you run several chatflows, though, prioritisation doesn't check team availability when it decides which one to show.
Consent to collect chat cookies and Consent to process data are both on by default. For data processing, you choose Require explicit consent, where visitors click I agree first, or Legitimate interest, where consent is implied when they start chatting. HubSpot adds that your legal team is the best source of compliance advice.
Setting up live chat instead
If you'd rather connect visitors straight to a person, create a chatflow and choose Live agent. You can assign chats to users or teams, or route them with an assignment workflow, and only users with an assigned Sales or Service seat can be in routing rules.
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| Live chat setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Distribution | Load Balanced, Round Robin or Random assignment |
| Assign to available users only | On by default; if nobody's available, the chat is unassigned |
| Assign to customer agent if no users are available | Hands the chat to HubSpot's AI customer agent instead |
| Email capture | Asks for an email and creates a new contact if it's not on record |
| Visitor verification | A CAPTCHA that blocks suspicious visitors from starting a chat |
| Max capacity behaviour | Wait message, hidden launcher or nothing; Service Hub Enterprise only |
Two more details. If a visitor minimises a chat, HubSpot respects that across pages and chatflows until a cookie expires after 24 hours, so your widget may not pop open as you expect. And to test a live chatflow without showing it to everyone, target it to a URL with a query parameter such as ?test_chat=true.
When you're ready for more, my HubSpot Meetings breakdown is a sensible follow-up.
My verdict on the HubSpot chatbot
I'd start with the Qualify leads or Meetings bot, keep the script short and put it only on the pages where people make decisions. If you're on Starter or free, write for one path, since you can't branch. If you're weighing HubSpot against other tools, here are chatbot builders compared and some free live chat tools for smaller sites.
A chatbot that asks the right three questions beats one that tries to answer everything. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement, AI automation and GEO, which is about getting your business seen and cited in AI answers. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use if/then branches in a HubSpot chatbot on the free plan?
No. Starter and free users can't add if/then branches to their bot actions. Branching is for Professional and Enterprise users.
Why isn't my HubSpot chatbot showing on my website?
If your site isn't hosted on HubSpot, the HubSpot tracking code must be installed on your pages. The bot won't appear without it.
How do I open the HubSpot chat widget from a link?
Add #hs-chat-open to the end of a page URL. The chat widget opens automatically when that page loads.
Can I hide a HubSpot chatbot on mobile?
Yes. Add an exclusion rule in your targeting settings to hide the chatflow when someone views your page on a mobile device.
Who can receive chats routed from a HubSpot bot?
The user you route to must have an assigned Sales Seat or Service Seat.
