---
title: "Widget"
description: "Put an assistant on your website for your visitors, as a chat bubble, a chat inside a page or a hosted page, with the allowed domains and spending limits you choose."
canonical: "https://lookio.app/docs/guides/widget/overview"
updated: "2026-11-08"
---

# Widget

A widget puts one of your [assistants](/docs/guides/assistants) on your website. Visitors ask in their own words, without an account. The assistant answers from your resources and shows its sources.

![The Widgets page with two widgets: Help center bubble, answered by the Support assistant, and Pricing page chat, answered by the Sales assistant](/docs/images/app/widgets-list.webp)

_Widgets: each widget, its assistant, its formats and its status._

## Three formats, one chat

| Format          | What visitors see                                                                        | Good for                                             |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| **Chat bubble** | A button in a corner of every page. It opens the chat in a panel, full screen on phones. | A website, a help center, a docs site.               |
| **In a page**   | The chat inside a page, where you place it.                                              | A help page, a docs sidebar, a product page.         |
| **Hosted page** | A page on Lookio, at a link you share.                                                   | An email, a QR code, a menu link. No website needed. |

The three formats are the same chat, with the same settings. You turn each one on or off. See [Install a widget](/docs/guides/widget/install#choose-the-formats).

## How it works

```mermaid title="A visitor's question, from your page to the answer"
sequenceDiagram
  participant V as Visitor on your site
  participant W as Widget frame (widget.lookio.app)
  participant L as Lookio
  Note over V,W: The browser shows the frame only on your allowed domains
  V->>W: Opens the chat
  W->>L: Start a session
  L-->>W: Short session for this widget only
  V->>W: Asks a question
  W->>L: Question, with the session
  L->>L: Check the visitor's limits and the monthly ceiling
  L-->>W: Answer, streamed, with sources
  W-->>V: Shows the answer
```

1. You [create a widget](/docs/guides/widget/install) in **Widgets**: its name, its assistant and its site.
2. You paste one line of code on your site, or turn on the hosted page and share its link.
3. A visitor asks. The answer appears word by word, with its sources. Each answer costs the price of the widget's [query mode](/docs/get-started/concepts#query-modes), also when no source is found. If the assistant reads no resource, the widget does not show.

You control spending: allowed domains, a limit per visitor per hour and per day, a limit per minute for all visitors, and an optional monthly ceiling of credits. See [Access and limits](/docs/guides/widget/access-and-limits).

## What the widget never does

- It never puts a key in your page. A visitor gets a short session from Lookio, valid for this widget only.
- It never shows on a site you did not allow. Browsers refuse to show it elsewhere.
- It never tells a visitor about your credits or limits. At a limit, it asks the visitor to come back later.
- It never reads your page. It runs in its own frame and does not see your site's content or cookies.
- It never gives your page what a visitor did. The random id of a visitor's past chats stays in the frame's own storage, separate for each site. With **Visitors' chat history** off, each visit starts a new conversation. The visitor limits still apply. Turn history on again and the old chats come back.

## Next

[**Install a widget**](/docs/guides/widget/install)

Create it, allow your domain, paste one line.

[**Customize it**](/docs/guides/widget/appearance)

Colors, launcher, greeting, suggestions and sources.

[**Access and limits**](/docs/guides/widget/access-and-limits)

Allowed domains, visitor limits and the monthly ceiling.

[**Read what visitors asked**](/docs/guides/widget/conversations)

Conversations, thumbs and comments, in Logs.