---
doc_version: "1.0.0"
last_updated: "2026-07-14T15:00:57.718Z"
title: "Quick Start: Your First Bot in 5 Minutes"
description: "Get your first AI chatbot live in 5 minutes. Sign up, add a website, create a bot, test it, and embed it on your site, step by step."
keywords: [quick start, getting started, first bot, setup, ChatbotIQ tutorial]
---

This guide gets you from zero to a working chatbot as fast as possible. By the end, you'll have an AI bot trained on your website content, ready to answer questions.

**What you'll need:** A website with content you want your bot to learn from. That's it.

---

## Step 1: Sign up

Go to [ChatbotIQ](https://app.chatbotiq.eu) and sign in with **Continue with Google** or **Continue with email** (you'll get a one-time passcode, no password needed).

When prompted, create a **workspace**. This is your home base where all your bots, sources, and team members live.

## Step 2: Add a knowledge source

1. Click **Knowledge Base** in the sidebar.
2. Click **"Add Source"**.
3. Choose **Website** and enter the URL of the site you want your bot to learn from.
4. Click **Start Discovery**. ChatbotIQ finds all the pages on that site automatically. Review the list, then click **Start Crawling**.
5. Wait for the status to change to **Ready**. For a small site (under 100 pages), this usually takes a minute or two.

> **Tip:** Start with a smaller site for your first test. You can always add more sources later.

## Step 3: Create a bot

1. Click **Bots** in the sidebar.
2. Click **"Create Bot"**.
3. Give it a name - something like "Support Bot" or "Docs Assistant".
4. Select your knowledge source.
5. Pick an AI model. **GPT-5 Mini** is a great default - fast, accurate, and cost-effective.
6. The wizard will suggest a personality based on your content. You can tweak it or accept the suggestion.
7. Click **Create**.

## Step 4: Test in the Playground

1. Click **"Design & Deploy"** on your new bot.
2. You'll see a live preview of your chat widget. Try asking a question about your website's content.
3. Check that the bot answers correctly and includes source citations.
4. Open the **Debug panel** at the bottom to see retrieval scores and which content chunks were used.

> **Looking good?** If the answers are off, try lowering the **RAG Score Threshold** in bot settings, or check if your source finished indexing.

## Step 5: Embed on your website

1. Switch to the **Deploy** tab in the Playground.
2. Set your bot to **Public** mode (this is required for it to work on external websites). You'll find the privacy setting in **Bot Settings** (the gear icon in the header).
3. Copy the embed snippet.
4. Paste it before the `</body>` tag in your website's HTML.

**That's it, your AI chatbot is live!**

Visit your website, and you'll see the chat launcher in the bottom-right corner. Click it and start chatting.

---

## What's next?

Now that your bot is running, here are some things you might want to do:

- **[Customize the widget](/how-to/customize-widget-appearance/)** - match it to your brand with custom colors, fonts, and a logo
- **[Configure crawling](/how-to/configure-crawling-for-your-site/)** - optimize content extraction for your specific site type
- **[Improve your bot's answers](/how-to/optimize-bot-answers/)** - tune the prompt, adjust thresholds, and review the debug panel
- **[Find knowledge gaps](/how-to/find-knowledge-gaps/)** - discover what your visitors are asking that your bot can't answer yet
- **[Invite your team](/how-to/manage-your-team/)** - add colleagues to help manage bots and content

## Sitemap

Full documentation index: [sitemap.md](/sitemap.md) and [llms.txt](/llms.txt).