By platform

Live chat for Webflow

One script tag, then every message arrives in your Telegram. Including the three ways this specifically goes wrong on Webflow, which is the part the install docs leave out.

Last checked 1 September 2026

Live chat by platform/Webflow

The short answer

How do you add live chat to Webflow?

Project Settings, Custom Code, Footer Code.

With TGLiveChat that is one tag and about five minutes. The widget is roughly 39KB across 3 requests, replies arrive in Telegram rather than in another dashboard, and your visitors need no Telegram account of their own. One platform limit to know about first: custom code needs a paid Site plan. It cannot be published on the free webflow.io staging domain.

What Webflow is, briefly

A visual site builder that produces clean static output, used heavily by designers and agencies for marketing sites.

Check this before you start

Custom code needs a paid Site plan. It cannot be published on the free webflow.io staging domain.

The install, step by step

  1. 1Open Project Settings, then Custom Code.
  2. 2Paste the script into Footer Code, which Webflow injects before the closing body tag.
  3. 3Save changes, then publish. Custom code only exists on the published site.
  4. 4Open the published domain, not the Designer preview, and send a test message.

The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the install guide.

The three ways this goes wrong on Webflow

Every one of these is a real failure that looks like a broken widget and is not. They are the reason this page exists rather than just a link to the docs.

Custom code does not run in the Designer or in preview

This is the single most common Webflow support question in any category. The widget is not broken and you have not pasted it wrong. Webflow strips custom code from the Designer canvas and from preview mode on purpose. Publish and open the real URL.

The free plan cannot publish custom code at all

A Site plan is required. On the free webflow.io domain the Footer Code field will accept your script, save it, and never publish it, which looks exactly like a broken install.

Page level code runs after site level code

If you add the widget to both Project Settings and an individual page, you get two widgets on that page. Pick one place. Site wide is almost always the right one.

What Webflow gives you instead

Webflow has no native chat, so every option here is third party. Webflow Logic and forms cover contact capture, which is a different job to a live conversation.

What a chat widget costs a Webflow page

People choose Webflow partly because the output is clean and fast, and then undo most of that with third party embeds. If you picked this platform for performance, the chat widget is the place that decision gets tested.

Measured widget weights, heaviest first
WidgetTransfer sizeVersus ours
Tawk.to749KB19x heavier
Zendesk Chat533KB14x heavier
Drift464KB12x heavier
LiveChat385KB10x heavier
Intercom301KB8x heavier
Crisp155KB4x heavier
LiveAgent79KB2x heavier
TGLiveChat~39KBBaseline

Competitor figures are DebugBear's measurements, published 14 July 2019 and updated 10 November 2025. Ours is measured by gzipping the files we serve, and the command is on our methodology page.

Why the replies land in Telegram

The reason most small sites end up with a dead chat widget is not the widget. It is that answering means opening a dashboard that nobody keeps open, so messages sit unread for six hours and visitors stop bothering. Telegram is already open on your phone, so a message from your website arrives the same way a message from a friend does.

Your visitors see none of that. They get a normal chat window on your Webflow site, they need no account, and they never learn which app you answered from. The AI agent handles the questions that have obvious answers while you are asleep, and hands anything else to you.

The bottom line

Adding chat to Webflow is one tag in the right place. Getting it to keep working is about the platform specific traps above, and about whether you will actually answer the messages once they arrive.

The free plan covers 100 conversations a month and does not ask for a card, which is a faster way to find out than reading any more of this.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add live chat to a Webflow site?
Project Settings, Custom Code, Footer Code. With TGLiveChat that is one script tag: connect Telegram, pick a theme, paste the tag, and messages start arriving on your phone. One thing to check first: custom code needs a paid Site plan. It cannot be published on the free webflow.io staging domain.
Is there a free live chat for Webflow?
Yes. Our free plan covers 100 conversations a month with our badge on the widget and no card required. Tawk.to is the other genuinely free option in this category, unlimited but with a heavier widget. Most other free tiers in this market are trials with a countdown on them.
Will a chat widget slow down my Webflow site?
People choose Webflow partly because the output is clean and fast, and then undo most of that with third party embeds. If you picked this platform for performance, the chat widget is the place that decision gets tested. Ours is about 39KB across 3 requests. The heaviest widget DebugBear measured, Tawk.to, is 749KB. Both are third party scripts, so the honest answer is that any widget costs something and the size of the something varies by a factor of nearly thirty.
Do my visitors need Telegram?
No. They type into a normal chat window on your Webflow site and never see Telegram at all. Telegram is where you read and answer from, on the phone already in your pocket. The confusion comes from widgets that are really deep link buttons to t.me, which is a different thing entirely.
Why does the widget not show up on my Webflow site?
Custom code does not run in the Designer or in preview. This is the single most common Webflow support question in any category. The widget is not broken and you have not pasted it wrong. Webflow strips custom code from the Designer canvas and from preview mode on purpose. Publish and open the real URL.
What is the native Webflow option?
Webflow has no native chat, so every option here is third party. Webflow Logic and forms cover contact capture, which is a different job to a live conversation.
Can I remove the branding?
Yes, on any paid plan. Pro is $19 a month and includes white label and the AI agent, with no per seat charge. There is also a one time Founder licence at $299. Several competitors bill branding removal as a separate line, which is the item people forget when they compare entry prices.
How long does the install actually take?
A few minutes if nothing surprises you. Connect Telegram, pick one of 33 themes, paste the tag where this page says to paste it, then send yourself a test message from a phone on mobile data rather than from the desk you built it on.

Sources and references

Related guides

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