Introducing OpenChat: The Free & Simple Platform for Building Custom Chatbots in Minutes

OpenChat is an open-source chatbot console that enables users to run and create custom chatbots similar to ChatGPT with ease. It streamlines the process of utilizing Large Language Models (LLMs), making it accessible to everyday users. With the rapid development of AI technology, the installation and usage of these models can be daunting. However, OpenChat simplifies this process by providing a simple two-step setup process for creating a comprehensive chatbot console.

Demo available at OpenChat website

OpenChat serves as a central hub for managing multiple customized chatbots, enabling users to embed and share their bots anywhere they like. Currently, the platform supports GPT models, but the team is actively working on incorporating various open-source LLMs that can be activated with a single click. 

Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or an individual with no coding experience, OpenChat provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to create chatbots that can carry out a wide range of tasks.

Currently, there are two ways you can use OpenChat:

1. By running a local server that is completely free, secure, and provides you with greater control over the chatbot console.
2. The online version of OpenChat provides an interactive user experience to build chatbot apps within minutes.

Features

OpenChat provides a powerful platform for creating unlimited local chatbots based on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. With OpenChat, you can customize your chatbots by providing PDF files, websites, and soon integrations with platforms like Notion, Confluence, and Office 365. One of the standout features of OpenChat is that each chatbot has unlimited memory capacity, enabling seamless interaction with large files such as a 400-page PDF.

OpenChat also allows you to embed chatbots as widgets on your website or internal company tools, making it easy to reach and engage with your audience. Moreover, with the pair programming mode, you can use your entire codebase as a data source for your chatbots, allowing for more personalized and advanced interactions.

Use Cases 

1. Customized customer support: With OpenChat, you can create chatbots that can provide personalized customer support, answering questions and resolving issues in real-time.
2. School work: OpenChat can be used in education settings to help students with their schoolwork. The chatbots can provide guidance on assignments, answer questions, and offer study tips.
3. Company internal knowledge: OpenChat can be used to build chatbots that provide employees with easy access to internal company knowledge, such as policies, procedures, and training materials.
4. Building private chatbots: You can use OpenChat to build private chat bots that you can share with clients, offering a unique and personalized service.
5. Personal library: You can create a personal library of books, texts, and PDFs using OpenChat, enabling you to organize and access your materials more easily.
6. Healthcare: OpenChat can be used in healthcare settings to help patients with trivial issues, such as scheduling appointments or answering common questions. This can free up healthcare professionals to focus on more complex cases.
7. And more…

Image from OpenChat

To create a chatbot using the online version of OpenChat, the process is simple:

1. Create an account using your Google credentials.
2. Select your desired data source, which can include a website link, PDF, codebase, Notion, and more.
3. Add the website URL, and wait for a few seconds while OpenChat scans your website for relevant content.
4. Your chatbot is now ready to use and embed into your website.

It’s important to note that for the online version of OpenChat, the scanning process is limited to the first 15 pages of your website. If you want to scan more pages or have greater control over the scanning process, you can use the self-hosted version of OpenChat.
 

Image from OpenChat – Dashboard

You can install a self-hosted version of OpenChat by following a few steps mentioned in openchatai/OpenChat.

1. First clone the openchatai/OpenChat GitHub repository:

git clone git@github.com:openchatai/OpenChat.git

2. Edit the common.env file with you keys:

OPENAI_API_KEY=
PINECONE_API_KEY=
PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT=
PINECONE_INDEX_NAME=

Note: when using Pinecone as your database, it’s important to ensure that the dimension is set to 1536.

• OpenAI API key: simply log in to your account on openai.com. Once you’re logged in, you can find your API key in your account settings.
• Pinecone API key: navigate to the “API Keys” tab in the Pinecone dashboard. Here, you can generate a new API key or view your existing keys.
• Pinecone environment & index name: find your environment key in the Pinecone dashboard after creating your index. Similarly, your index name can be found in the Pinecone dashboard after creating your index.

3. Change the directory to repository folder and run:

4. After completing the installation process, you can access the OpenChat console by navigating to http://localhost:8000 in your web browser. 

In conclusion, OpenChat is licensed under the MIT License and can be used for any commercial use. It is a powerful platform that simplifies the process of building and managing chatbots. With its user-friendly interface and versatile functionality, OpenChat makes it easy to create customized chatbots that can perform a wide range of tasks. 

Whether you’re looking to improve customer service, streamline business processes, or simply provide a more engaging user experience, OpenChat has everything you need to create effective and efficient chatbots.

In the post, we have learned about OpenChat and how you can use it to create customized chatbots powered by GPT-3.5 or GPT-4. Go ahead, create a free account, build a chatbot, and share it with your friends and colleagues.

 
 
Abid Ali Awan (@1abidaliawan) is a certified data scientist professional who loves building machine learning models. Currently, he is focusing on content creation and writing technical blogs on machine learning and data science technologies. Abid holds a Master’s degree in Technology Management and a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering. His vision is to build an AI product using a graph neural network for students struggling with mental illness.