Gradespace Assistant: the manual

October 2026. Covers Gradespace Assistant 0.3.0.

Gradespace Assistant puts a small, round chat button at the bottom right of your website. A visitor taps it, asks a question ("How much is a cut and blow-dry?", "Are you open on Saturday?", "Is there parking?") and gets a short, friendly answer in a few seconds, with a link to the page it came from and buttons to book online, message you on WhatsApp or contact you.

It answers from what you've already told your website, and from notes you write for it. It doesn't search the internet and it doesn't make things up.

You need:

• Gradespace Core 0.9.1 or later (free), with any Gradespace kit or none.
• An account with Anthropic or OpenAI in your business's own name, with a payment card. They make the AI the assistant uses (Anthropic's is called Claude, OpenAI's is behind ChatGPT), and the one you choose bills you directly for what the assistant uses. A typical answer costs well under a penny.

Until you switch it on, visitors don't see anything. You can try it first.

What it does

• Answers questions about your business from your published pages and posts, your business details (name, address, phone, email, opening hours) and your own notes and questions and answers.
• Hands over when it can't help. Under its answers, and whenever it doesn't know, it shows your booking, WhatsApp and contact buttons.
• Stays careful. It never invents prices, times or policies, gives no medical, legal or financial advice, and doesn't ask for personal details.
• Your choice of AI. Anthropic or OpenAI, starting with the cheapest model, which you can change at any time.
• Keeps to your budget. A monthly spending cap (as low as £1) and a limit on messages per visitor per day.
• Looks like your website. A round button with a sparkle in your brand colour, your logo and name at the top, your design's colours and fonts. It works with a keyboard and screen readers, and fills the screen on phones.
• Photos, if you want them (off to start with): visitors can add up to two photos to a question. They're never kept, and the assistant never diagnoses from them.
• Keeps nothing by default. The chat stays in the visitor's browser tab and is gone when they close it. No cookies.

It never appears in your dashboard, on account, basket and checkout pages, or in the staff and student portals.

Prices

Gradespace Assistant is its own product with its own licence: Starter £59 for one website, or Agency £159 for up to five, one-time. A licence brings updates; everything works while you try it without one. Add the key under Site Settings → Licence, on the Gradespace Assistant card (without one it says Not activated).

The AI itself is paid to Anthropic or OpenAI, from your own account. See Setting it up for the costs and the cap.

Chapters

1. Setting it up
2. What it knows, and teaching it
3. Trying it
4. What it won't do
5. Privacy