ChatAside Monetization And Limits

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Overview

ChatAside and ChatAds share infrastructure, but they are different products.

• ChatAside uses cwk_ widget keys
• ChatAside tracks usage in widget_daily_usage
• ChatAside has widget-tier limits
• ChatAds monetization still uses a cak_ key behind the scenes when monetization is enabled

This separation matters because widget traffic does not use standard ChatAds daily billing tables or ChatAds plan limits.

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Widget Rate Limits

ChatAside applies multiple limits at different layers.

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Team Daily Chat Limit

Each team has a daily widget chat cap enforced server-side. When the team hits its daily limit, widget chat requests return a 429 error.

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Per-Visitor Daily Limit

You can also set a per-visitor daily message cap.

• This is enforced by IP address
• It is separate from the team-level daily limit
• When enabled, requests over the limit return WIDGET_LIMIT_EXCEEDED

This is useful for preventing one visitor from consuming your entire daily quota.

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Per-Minute Protection

ChatAside also uses a short-window rate limiter to protect the service from bursts and spam.

• Team-level per-minute limit: 300 requests per minute
• Endpoint-specific IP rate limits are also applied to widget routes

If a burst limit is exceeded, the API returns 429.

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Page Context Limits

When page context is enabled, ChatAside includes content from the current page in the prompt. Page context is capped by widget tier: This keeps requests bounded while still letting the model answer questions about the current article.

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Daily Ad Cap

If monetization is enabled, you can also apply a daily ad cap. This limits how often monetized responses are shown in a day. The widget uses the has_affiliate_links flag in chat responses to track when an answer included affiliate links.

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Monetization Flow

When ChatAside monetization is on, the widget tries to add affiliate links without changing your embed snippet. The flow is:

1. Visitor sends a message through the widget using a cwk_ key
2. ChatAside generates an on-topic answer
3. If monetization is enabled, ChatAside first checks whether the current page already contains relevant affiliate links
4. If not, ChatAside makes an internal request to /v1/chatads/messages
5. That internal call uses a team cak_ key for standard ChatAds monetization
6. The final response comes back to the widget with inline affiliate markdown already assembled

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cwk_ vs cak_

These two key types have different jobs: The widget itself should only be embedded with a cwk_ key.

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Affiliate Click and Usage Tracking

ChatAside tracks widget activity separately from ChatAds API usage. Daily widget tracking includes:

• Message count
• Page load count
• Click count on affiliate links

This data is stored per team per day and powers ChatAside usage charts in the dashboard.

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Monetization Requirements

To monetize ChatAside responses, your team needs:

• ChatAside enabled
• Widget monetization turned on
• A usable ChatAds API key (cak_) available for internal monetization calls
• Affiliate configuration such as an Amazon tag for supported flows

If no monetization key or affiliate setup is available, the widget still responds to users, but affiliate links may be skipped.

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What Users See at the Limit

When limits are reached, the widget degrades in visible ways:

• Team daily limit reached: chat requests are blocked for the day
• Per-visitor limit reached: that visitor can no longer keep chatting that day
• Some limit states hide or disable the widget input until the next reload or day boundary

In the client, daily limit errors are surfaced as a friendly message instead of a raw API response.

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Best Practices