Questions, answered plainly

ChatOrder turns WhatsApp into a direct sales channel for your restaurant. Customers order by message; AI works from your menu and dashboard workspace, takes payment, and the money goes into your own bank. QR codes on windows, tables and bags open the same channel. No app for customers, no commission.

You sign up, add your menu in the workspace and connect WhatsApp. Customers scan a QR or message your number. The AI shows the menu, takes choices, sends a payment link and confirms. The order appears on your kitchen screen. Status updates go back on WhatsApp.

About 30 minutes of your time: create the account, connect WhatsApp, add your menu, connect card payments, set your hours and print your QR code. WhatsApp then approves your number, usually within a few days. The setup guide walks through each step.

No. They use WhatsApp, which most of the UK already has on their phone. They scan your code and start typing, the same as messaging a friend.

Between 30p and 99p per completed order, depending on the order value, and never more than 99p. No monthly fee, no percentage, no contract. If you take no orders you pay nothing. Your first 10 orders are free.

Delivery apps take 15% to 35% of every order. On a £25 order that is up to £8.75. ChatOrder charges 40p on the same order. The savings calculator on the home page works it out for your own numbers.

No. Most restaurants keep the apps for the new customers they bring in and move their regulars to WhatsApp, where every repeat order is commission-free. A QR code on the bag or the receipt is usually all it takes to bring the next order in direct.

The AI sends a secure payment link in the chat. Customers pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or choose cash on collection or delivery if you allow it. Card money goes to your own bank account through Stripe.

Straight into your own bank account. Stripe usually pays out within 2 business days. ChatOrder never holds your money, and refunds come from your own Stripe account too.

Yes. Your first 10 orders are free and there is no card to enter. Set up, take real orders, and decide before you pay anything.

You need an official WhatsApp business number, which is different from the free WhatsApp Business app on a phone. We set it up with you from the dashboard, and Meta usually approves it within a few days. Your existing number can move across.

It can only act through tools. Adding to the cart, checking an address, placing, changing or cancelling an order, and handing over to a human are all actions the system performs and records; the AI cannot just say they happened. The cart summary and the receipt are printed by the system, not written by the AI, and every reply is checked against the real cart before it is sent. A reply that quotes a wrong total, claims an order is placed when it is not, or promises a callback nobody has been told about is blocked.

No. It is told to offer only items on your menu, and if a customer asks for something it cannot find it searches the menu before saying no. Prices come from your menu, and a reply whose total does not match the real cart is blocked before it reaches the customer.

If complaint handling is switched on for your restaurant, the AI hands the chat to you the moment a customer mentions illness or an allergic reaction, asks for money back, asks for a manager or a real person, is abusive, or is still unhappy after two replies. You get a WhatsApp message with the customer, the reason and the AI's note, the AI stops replying to that chat, and you take over in Live Chat. It is not allowed to promise a refund, a credit or free food on your behalf.

Yes. From the dashboard you edit the main instructions, the welcome message and the closed and confirmation messages, add knowledge entries it should use (allergens, policies, offers, common questions), and switch capabilities such as table booking and complaint handling on or off with your own instructions for each.

ChatOrder runs on OpenAI's GPT-4o models. The model is set at the platform level, so there is nothing to configure or pay OpenAI for; it is included in the per-order price.

It replies in the language the customer writes in. Menu item names stay as you wrote them.

Yes. Print a QR code for each table from the dashboard. Customers scan at the table, order on WhatsApp, and the order reaches you with the table number on it.

Yes, if you switch it on. The AI takes the date, time, party size and any requests, confirms the booking, and sends the customer a reminder about two hours before.

Yes. Invite your team with one of three roles: Owner (everything), Admin (menu, orders and customers) or Staff (orders only).

Yes. Each location is set up as its own restaurant with its own menu, QR codes, hours and WhatsApp number, and you switch between them from one login. Each one is priced the same way, per order.

Everything travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Passwords are stored hashed, never in plain text. Card details never touch our servers: Stripe handles them and is certified to the highest card-industry standard (PCI DSS Level 1). Each restaurant's data is kept separate from every other restaurant's.

Yes. We follow UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Customers can ask for their data to be deleted at any time, and there is a data deletion page for exactly that. The privacy policy has the detail.

No. Your customers are yours. Their names, numbers and order history sit in your own customer list, which is the opposite of how the delivery apps work.

Yes. Ask us and we send you a full export of your orders, customers and menu, whether you are staying or leaving.