General FAQ

About Sam

What is Sam?

Sam is a multilingual AI chatbot widget you embed on your website. Visitors chat with Sam; Sam answers using your knowledge base, captures leads, and (on Pro) hands off to a human agent when needed. Sam is built by Alpha AI AS in Norway.

What languages does Sam speak?

Currently English and Norwegian. The dashboard interface and the widget itself can each be set independently. Set the dashboard language in Settings → Profile and the widget language in Widget Personality.

Does Sam learn from visitor conversations?

Sam doesn’t train on your conversations — your data is never used to retrain models or shared with other Sam customers. Sam answers using two inputs only: your knowledge base files and the system prompt for that widget.

Where is my data stored?

On AWS in Europe (eu-north-1, Stockholm). Knowledge files live in S3, conversations in PostgreSQL. We use AWS SES for email delivery and OpenAI for the underlying language models. Each tenant has its own private OpenAI vector store.

Plans and billing

Can I try Sam before paying?

Yes — every new account starts with a free 7-day Trial that includes most features. You don’t need a credit card to start the trial. See the Billing guide for what’s included.

What happens when my trial expires?

Your widgets stop replying and your dashboard becomes read-only. Pick a paid plan to reactivate. Your data is preserved — nothing is deleted just because the trial ended.

Can I switch plans mid-cycle?

Yes. Upgrades are immediate and prorated. Downgrades schedule for the end of your current billing cycle.

What happens if I exceed my conversation limit?

Existing conversations finish normally. New visitor sessions may be rejected with a polite “we’re at capacity” message until your next billing cycle, or you can upgrade to bump the cap.

Do you support invoicing for Norwegian businesses?

Yes — Stripe handles VAT for Norwegian customers automatically. Invoices are downloadable from the Stripe Customer Portal (linked from the Billing page).

Can I cancel any time?

Yes. Cancel from the Stripe Customer Portal (Billing → Manage in Stripe). Your account stays active until the end of the current cycle.

Languages and translation

Can Sam reply in a language other than what I chose?

No — each widget is locked to one language (English or Norwegian) in the current release. For multi-language sites, run a separate widget per language.

Will more languages be added?

Yes — additional languages are on the roadmap. Norwegian and English are the first two because they cover our launch market.

Privacy and compliance

Are conversations encrypted?

Yes — in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256 in Postgres and S3). Sensitive fields like API keys are additionally encrypted in the database with our application encryption key.

Can I delete a visitor’s data?

Yes. Find their conversations in the inbox, open the detail view, and use Delete conversation. For full-tenant data deletion, contact support@viasam.app.

Yes. We’re an EU-based controller with EU data residency, a published Privacy Policy at viasam.app/privacy, a Cookie Policy at viasam.app/cookies, and a Data Processing Agreement available on request.

Status and support

Is there a status page?

Yes — status.viasam.app shows live service health and 90 days of uptime history. It’s public, no login needed.

How do I get support?

Starter — email support@viasam.app, replies in 1–2 business days.
Trial / Growth / Pro — priority email, replies within 4 business hours during EU office hours.
Billing issues — billing@viasam.app.

Do you have an API?

Yes, on the Pro plan. See Integrations for an overview. Full API docs are coming — for now, contact us for early access.