Pico chat
A cooking assistant that knows your site - and can actually do things
Pico is the AI assistant inside the Allspice widget. Readers can ask it anything about cooking - substitutions, conversions, technique, “what should I make?” - and it answers in the context of your recipes and your site's voice. It doesn't just talk: it can move recipe steps, set timers, adjust servings, and help manage grocery lists and pantries.
On this page
What readers experience
An “Ask me anything…” field is never far away - in the widget's Chat tab, in the Rail's “Ask Me Anything” state mid-article, in the Overview block's ask bar, and floating alongside Cook Mode. Readers ask naturally:
- “Can I use honey instead of maple syrup here?”
- “How do I know when the chicken is done?”
- “Make this dairy-free”
- “What can I cook with what's in my pantry?”
- “Convert this to grams”
Pico answers in context - aware of the recipe on the page, the reader's saved recipes, lists, and pantry where available.
What Pico can do
Pico helps with:
- General cooking questions - technique, timing, doneness, equipment
- Recipe interactions - substitutions, scaling, conversions, clarifying a step, adapting for diets
- Grocery lists - adding, removing, and organizing items; adjusting for servings
- Pantry - ideas based on what the reader has, what's missing, or what to use soon
- Meal planning - planning help across the week
- Recipe management - working with saved recipes
- Cooking - move to steps, manage timers, adjust servings, and enter or exit Cook Mode
An assistant that takes action
Ask-and-it-happens is what makes the assistant feel like part of the kitchen rather than a chatbot bolted onto a page.
Recipe- and site-aware answers
Pico's answers are grounded in the recipe the reader is viewing and - uniquely - in context you provide. In the portal, you can give Pico site-specific or recipe-specific guidance that shapes every response on your domain.
This is how a gluten-free baking site's assistant knows never to suggest wheat flour swaps, or a Southern cooking site's assistant answers with the right point of view. It's the best way to make Pico feel like it “knows” your audience without you managing responses by hand.
You also choose the assistant's display name - Pico can be introduced under a name that fits your brand.
Conversations & history
Chat supports multiple conversations with history, so a reader can keep a “Thanksgiving planning” thread separate from tonight's dinner questions, revisit past answers, and delete conversations they no longer need.
Free usage and Premium
Almost the entire widget is free for readers; open-ended AI chat is the one feature with a monthly free-tier limit - currently 25 chat messages per month for free users. AI recipe search is separate and remains part of the free experience even after the chat limit is reached, as do guided cooking, saving, grocery lists, and search.
When free readers hit the limit, they're offered Allspice Premium for unlimited chat (plus other perks). This structure exists so that AI costs never land on publishers - you don't pay for your readers' chat usage, and heavy AI use funds itself through Premium. See Reader access for the full rationale.
Readers who subscribe to Premium after discovering Allspice on your site generate attributed subscription revenue share for you (see Revenue sharing).
Why it matters for your site
- Questions stay on your page. The reader who would have opened ChatGPT or Google mid-recipe asks right there - and gets an answer consistent with your recipe and your guidance.
- Your voice, scaled. Domain context means the assistant answers the way you would, on every recipe, at 2am.
- Fewer failed cooks, more trust. In-context substitution and technique help means readers succeed with your recipes more often.
What you can configure
- Assistant name - set the chatbot display name per domain (Theme & Visual settings).
- Domain context - the site-specific guidance described above, configured in Domain Settings.
- Entry points - where the ask experience appears: Rail “Ask Me Anything” state, Overview block ask bar, floating button, or custom triggers, all brand-colorable.
A short, specific domain-context write-up (“our audience is busy parents; we favor budget swaps; never suggest alcohol-based substitutions”) noticeably improves answer fit. Update it as your editorial approach evolves.
FAQ
Do publishers pay for readers' AI usage?
No. Free chat is capped, and unlimited chat is a Premium feature - publisher costs stay predictable regardless of how chatty readers are.
Is AI search the same as chat?
No. AI search (finding recipes) is free and unlimited; open-ended conversational chat is what the 25-message monthly free tier covers.
Can Pico answer questions unrelated to cooking?
Pico is a cooking assistant, scoped to recipes, cooking, and the widget's features. It cannot answer questions unrelated to cooking.
Can Pico make mistakes?
Like any AI assistant, yes - readers are reminded to double-check important cooking, allergy, and safety information.