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Can a Chatbot Show Halaxy Availability on Your Website?

October 2026· 7 min read
Website Chatbot
Halaxy
Live Times on Your Site

Key Takeaways

  • Yes. Through the Halaxy API, a chatbot can read each practitioner's real open times and show them on your website, then send the patient to Halaxy to finish the booking.
  • QuackChat's Halaxy connection is read-only. It shows live availability and hands off to your Halaxy booking page; it doesn't write appointments into Halaxy.
  • The Halaxy API is a paid add-on costing 150 Halaxy credits a month, with a 30-day free trial, bought by the practice's account owner. Halaxy's core software, including its embeddable booking widget, is free.
  • "Halaxy Chat" is Halaxy's own messaging feature for practitioners and patients. It isn't a website chatbot.
  • For a psychology or counselling practice, the chatbot's job is logistics: who is available, when, what a session costs, how referrals work. It should never give clinical advice.

Yes, a chatbot can show Halaxy availability on your website. Halaxy's API includes a "find available appointments" operation that returns real open times for each practitioner. A connected assistant answers the patient's questions, shows those times in the chat, and sends the patient to your Halaxy booking page to confirm. Here's how it works, what it costs, and how it compares with Halaxy's own booking widget.

Contents

  1. What can a chatbot do with Halaxy?
  2. Isn't "Halaxy Chat" already a chatbot?
  3. How does the assistant get your availability?
  4. What does the Halaxy API cost?
  5. Why show availability if it can't book?
  6. Is a chatbot appropriate for a psychology practice?
  7. How to set it up
  8. Frequently Asked Questions
  9. References

What can a chatbot do with Halaxy?

Halaxy publishes a developer API, including an operation that "generates a list of available appointments" for a date range and appointment length [1]. With a key from your practice, a chatbot can use it to answer "when can I see someone?" with real times instead of "please call us".

QuackChat's Halaxy connection is read-only:

  • It can show live open times for each practitioner, answer questions from your website (fees, rebates, referrals, telehealth, location), and send the patient to your Halaxy booking page to finish.
  • It can't create, move or cancel appointments in Halaxy. The patient confirms their booking on Halaxy's own page, so your intake forms, payments and confirmations run exactly as they do today.

If you need an assistant that writes bookings straight into your practice software, QuackChat does that for Cliniko, Nookal and Gensolve. See how live booking works inside the chat.

Isn't "Halaxy Chat" already a chatbot?

No, and the names cause confusion. Halaxy Chat is messaging inside Halaxy, which Halaxy describes as a way for practitioners to message each other and their patients [2]. It's useful, but it isn't a chatbot on your public website that answers a stranger's question at 10pm.

Halaxy's online booking is the other thing people mean. Halaxy lets you "embed a branded calendar on your website so bookings are seamless, 24/7", and it's included in the free core product [3]. Its help centre explains how to add it with embed code, a button or a direct link [4].

A website assistant sits alongside both. It handles the conversation before the booking, then points to the calendar you already have.

How does the assistant get your availability?

Through Halaxy's API, with a key your practice creates. Halaxy's find-available-appointments operation needs a start date, an end date and an appointment length [5]. QuackChat asks for each practitioner's openings over the coming week and refreshes them every few minutes, well inside Halaxy's published rate limit.

Two details make the times accurate:

  • The appointment length matches your clinic. QuackChat reads the lengths of your online-bookable appointment types and asks Halaxy for gaps of the shortest one. Asking for 30 minutes when every session is 60 would offer a 9:30 start before a 10:00 booking.
  • Times are shown on your clinic's clock. Halaxy returns times in UTC, so QuackChat converts them to the time zone set for your practice. That's why the connection asks you for a time zone.

One limitation to know: the connection uses one time zone for the whole practice, so a practice with locations in different time zones will see one of them offset. QuackChat's Halaxy connection also works with Halaxy's Australian service only.

What does the Halaxy API cost?

The API is a paid add-on on top of Halaxy's free core. According to Halaxy's help centre, only the account owner can buy it, it costs 150 Halaxy credits a month, and it comes with a 30-day free trial [6]. The owner then creates a key under Settings, Integrations, External, choosing what the key can see [6].

For QuackChat, the key needs permission to retrieve three things: practitioners, appointments (which includes availability) and healthcare services (which carry each appointment type's length). Nothing needs create or update access, because the connection never writes.

Check your Halaxy credit balance after the first month to confirm what the add-on costs you. Live availability from Halaxy needs QuackChat's Pro plan or above, and every paid plan starts with 30 days free on the plan you choose (card required). See pricing.

Why show availability if it can't book?

Because "when?" is usually the last question before someone commits, and at night nobody is there to answer it.

Australian booking data suggests a large share of patients book outside business hours: HotDoc found in 2019 that half of online bookings are made after hours [7], and Healthengine says 43% happen "when your doors are closed" [8]. A patient who asks "can I see someone this week?" and gets "Thursday 4pm or Friday 9am with Sam" is far closer to booking than one told to ring on Monday.

It also helps the practice. The Australian Psychological Society's 2023 member survey found 77% of psychologists said local wait times had risen or stayed the same, and 48% had cut patient hours because of burnout or fatigue [9]. Anything that stops the same availability question arriving as a phone call or an email helps a stretched practice.

Is a chatbot appropriate for a psychology practice?

For logistics, yes. For care, no.

Halaxy is widely used by psychologists; it says more than 14,000 of them use it [10]. Patients contacting a mental health practice are often anxious, and a clear answer about availability, fees, Medicare rebates, referrals or telehealth can make the first step easier.

Set clear limits:

  • No clinical advice. QuackChat is built to answer from your website and to stay out of personal clinical advice, such as diagnosis or treatment recommendations. Its safety wording can't be removed by a custom prompt.
  • Put crisis information on your website. Your site should tell people where to get urgent help. The assistant answers from your content, so what you publish is what it can point to.
  • Tell people it's an AI. The OAIC says public-facing AI tools should be clearly identified as such [11].
  • Collect as little as possible. A read-only connection means the chat doesn't need to take a patient's health details to show availability.

How to set it up

With QuackChat:

  1. Buy the Halaxy API add-on (account owner) and create a key with retrieve access to practitioners, appointments and healthcare services. Copy the client secret straight away, because Halaxy shows it once.
  2. Connect Halaxy in QuackChat. Enter the client ID and secret, and set your practice's time zone.
  3. Add your Halaxy booking link so the assistant can send patients there to confirm.
  4. Ask the assistant for an appointment and check the times against your Halaxy diary.

The full walkthrough is in the Halaxy setup guide. Weighing a phone agent instead? See our comparison of website chat and AI phone receptionists.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I embed Halaxy online booking on my website?

Yes. Halaxy's free core product includes online bookings you can add to your website with embed code, a button or a direct link. A chatbot works alongside it, answering questions first and pointing patients to it.

Does Halaxy have a chatbot?

Halaxy Chat is messaging inside Halaxy between practitioners and patients. It isn't a chatbot on your public website. Website assistants such as QuackChat connect through the Halaxy API.

Can a chatbot book directly into Halaxy?

QuackChat's Halaxy connection is read-only. It shows live availability and sends the patient to your Halaxy booking page to confirm, so Halaxy's own intake, payment and confirmation steps still apply.

Is the Halaxy API free?

No. Halaxy's core software is free, but the API is a paid add-on costing 150 Halaxy credits a month, with a 30-day free trial, bought by the account owner.

Why are the times the chatbot shows different from my diary?

Check the time zone set on the connection first, because Halaxy sends times in UTC. Then check that the appointment types you expect are bookable online, since the assistant uses their lengths to find gaps.

Does it work for practices in the UK or Europe?

Not at the moment. QuackChat's Halaxy connection works with Halaxy's Australian service only.

Will the chatbot give mental health advice?

No. It answers practical questions from your website, such as availability, fees, rebates and referrals, and stays out of clinical advice. Make sure your website says where to get urgent help.

References
  1. Halaxy developers, documentation index. https://developers.halaxy.com/llms.txt (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  2. Halaxy blog, introducing Halaxy Chat. https://blog.halaxy.com/new-feature-introducing-halaxy-chat/ (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  3. Halaxy, online bookings and directory. https://www.halaxy.com/feature/online-bookings-and-directory (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  4. Halaxy Support, integrate online bookings in your website (updated 11 September 2026). https://support.halaxy.com/hc/en-au/articles/6033494318735 (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  5. Halaxy developers, find available appointments recipe. https://developers.halaxy.com/recipes/find-available-appointments (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  6. Halaxy Support, guide to Halaxy API (updated 27 May 2026). https://support.halaxy.com/hc/en-au/articles/13014722009487-Guide-to-Halaxy-API (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  7. HotDoc, online bookings for practices (2019 HotDoc patient survey). https://practices.hotdoc.com.au/bookings/ (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  8. Healthengine, online booking system for practices (undated). https://practices.healthengine.com.au/online-appointment-booking-system-practices/ (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  9. Australian Psychological Society, national survey media release (1 March 2023, 1,190 members). https://psychology.org.au/about-us/news-and-media/media-releases/2023/national-survey-sounds-alarm-for-patients-and-psyc (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  10. Halaxy, practice management for psychologists. https://www.halaxy.com/practice-management/psychologists (retrieved 30 September 2026)
  11. OAIC, guidance on privacy and the use of commercially available AI products. https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-guidance-for-organisations-and-government-agencies/guidance-on-privacy-and-the-use-of-commercially-available-ai-products (retrieved 30 September 2026)

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