# Beaver Builder AI bills your API key. Your assistant already has a plan. Beaver Builder AI reached 1.0 in September 2026, and it's included in the Plus plan ($179 a year) and up. You bring your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter, and every chat request bills that provider account by usage. If you already pay a flat monthly price for Claude or ChatGPT, there's another route: your assistant talks to the site through Kitepod, and the thinking runs on the subscription you've got. Kitepod itself is free. ## What Beaver Builder AI does well Beaver's docs describe it as "an AI-powered design plugin for WordPress that generates fully editable layouts in both Beaver Builder and the WordPress block editor." There's a chat in both editors that builds pages, sections and forms. Design systems and tokens keep new pages consistent with old ones, and since 1.0 you can hand the chat an image as a visual reference. It has an MCP side too. Beaver's August 2026 post on chat vs MCP vs design kits says agents like Claude Desktop, Cursor and Codex can connect through Beaver Builder AI, which handles the authorization. The manual route needs WordPress 6.9+, the MCP Adapter plugin, a local Node.js bridge and Application Passwords. If you like watching the canvas change as you type, Beaver's chat is the better tool. It knows Beaver's design system from the inside, where an outside assistant learns it by reading your pages. ## Global rows, new pages and Themer parts ```prompt Our "Free 30-minute consultation" row is a global saved row. Change it to "Free 45-minute consultation" and tell me how many pages use it. ``` Beaver's docs say edits to a global item are "automatically applied everywhere it's used," which could be every service page on the site. Your assistant says so first, then edits the saved row through Beaver's own layout model, which also rebuilds Beaver's CSS and JS cache. Ask it to check two of those pages after publishing. ```prompt Make a draft "Payroll services" page laid out like the "Tax returns" page, using the copy I'm pasting below. ``` It reads the Tax returns layout for module types, settings keys and spacing, then writes a new layout with fresh node ids and columns whose widths add up to 100. A module slug that isn't registered on your site is refused rather than guessed. The page stays a draft until you publish it. ```prompt The Themer part that shows the "Self-assessment deadline" banner on blog posts only: change the date to 31 January and the button to "Book a tax review". ``` Beaver Themer parts have location rules, and this one is limited to blog posts. Your assistant reads those rules first so it knows what it's touching, changes the two modules and leaves the rules alone. Kitepod counts every Themer layout as a change that can fan out across pages, so the default policy holds it for a human to approve. Once it's out, Kitepod opens a blog post without logging in and grabs a screenshot for comparison with the earlier one. ## Why it writes through Beaver A Beaver layout is a serialized map of rows, column groups, columns and modules, stored as PHP objects. **Write it as plain arrays and Beaver's clean-up discards them, and the page renders empty.** That's why Kitepod never touches the stored data directly. It writes through Beaver's model, so the page is stored the same way as one you saved by hand, and the previous version is kept so you can roll back for 90 days. | | Beaver Builder AI | Kitepod | | --- | --- | --- | | Cost as of October 2026 | Included in Plus ($179/yr), Professional ($299/yr), Unlimited ($546/yr); not Starter ($89/yr) | Free | | AI model | Your API key, billed per use by your provider | The Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already have | | Works in | Beaver Builder and the block editor | Any MCP app, and it reaches the whole WordPress install | | Other plugins, SEO, WooCommerce | Not its job | Yes | | Rollback | Not published | Per edit or per task, 90 days | ## Things to watch - Custom code fields (a module's CSS or JS, layout JS) are dropped for users who aren't allowed to save code. Connect as a user who is, if you need them. - Removing a node removes everything inside it. Ask what goes before you delete a whole row. - A Themer header with a whole-site rule replaces the theme header on every page. Your assistant confirms the location before saving. - If a page cache keeps serving the old HTML, Kitepod can flush it. ## Installing Kitepod alongside Beaver First, the plugin: upload kitepod.zip in wp-admin (WordPress 6.4 or higher, PHP 7.4 or higher). Second, **Connect**, where you name the WordPress user whose permissions the AI inherits. Third, give your assistant the URL `https://kitepod.com/mcp` and log in when it asks. [WordPress MCP](/wordpress-mcp) has the app-by-app version. Beaver Builder AI can stay installed or not. Kitepod doesn't care either way. ## Finer points ### Is Beaver Builder AI free? It's included in the Plus, Professional and Unlimited plans as of October 2026, not Starter. You also pay your AI provider for API usage, since you bring your own key. ### Does Beaver Builder have an MCP server? Beaver Builder AI offers an MCP connection for agents like Claude Desktop, Cursor and Codex. The manual setup needs WordPress 6.9+ and the MCP Adapter plugin. Kitepod is a separate remote MCP server with an OAuth sign-in. ### Can Kitepod edit Beaver Themer headers and footers? Yes. They're Themer layouts, and your assistant edits them like a page, reading the location rules first. ### Can I keep editing Kitepod's changes in Beaver? Yes. The layout is saved through Beaver's own model, the same way as a layout you saved by hand. If you'd rather drive it from Claude, see [Claude and WordPress](/claude-wordpress). ### Does it help with client sites on a care plan? That's where one conversation across every site pays off, and clients can be invited to approve their own changes. [WordPress care plans](/wordpress-care-plan) covers it. A global row is one edit that lands on every page using it, which is exactly why it's the edit you most want to be able to undo.