Best AI Chatbot for Shopify in 2026: 10 Apps Compared by Price and Features

TL;DR: The best AI chatbot for a Shopify store in 2026 is the one that answers from your own catalog, looks up real orders and gets the shopper to checkout, at a price that does not grow with every message. For most stores that is Chatonbo (flat $19 a month). Shopify Inbox is the best free pick if you mostly want live chat. Gorgias and Intercom win for large support teams that live in a shared inbox. The ten apps below are ranked by what they do on a store, with prices as of September 2026.

Disclosure: we make Chatonbo. The ranking still puts other tools first for the cases where they are better, because a wrong recommendation costs you more than it costs us.

The ten at a glance

1. Chatonbo

Chatonbo is an AI assistant built for stores rather than a helpdesk with AI bolted on. It installs from the Shopify App Store, reads your products, policies and pages, and answers shoppers in 50+ languages. When a shopper asks for a product it shows cards with photo, price and a live Add to cart button; "where is my order?" gets the status, carrier and tracking link from Shopify; discount codes are validated before they are offered; and when a shopper wants a follow-up it captures the lead with a summary and hands off to your team.

Pricing is flat: free up to 100 conversations a month, Pro $19 a month for 5,000, Business $59 a month for 10,000 with unlimited team members. No per-resolution or per-seat fees, and nothing is charged for an assistant that is not live on your store. Install is one click plus the App embeds switch, about two minutes, and the team installs it for you free if you ask.

Where it is not the right pick: if your team works tickets all day in a shared inbox with SLAs and macros, a helpdesk like Gorgias does that better.

2. Shopify Inbox

Shopify's own chat is free and already in your admin. It gives you live chat with your customers, order lookups, and AI-suggested replies that you approve. For a store with one person answering chats on their phone it is a fine start, and the price cannot be beaten.

Limits: the AI does not answer on its own from your catalog the way a trained assistant does, there are no automatic product cards with Add to cart, and it only works on Shopify, so if you also run a site elsewhere you need a second tool. See our [Shopify Inbox comparison](/compare/shopify-inbox).

3. Tidio (Lyro AI)

Tidio is the most installed live-chat app on Shopify, and Lyro is its AI layer that answers from your content. If your team already uses Tidio for live chat, adding Lyro keeps everything in one inbox.

Pricing starts with a free plan (50 conversations), then Starter $29 a month and Growth $59 a month, with the AI priced as an add-on on top. Order tracking and product actions depend on integrations rather than being native, and costs climb with volume. Our full [Tidio comparison](/compare/tidio) covers the details.

4. Gorgias (AI Agent)

Gorgias is the helpdesk half of the top Shopify stores use, and its AI Agent can act inside tickets: edit orders, manage subscriptions, recommend products. If you have agents, SLAs and multiple channels (email, chat, social, SMS), Gorgias is the serious choice.

Pricing is tiered by ticket volume with AI automations billed separately per resolution, which gets expensive for a store whose chats are mostly pre-sales questions. For a two-person store it is more helpdesk than you need. See [Chatonbo vs Gorgias](/compare/gorgias).

5. Zipchat

Zipchat is a sales-first AI chat for Shopify with strong product recommendations and proactive messages. It does the agentic basics well: catalog answers, order tracking, product cards.

The catch is the pricing model: AI reply packs, Starter $49 a month for 500 replies, Growth $129 for 1,500, Pro $249 for 3,000, with top-ups when you run out. A busy month costs more than a quiet one, which is backwards for a tool meant to grow sales. See [Chatonbo vs Zipchat](/compare/zipchat).

6. Rep AI

Rep AI focuses on conversion: it watches shopper behaviour and steps in with recommendations. Good catalog awareness, good product cards.

Pricing is by store traffic: Starter $104 a month for 10,000 visitors, Basic $209 for 25,000, Standard $368 for 50,000, plus $12 per extra 1,000 visitors. You pay for everyone who visits, not for the ones who chat, so stores with high traffic and modest chat volume overpay. See [Chatonbo vs Rep AI](/compare/rep-ai).

7. Chatbase

Chatbase is a general-purpose AI agent builder: upload your content, get a chatbot, add custom actions. It is flexible and well made, but it is not store-aware out of the box. Order lookup and Add to cart require you to build actions against the Shopify API yourself.

Pricing is credit-based: Hobby $40 a month for 700 message credits, Standard $150 for 4,000. If you want a chatbot for a store without building integrations, a Shopify-native tool is less work. See [Chatonbo vs Chatbase](/compare/chatbase).

8. Intercom (Fin)

Intercom's Fin is a strong support AI backed by a mature helpdesk, and it resolves a high share of support questions in large organisations. For a Shopify store the economics are the problem: seats from $29 a month each (Essential, billed annually), Fin at $0.99 per resolution, and order data through integrations rather than natively. Right for an enterprise support org, heavy for a store. See [Chatonbo vs Intercom](/compare/intercom).

9. ManyChat

ManyChat is built for Instagram DMs, Messenger and WhatsApp flows, not for a website chat that answers from a catalog. If your sales happen in DMs it is excellent. On the storefront it is a flow builder: you script the branches, it follows them. Essential $14 a month, Pro $29 (billed annually), scaling with active contacts. See [Chatonbo vs ManyChat](/compare/manychat).

10. Zendesk

Zendesk is the classic enterprise helpdesk with AI agents available as add-ons. It handles every channel and every workflow a large team can invent, priced per agent with AI billed separately. For a Shopify store without a support department it is the most tool for the least need. See our [Zendesk alternative page](/zendesk-alternative).

How to choose in three questions

1. Who answers chats today? Nobody, or you on your phone: pick an AI that answers on its own from the catalog (Chatonbo, Zipchat, Rep AI). A team in an inbox: pick a helpdesk (Gorgias, Intercom, Zendesk).
2. How do you want to pay? Flat (Chatonbo, Tidio base plans), per reply or credit (Zipchat, Chatbase), per visitor (Rep AI), per resolution and seat (Intercom, Gorgias). Work out a busy month before you sign.
3. What should the bot do, not just say? If "where is my order" and "add it to my cart" matter, check the two columns in the table above and test them on a real product before paying.

How we ranked them

We installed or tested each app on a Shopify store in September 2026, checked the pricing pages on the same day, and ranked by: answers from the store's own data, order tracking, product cards with Add to cart, install effort, and what a store with 2,000 to 20,000 monthly visitors would actually pay. Prices change; the comparison pages linked above carry the date of each check.