AI chatbots for Shopify stores: which one fits a small store

For a small Shopify store, these tools differ mainly in two things: what they can see in your store, and where they can answer: only in your store's chat window, or also by email, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram.

What a store chatbot has to handle

• Product questions with one right answer. "Is this in stock, and does it come in blue?" A tool that searches your store when the customer asks answers from the catalog as it is at that moment. One that works from a copy is as current as its last update, which is fine for a catalog that rarely changes. If you sell one-of-a-kind pieces, every sale changes what's in stock.
• "Where is my order?" Every tool here answers it in some way, but they check who is asking differently: some ask the customer to sign in to your store, others ask for an email and order number.
• Handoff to a person. A package that arrived broken, an angry customer, a wholesale inquiry: these should reach you with the conversation attached. Tidio and Gorgias are built around a team inbox for chat and email. Shopify Inbox gives the customer your store's email address when nobody is available. ChatPal moves the chat to its own inbox, and your reply goes out on the customer's channel.
• The channels your customers actually use. Shopify Inbox answers only in your store's chat window, and ChatPal doesn't answer email. If half your support arrives by email, Zipchat and Gorgias both answer it.

How we chose

We looked for tools that install from the Shopify App Store, read your catalog, can be set up without a developer, and publish at least a starting price. For each we read the pricing page, help center and App Store listing on September 27, 2026, and noted what the tool reads from your store, where it answers and what is metered. We make ChatPal and tested it on our own test store; we did not test the others hands-on. We left out Manifest AI because it does not publish its paid prices.

The tools are grouped by the situation they suit, not ranked.

Six tools, by situation

What each one reads from your store

The catalog and stock columns matter most if you restock often, sell many variants or sell one-of-a-kind pieces.

What it costs a small store

Take a store with about 100 chats a month, three to five AI replies in each, and 5,000 visits to the site.

• Shopify Inbox: free, on any Shopify plan from Basic up.
• ChatPal: 300 to 500 replies, so the $20 plan (500 replies). ChatPal counts replies, so longer chats cost more: at six replies each, 100 chats is 600 replies and the $50 plan. At about 30 short chats a month, the free plan's 100 replies may be enough.
• Tidio: Tidio's price calculator puts 100 Lyro AI conversations a month at 62.50 a month billed yearly (it showed us euros; the 50-conversation tier is $32.50 in the US). The free plan's 50 AI conversations come once, not every month.
• Zipchat: 300 to 500 AI replies fit in Starter's 750, at $64 a month billed yearly or $80 monthly. Zipchat's own estimate of about 300 conversations assumes 2.5 replies each.
• Gorgias: Basic is $90 a month billed monthly, with 300 tickets and 30 automated interactions; each interaction above that costs $1.50, so 100 AI-handled chats come to about $195 a month. Starter ($40 with AI Agent) covers only 50 tickets.
• Rep AI: priced by visits, not chats. Pay-as-you-grow at 5,000 visits comes to about $60 a month for a catalog of up to 100 products; the $104 Starter plan covers up to 10,000 visits and 1,000 products.

Prices were checked on September 27, 2026, in US dollars unless noted. Several of these vendors price by country, so yours may differ.

Setting one up

Before launch:

1. Read your shipping, returns and FAQ pages as a customer would. The chatbot can only be as clear as they are.
2. Install the app and connect the store.
3. Ask it the ten questions you answered most last month, including the awkward ones, and something that sold out yesterday.
4. Decide what always goes to a person, and who gets notified.
5. Start on one channel, read the conversations every evening for a week, then add the next.

Here is ChatPal answering from the live catalog of our own test store, the demo catalog Shopify generates for developer stores. The prices and "In stock" labels come from the store at the moment of the question.

For ChatPal on your own store, see how it works with Shopify and the plans.

For the setup step by step, see how to add an AI shopping assistant to Shopify.

If shoppers ask where their order is, see how to set up order support.