AI chatbot apps for Shopify compared: pricing, free plans, hand-off

How did we compare Shopify AI chatbot apps?

We compared each app on 12 criteria that change what a merchant pays and what a shopper sees. Five of them can be read from public pages for every app, so they are in the table. The other seven are rarely stated publicly, so they are in the checklist further down as questions to put to each vendor.

Last checked: October 28, 2026. Published by Tycoon, which is one of the apps in the table (in early access). We refresh this page monthly.

Methodology. Every competitor cell comes from that app's public Shopify App Store listing or the vendor's own pricing page, opened on October 28, 2026 and linked in the table. We did not sign up for paid plans, run tests on live stores, or use review scores. Where a listing and a pricing page disagree, we say so. Prices change often: confirm on the vendor's page before you install.

Shopify AI chatbot apps compared side by side

The 11 apps below split into help desks with AI, support-first AI agents, quiz tools, AI sales associates and Shopify's own free chat. They charge for different units, so the entry price alone does not compare them. Each row links the public page we read on October 28, 2026.

Three things stand out. First, the pricing models are not comparable at the headline: a $9 plan of credits, a $104 plan of visitors and a $59 plan of conversations buy different things. Work out each one at your real monthly chat volume; our guide to what to check in Shopify app billing shows the per-conversation math, and AI chat pricing models compared works through three volumes. Second, several listings show "English" in the Languages field while the description claims many languages, so test in your shoppers' language. Third, help desks (Gorgias, Intercom, Tidio) bundle a team inbox; storefront AI apps usually connect to one instead.

For a deeper look at single pairs, see Tycoon vs Tidio, Tycoon vs Gorgias, Tycoon vs Shopify Inbox and Tycoon vs Rep AI, or the comparisons hub.

Which type of AI chat fits your store?

Pick the type before the brand. A help desk with AI suits a team that already answers tickets across email, social and chat. A support-first AI agent suits stores with many "where is my order" questions. A quiz suits a catalog where shoppers need guiding. An AI sales associate suits stores where pre-purchase questions decide the sale. Shopify Inbox suits a first, free start.

If you are unsure which camp you are in, read AI chatbot vs AI sales associate and how to choose an AI shopping assistant.

Is there a free AI chatbot for Shopify?

Yes. Shopify Inbox is free and includes an optional AI agent. Several apps also have free tiers with a monthly cap: Chatty (50 AI conversations), Zipchat (120 AI replies, about 50 conversations), Alhena (up to 25 conversations), Quickchat (50 AI credits) and Tycoon (25 AI conversations). Tidio gives the first 50 Lyro conversations free once.

The cap is the part to read closely, because the unit differs: a reply, a credit, a conversation or a visitor. Rep AI's free plan counts 100 visitors a month, then charges $12 per extra 1,000. Quickchat's pricing page limits its Free plan to personal, non-commercial use. Manifest AI is free to install with a trial of at least 30 days, then an agreement.

Tycoon's Free plan is $0 and free forever: 25 AI conversations a month (the count resets monthly), the whole catalog, 7-day chat history, live prices and stock, add to cart, human hand-off and an on/off switch, with a "Powered by Tycoon AI" line in the chat. It has no add-on offers; those start on Starter ($59 a month for 350 conversations). A conversation is one shopper in a 24-hour window with at least one AI-written reply, up to 10 replies. At the limit, the AI agent pauses until the next month or an upgrade, and shoppers can still reach your team or leave a message; it never upgrades you automatically and charges no overage fees. Full details are on pricing.

What do merchants complain about in Shopify AI chat apps?

Mostly the vendor around the AI. In our study of 233 critical merchant reviews of 10 AI chat and help-desk apps for Shopify, slow or absent vendor support came up 81 times, missing or broken integrations 47, surprise charges 39, hard setup 35 and updates that broke things 34. Wrong or invented AI answers came up 23 times.

Two more themes matter for a comparison like this one: 23 reviews said per-ticket or per-conversation pricing became too expensive, and 10 said there was no real hand-off to a person. The study counts critical reviews on purpose, so the numbers show what goes wrong, not how often. Use them as a list of things to test before you pay.

Does the AI chatbot make up prices or stock?

It can, if the price comes from the model or from a stale copy of your catalog. The safer design reads price and stock from the store for every reply and checks each figure before the shopper sees it. Few listings say how they handle this, so ask every vendor directly.

Tycoon is built so the model is never the source of a price, stock state, delivery date or discount code. Price, compare-at price and stock are read live from your store for every answer and are not stored. Replies are not streamed: each draft is checked whole before it is sent, and a draft whose figure does not match live data or facts you approved is blocked and rewritten. Our article on AI chatbot hallucinations about prices and stock explains the failure modes and how to test for them.

Questions to ask before you install an AI chatbot on Shopify

Ask these before you pay, and test the answers on a development store or a quiet hour on your live store. Each one covers a criterion public listings rarely state, and each answer is easy to check yourself in a few minutes with real products.

1. Where do prices and stock come from on each reply? Live from the store, or from a synced copy? How often is it refreshed?
2. Is each reply checked before the shopper sees it, or streamed as it is written?
3. Does the chat say it is an AI, and can a shopper always reach a person? Where does she land: WhatsApp, email, your help desk?
4. Which help desk does it work with on which plan, and does it create a ticket with the conversation attached or only open a link?
5. Which languages are tested, and does it lay out right to left for Hebrew or Arabic?
6. How does it install? A theme app extension needs no theme code edits and comes off cleanly on uninstall.
7. How heavy is the widget, and when does the chat window's code load?
8. How long are transcripts kept, and can a shopper delete her chat?
9. What happens at the plan limit? Does it stop, charge overage, or upgrade you?
10. Can you install and go live alone, or is a sales call required?

For the vendor side, use our Shopify app vendor support checklist. For the help-desk side, see connecting AI chat to your Shopify help desk.

For reference, Tycoon's own answers: live price and stock on every reply; every draft checked whole before sending; labelled "AI assistant" with a person always offered; installed through a theme app extension with a storefront loader designed to stay around 10 KB; transcripts deleted after 7, 30, 90 or 365 days depending on plan, and shoppers can clear a chat with "Forget this chat"; no auto-upgrades; self-serve install with no sales call. More on the Shopify AI chatbot page.

How Tycoon fits in this list

Tycoon is an AI sales associate for Shopify stores, currently in early access. It asks one short question when a shopper's need is unclear, suggests one to three products with a reason each, adds to the store's real cart, makes at most one offer per reply, and answers everyday support questions from facts the merchant approved. It works in 16 shopper languages on every plan.

It is not a help desk. If your team runs on Gorgias, Zendesk, Re:amaze, Richpanel or Intercom, Tycoon hands off into them (chat hand-off from Growth; help-desk tickets from Pro) rather than replacing them. See every connection on integrations, or open a free demo to see how it answers with your own store's products.

Disclosure: this page is published by Tycoon, which appears in the table. We do not rank the apps and do not call any of them, including our own, the best. Competitor details come only from their public pages on the date shown; if a vendor's page changes, tell us through the form on our demo page and we will update the cell.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. App Store listing (apps.shopify.com/inbox) · checked October 28, 2026
2. Listing (apps.shopify.com/tidio-chat) · checked October 28, 2026
3. pricing (tidio.com/pricing) · checked October 28, 2026
4. Pricing (gorgias.com/pricing) · checked October 28, 2026
5. Listing (apps.shopify.com/intercom) · checked October 28, 2026
6. pricing (intercom.com/pricing) · checked October 28, 2026
7. Listing (apps.shopify.com/rep-ai-sales-associate) · checked October 28, 2026
8. Listing (apps.shopify.com/zipchat) · checked October 28, 2026
9. Listing (apps.shopify.com/manifest-ai-shopping-assistant) · checked October 28, 2026
10. Listing (apps.shopify.com/gleen-ai) · checked October 28, 2026
11. Listing (apps.shopify.com/quickchat-ai) · checked October 28, 2026
12. pricing (quickchat.ai/pricing) · checked October 28, 2026
13. Listing (apps.shopify.com/chatty) · checked October 28, 2026