Best AI Chatbot for Shopify: 10 Apps Compared on Real Listing Data

The best AI chatbot for a Shopify store depends on what you want the chat to do. For free chat that sits inside the Shopify admin, Shopify Inbox is the default. For an AI agent plus a shared support inbox, Tidio, Chatty and Gorgias are the most reviewed. For a bot that also answers on WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram from the same flows, a hosted platform such as Conferbot fits. For enterprise-grade AI resolution, Fin by Intercom charges per outcome.

The table shows each app's Shopify App Store listing as it appeared on 3 November 2026: its star rating, the number of reviews behind it, and the lowest paid plan in USD from the listing's own pricing section. The method is explained right after the table.

Ratings are the App Store's star average out of 5, with the number of reviews in brackets. A 4.9 from 40 reviews is far weaker evidence than a 4.6 from 5,813. Prices change often, and several apps add usage charges on top of the plan, so read the cost section before you compare the last column.

Most "best Shopify chatbot" lists open with a claim that the author tested every app. This one sticks to things you can check yourself, so you can also tell when it goes out of date:

• Listing data (rating, review count, free plan, plan prices) comes from each app's page on the Shopify App Store on 3 November 2026. The App Store showed prices converted to our local currency at a stated exchange rate, so we converted them back to the USD plan prices.
• Features come from the app's own listing and the vendor's documentation, not from our impressions.
• Conferbot is our product. Its entry describes the Shopify app exactly as its source repository and our plan limits define it. It is listed first because this is our site, not because of a score.

What we did not do: we did not install ten apps on a test store and score "AI quality" or page speed. An answer-quality score depends on the content you train the bot on, and a speed number from our theme would not predict yours. The sections below show how to test both on your own store before you commit.

To build a shortlist, start with the job you need done, then check three things on the listing: how many reviews sit behind the rating, how the app bills AI usage, and whether it reads your Shopify data or only your website text.

Before you install anything, look at what Shopify gives you. Shopify Inbox is free, made by Shopify, and has the most reviews of any chat app in the store by a wide margin. Its listing describes it as an AI-powered sales associate on your storefront that helps buyers find the right products from your catalog, and your team answers from the Shopify admin. Because it is Shopify's own app, it reads your catalog without any connection to set up.

Inbox is enough when your questions are simple and you have someone to answer them. It stops being enough when:

• you need answers at night or in several languages without a person on shift,
• the same customers also message you on WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram and you want one bot and one inbox for all of them,
• you want structured flows, such as a size finder, a returns form or lead capture, rather than free chat,
• your team already works in a helpdesk such as Gorgias or Zendesk and chat needs to land there.

If none of those apply, Inbox is a sensible place to stay. If one does, the rest of this list is where to look.

1. Conferbot (our product)

A hosted AI chatbot and live chat platform. You build the bot once, with flows and an AI agent trained on your own pages and files, and the same bot can answer on your storefront, WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram, with every conversation in one inbox.

• Free plan: 600 conversations a month, 2 chatbots, 2 team members.
• Paid plans from $19/month (Starter); removing "Powered by Conferbot" starts on Starter.
• Live chat handover and the shared inbox are on every plan; native integrations such as HubSpot or Google Sheets need Pro.
• AI models: OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek and 17 other providers.

Strengths: One bot for every channel; human handover on the free plan; flows and AI in the same builder; a ready Shopify store template.

Trade-offs: Not listed in the Shopify App Store yet, and it does not sync your product catalog or orders: the AI answers from the pages and files you give it. Fewer Shopify-specific actions than the apps built only for Shopify.

Best for: Stores that sell across chat channels as well as the website, and teams that want one inbox for all of them.

Installing it on this platform: Paste the embed snippet from the Conferbot dashboard (Share, Embed into your website) into your theme, or run the open-source app, which adds the widget as an app embed block on Online Store 2.0 themes. The Shopify install guide walks through both.

2. Shopify Inbox (free, by Shopify)

Shopify's own chat app. It puts an AI-powered sales associate on your storefront that helps buyers find products from your catalog, and your team replies from the Shopify admin.

• 4.6 stars from 5,813 reviews, the largest review base of any chat app we checked.
• Free.
• Reads your Shopify catalog natively; automated responses can include discounts.

Strengths: No cost, no third-party account, the deepest Shopify integration, and Shopify maintains it.

Trade-offs: Shopify-only: no WhatsApp, Telegram or Messenger bot from the same tool, and little in the way of structured flows.

Best for: Small stores with someone available to answer, and anyone testing whether chat is worth it.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store, then switch the chat on in the theme editor.

3. Tidio

Live chat, a helpdesk and Tidio's Lyro AI agent in one product, popular with small and mid-size stores.

• 4.8 stars from 1,356 reviews.
• Free plan: live chat for up to 50 users and flows for up to 100 visitors a month.
• Customer Service plan $29/month on the listing, with Lyro AI conversations priced by volume.

Strengths: Large review base, product cards and order history in chat, a mature mobile app.

Trade-offs: AI is billed separately from seats, so a busy month can cost more than the plan price suggests.

Best for: Stores that want a well-known all-rounder and expect to grow into a helpdesk.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store; the chat appears through an app embed you switch on in the theme editor.

4. Chatty

An AI chatbot and live chat app built specifically for Shopify, with order tracking and product recommendations.

• 4.9 stars from 1,900 reviews, the highest rating with a large review base in this list.
• Free plan: 50 AI conversations a month and unlimited human conversations, AI trained on up to 200 products.
• Basic $19.99/month for 100 AI conversations, then $0.40 per additional AI conversation.

Strengths: Shopify-native data, strong reviews, a free plan that includes some AI.

Trade-offs: Per-conversation AI overage means cost scales with traffic; Shopify only.

Best for: Small Shopify stores that want AI product answers with a low starting price.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store and enable the app embed.

5. Gorgias

An ecommerce helpdesk that brings chat, email and social messages into tickets, with an AI Agent add-on and order actions such as refunds.

• 4.3 stars from 709 reviews.
• Starter $10/month with 50 tickets included and $0.40 per additional ticket; Basic $60/month with 300 tickets.
• The AI Agent is an add-on, not part of the base plans.

Strengths: Deep order actions for support teams, macros, multi-store support.

Trade-offs: Ticket-based billing rewards careful volume planning; AI costs extra; more than a small store needs.

Best for: Stores with a dedicated support team handling refunds, exchanges and order edits.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store, then add the Gorgias chat widget through the theme app embed.

6. Chatway

Live chat with an AI support agent, a help center and a unified inbox for website chat, WhatsApp, email, Messenger and Instagram.

• 4.9 stars from 286 reviews.
• Free plan: 1 seat and 50 conversations a month.
• Business $39/month on the listing; AI agent credits are added separately.

Strengths: Generous free plan, an inbox that also covers WhatsApp and social messages.

Trade-offs: AI is usage-priced on top of the plan; newer than the larger players.

Best for: Small teams that want live chat first and AI as an add-on.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store and enable the app embed.

7. Rep AI

A proactive AI sales agent: it starts conversations with browsing shoppers, recommends products and hands off to live chat.

• 4.5 stars from 125 reviews.
• Free to install with 100 visitors a month; Starter $104/month for up to 10,000 visitors.
• $12 for each additional 1,000 visitors.

Strengths: Built around conversion rather than support; integrates with Gorgias and Klaviyo according to its listing.

Trade-offs: Visitor-based pricing grows with traffic, not with conversations; the highest entry price here.

Best for: Stores with steady traffic that want a sales-led assistant rather than a support bot.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store and enable the app embed.

8. Re:amaze

A helpdesk with live chat, chatbots, FAQ and a set number of AI agent resolutions per user.

• 4.5 stars from 181 reviews.
• Basic $29/month per staff user, with 5 AI agent resolutions per user a month.
• Unlimited email inboxes and live chat on the base plan.

Strengths: Helpdesk features at a lower entry price than most, multi-brand support.

Trade-offs: Per-user pricing adds up for larger teams; AI resolutions are capped per user.

Best for: Multi-brand stores that want a helpdesk and chat in one subscription.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store.

9. Chatbase

An AI agent trained on your website and documents, with actions and an inbox on higher plans.

• 4.9 stars from 40 reviews.
• Hobby $40/month with 700 message credits; Basic $150/month with 4,000.
• Chatbase's pricing page lists a 7-day trial rather than a free plan.

Strengths: Strong at answering from content, easy to train from URLs and files.

Trade-offs: Credit-based billing, a small review base on Shopify, and no human live chat on the entry plan.

Best for: Stores whose questions are mostly about policies, sizing and product details already on the site.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store or paste Chatbase's embed script into the theme.

10. Fin AI Agent by Intercom

Intercom's AI agent, which can run on Intercom's helpdesk or on top of another helpdesk.

• 3.7 stars from 18 reviews on Shopify.
• Fin is $0.99 per outcome; Intercom's Essential plan is $39 per seat a month, or less billed yearly.
• External charges are billed by Intercom, not through your Shopify invoice.

Strengths: Mature AI agent, strong reporting, works with an existing helpdesk.

Trade-offs: Per-outcome plus per-seat pricing is hard to predict for a small store; a thin review base on Shopify.

Best for: Larger stores with a support team and budget for usage-based AI.

Installing it on this platform: Install from the App Store and connect your Intercom workspace.

Also checked: LiveChat (4.4 from 49 reviews, from $25/month per seat), Zendesk (3.2 from 95 reviews, Suite Team $55 per agent a month billed yearly) and tawk.to (3.6 from 89 reviews, free). They work on Shopify, but their Shopify listings rate lower or they are general helpdesks rather than store chatbots.

The biggest difference between Shopify chatbots is not the AI model. It is what data the bot can reach. Three levels are worth separating:

Map your top questions to these levels before choosing. If most of them are "where is my order" and "can I change my address", an app with order access saves real time. If they are "does this run small" and "do you ship to Canada", website content is enough, and an AI agent trained on your policy and product pages does the job. Our guide to training a chatbot on your knowledge base covers how to prepare that content.

For order questions on a content-only bot, the honest approach is a link to the customer's account orders page and a handover to a person for exceptions, rather than a bot that pretends to look the order up. The order tracking template is built that way.

Shopify changed how storefront chat gets onto a page. Since 1 October 2026 Shopify no longer accepts new ScriptTags from apps, so chat apps now load through a theme app embed, a block you switch on in the theme editor. Two things follow from that:

• You need an Online Store 2.0 theme. Any theme that supports app embeds, such as Dawn, works. On an older vintage theme an app may not be able to place its widget.
• Installing the app is only half the job. After installing, open Online Store, Themes, Customize, App embeds, switch the app on and click Save. Most "the chat does not appear" reports are this missing step.

Chat apps run on Online Store pages. They do not run on Shopify's checkout, so do not plan a checkout-recovery bot that lives on the checkout page itself; the abandoned cart guide covers what works instead.

If you prefer not to install an app at all, most hosted chatbots, Conferbot included, give you a snippet you can paste into your theme's theme.liquid just before </body>. That is quick, but it is your job to remove it if you switch tools, and a theme update can overwrite it. Our troubleshooting guide for a chat widget that does not show up covers the usual causes.

The "paid from" column hides four different billing models. Compare them on the volume you actually expect:

A worked example: a store with 1,500 chats a month, a third of them handled fully by AI, pays very different amounts under each model. Run your own numbers with the chatbot cost calculator, and read our chatbot pricing comparison for how vendors count a "conversation".

Pick two or three apps and give each the same test, on a duplicate theme so customers never see it:

1. Train or connect it with the same content: your shipping, returns and sizing pages and five product pages.
2. Ask the same ten questions, taken from your real inbox: two order questions, three product questions, three policy questions and two that the bot should hand to a person.
3. Check the handover. Does the person who takes over see the whole conversation? Our human handoff guide lists what good looks like.
4. Measure speed with PageSpeed Insights on a product page with and without the app embed switched on.
5. Check mobile. The bubble must not cover the add-to-cart button on a phone.

You can preview how a widget looks on your own page before installing anything with the website chatbot preview tool, and design the launcher with the chat widget designer.

• Choosing on the star rating alone. A 4.9 from 40 reviews and a 4.6 from 5,800 are not comparable. Read the newest reviews, not just the average.
• Forgetting the theme editor step. The app is installed but the app embed is off, so nothing shows.
• Letting the bot invent order details. If the bot cannot read orders, it must link to the account page or hand over, never guess.
• Auto-opening the chat on every page. It interrupts shoppers and hurts mobile. Trigger it on intent, such as time on a product page; our chatbot UI best practices cover the patterns.
• Ignoring after-hours. Many store questions arrive at night. An after-hours answering flow is often the first win.
• Running two chat widgets. An old snippet in theme.liquid plus a new app embed gives you two bubbles. Remove one.

The value of store chat shows up in a few repeatable places: product questions answered while the shopper is still deciding, shipping and returns questions answered without a ticket, and order questions routed to the right place. Our analysis of whether chatbots increase sales and the guide to raising average order value with a chatbot look at what actually moves revenue.

Good first flows for a Shopify store are a product recommendation quiz, a size finder for apparel, a returns and exchanges assistant and an abandoned cart recovery flow. For a wider view of ecommerce use cases, see chatbots for ecommerce and the shopping assistant use case.

If your customers also reach you on messaging apps, the same bot can answer there: see WhatsApp for ecommerce, and our Shopify chatbot strategy guide for cart recovery and support automation in more depth.

If Shopify Inbox covers your questions, stay with it. If you need a helpdesk, Gorgias and Re:amaze are built for that. If you want an AI agent and live chat that answer on your store and on WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram from one place, that is what Conferbot's Shopify chatbot is for: build once, start from a template, and hand conversations to your team in a shared inbox.

Start free with Conferbot - the free plan includes 600 conversations a month and needs no credit card, so you can have a store assistant answering on your Shopify site this afternoon.

Compare the plans on the pricing page, see what the free plan includes, or read our ranking of AI chatbot builders for a view beyond Shopify. Stores on other platforms can use the same approach: see the best AI chatbots for Wix and for BigCommerce.