The 5 best Shopify AI chatbot apps to grow your store in 2026

If you run a Shopify store, you’re probably juggling a million things at once. On top of everything else, you're buried in product questions, order tracking requests, and shipping queries. It can feel like you need to be glued to your screen 24/7 just to keep customers happy.

What if you could hand off most of those conversations, get some time back in your day, and actually boost your sales while you're at it?

This is exactly what Shopify AI chatbot apps are for. They work like an always-on sales and support agent, helping customers find what they need and guiding them to the checkout. But with so many options on the Shopify App Store, picking one is a job in itself. We’ve done the legwork and tested the top contenders to give you a clear, no-fluff list of the 5 best apps to help you scale your business this year.

What are Shopify AI chatbot apps?

A Shopify AI chatbot app is a tool you add to your store that can chat with your customers automatically. Unlike those old, clunky bots that could only spit out pre-written answers, modern AI chatbots actually understand what people are asking in their own words.

They connect directly to your Shopify store, so they can pull info from your products, FAQs, and even past customer chats. This lets them answer questions about product details, stock levels, shipping policies, and order status. It’s like having a super-smart assistant who can handle thousands of customer conversations at once, day or night.

Why you actually need Shopify AI chatbot apps

Still thinking a chatbot is just a "nice-to-have"? Let's get real. In today’s ecommerce world, people expect answers now. If they have to wait, they’ll just click over to a competitor. In fact, Shopify found that 70% of conversations on their platform are with customers actively trying to make a purchase.

Here’s what a good chatbot can do for you:

• Turn more window shoppers into buyers: A chatbot can be a personal shopping assistant. It can suggest products, offer a discount code to someone on the fence, and even nudge customers who have abandoned their carts. It actively engages visitors instead of just waiting for them to ask a question.

• Offer around-the-clock support: Your customers are shopping at all hours. An AI chatbot is always there to answer questions, track orders, and solve common problems. This keeps your customers happy and your inbox a lot less cluttered.

• Cut down on support costs: By handling all the repetitive questions, you reduce the need to hire more support staff. Your team can then spend their time on the more complex customer issues that really need a human touch.

How we picked the best Shopify AI chatbot apps

We didn't just scroll through the app store and pick the ones with the best logos. Our review focused on what actually matters when you're busy running a store. We looked for tools that are powerful but also practical and don't require a whole IT department to set up.

Here’s what we cared about:

• Quick and easy setup: How fast can you get it working? We prioritized tools you can set up yourself without needing to book a demo or talk to a salesperson.

• Smart and customizable AI: How well does the bot actually understand questions? And can you tweak its personality and what it knows?

• Deep Shopify integration: Does it just float on your site, or does it really dig into your product catalog and order data?

• Must-have ecommerce features: Does it have the essentials, like abandoned cart recovery, product recommendations, and order tracking?

• Clear pricing: Is the pricing easy to understand? We avoided tools with confusing per-ticket fees that punish you for growing.

A quick comparison of the top Shopify AI chatbot apps

Here’s a quick look at how our top five picks stack up.

Feature	eesel AI	Shopify Inbox	Tidio	SmartBot	Gorgias
Best For	All-in-one automation & control	Basic, free chat	Popular freemium option	Growing stores	Comprehensive ecommerce support
Self-Serve Setup	Yes, go live in minutes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Guided onboarding for success
Trains on Past Tickets	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Custom Actions	Yes (API lookups, triage)	No	Limited	No	Yes
Pricing Model	Flat monthly fee	Free	Per seat/usage	Per product count	Tiered plans
Starting Price	$299/mo	Free	$29/mo (for chatbots)	$30/mo	$50/mo

The 5 best Shopify AI chatbot apps in 2026

Alright, let's dive into our top picks for the chatbot apps that will help you automate support and sell more on Shopify.

1. eesel AI

eesel AI really shines because it gives you total control without being overly complicated. It's not just another chat widget; it's a full-on automation platform that works within the Shopify ecosystem. You can train it on your Shopify products, help center articles, Google Docs, and even past support tickets. This creates a super accurate AI that gets your brand's unique vibe.

The best part? You can get it up and running in minutes. While some enterprise solutions involve guided onboarding, eesel AI is completely self-serve. You can connect your store, train your AI, and launch the chatbot all by yourself from their dashboard.

Another standout feature is the simulation mode. Before the chatbot talks to a single customer, you can test it on thousands of your past support tickets to see exactly how it would have replied. This gives you a ton of confidence and a real forecast of how much time you'll save.

• Pros:

  • Go live in minutes: A truly self-serve setup without any mandatory demos.
  • Brings all your knowledge together: Connects to Shopify, help centers, past tickets, and more to create one source of truth.
  • You control the workflow: You can customize the AI's personality, when it should escalate to a human, and set up special actions like looking up an order status.
  • Risk-free simulation: Test on your past tickets to see how well it works before you even activate it.
  • Straightforward pricing: Predictable monthly plans, so no surprise fees for having a busy month.

• Cons:

  • Might have more features than you need if you're just looking for a very, very basic chat widget.

• Pricing:

  • Team: $299/month ($239/month when billed annually) for up to 1,000 AI interactions, an AI copilot for your team, and integrations with tools like Slack.
  • Business: $799/month ($639/month when billed annually) for up to 3,000 AI interactions, plus training on past tickets, custom AI actions, and bulk simulation.

2. Shopify Inbox

Shopify Inbox is Shopify's own free chat tool. If you're just starting out and need a simple way to talk to customers, it's a perfectly fine place to begin. Since it's built right into your Shopify admin, the setup is about as easy as it gets.

It uses Shopify's AI to create instant answers based on your store info and FAQs, which can handle a lot of common questions. You can also set up automated greetings or away messages. But its AI is pretty basic. It can't learn from things like old support tickets or external documents, and you can't build custom workflows. It’s a solid free option, but you'll probably outgrow it as your business scales.

• Pros:

  • It's completely free.
  • Integrates seamlessly with your Shopify admin.
  • Super easy to set up and manage.

• Cons:

  • Very basic AI and automation features.
  • Can't connect to external knowledge sources.
  • Lacks advanced features like custom actions or detailed analytics.

• Pricing: Free with any Shopify plan.

3. Tidio

Tidio is one of the most popular chat apps out there, and for good reason. It bundles live chat, AI chatbots, and helpdesk features into one tool. Tidio gives you a visual chatbot builder and over 30 templates for things like saving abandoned carts or offering discounts, which makes getting started pretty easy.

Its AI, Lyro, can learn from your FAQ page to answer questions. While it’s user-friendly, setting up a truly personalized AI can get a little more involved. The pricing can also be adjusted as you grow, with different costs for different features. For instance, you pay for the Lyro AI separately from the main customer service plan and the automated Flows. It's a great all-rounder for many stores.

• Pros:

  • User-friendly interface with a visual flow builder.
  • A good library of pre-built templates for common ecommerce situations.
  • Has a free plan with basic features to get you started.

• Cons:

  • The AI is mostly limited to the info you manually add to it.
  • Pricing structures involve multiple add-ons which require careful planning.
  • Some users have mentioned it can be complex to set up for highly specific needs.

• Pricing:

  • Free plan: Available with limited features.
  • Starter: Begins at $24.17/month (billed annually) for 100 human-led conversations.
  • Lyro AI Agent: An add-on with its own starting price for a set number of AI-led conversations.
  • Flows: Another add-on for automated workflows, priced based on how many visitors you have.

4. SmartBot

As a "Built for Shopify" app, SmartBot integrates deeply and smoothly with the platform. It automatically learns from your product descriptions, pages, and store policies to give context-aware support and personalized recommendations. One of its neatest features is how it automatically highlights key selling points to help customers decide what to buy.

SmartBot is really focused on helping you boost conversions and increase your average order value. While its knowledge base is primarily focused on your Shopify store content, it provides a very specialized experience for product-heavy catalogs.

• Pros:

  • Deep integration with Shopify products, orders, and policies.
  • Strong focus on sales-driving features like AI recommendations.
  • Easy setup designed specifically for Shopify store owners.

• Cons:

  • Limited to knowledge sources within Shopify.
  • Pricing is tied to your number of products, which might not be the right fit for every growth model.

• Pricing:

  • Starter: $30/month for up to 200 products.
  • Growth: $100/month for up to 1,500 products.
  • Pro: $300/month for up to 20,000 products.

5. Gorgias

Gorgias is a robust and mature helpdesk built specifically for ecommerce leaders. Its AI and automation features are seamlessly integrated into a powerful ticketing system that serves thousands of successful brands. Gorgias can automate replies to common questions, intelligently categorize customer intent (like shipping vs. sales), and pull comprehensive customer data from Shopify directly into the workspace.

As an all-in-one platform, Gorgias provides an impressive ecosystem that unifies all customer communication channels into one place. While it is a comprehensive solution that may require some time to fully implement, it is a highly reliable and scalable choice for teams that want a professional, enterprise-grade support environment. It powers customer service for some of the biggest names in ecommerce and offers tiered plans designed to grow with your business.

• Pros:

  • An excellent, industry-leading helpdesk with deep Shopify integration.
  • Mature automation rules and powerful macros.
  • Brings all your customer communication channels into one professional dashboard.
  • Highly reliable and scalable for growing ecommerce teams.

• Cons:

  • As a full-scale helpdesk solution, it works best when used as your primary support platform.
  • Gorgias's tiered pricing options are based on ticket volume, which requires active management of your support tiers.
  • Full implementation for large teams is a thorough process that ensures long-term success.

• Pricing:

  • Basic: $50/month ($60/month if billed monthly) for 300 tickets.
  • Pro: $300/month ($360/month if billed monthly) for 2,000 tickets.
  • AI Agent: Offers specialized automation that provides efficient resolutions for high-volume support needs.

4 pro tips for choosing the right Shopify AI chatbot apps

Picking a new tool is a big decision. Here are four practical tips to help you choose wisely:

1. Start with your biggest headache. Are you drowning in "where is my order?" tickets? Or are you losing sales because people abandon their carts? Figure out your number one problem and look for a chatbot that’s great at solving it.

2. Find a tool that learns from your real history. A chatbot is only as smart as the info it's trained on. Tools that can learn from your past support tickets, like eesel AI or Gorgias, will sound more like your brand and solve problems more accurately right from the start.

3. Simulate before you go live. Don't just trust a sales demo. The best platforms let you test the AI on your actual historical data. It's the only way to get a real preview of how it will perform without risking your live customer experience.

4. Understand your pricing model. Choose a pricing structure that matches your business model. Whether you prefer a flat fee or tiered plans that scale with your volume, like those offered by Gorgias, make sure it allows you to budget effectively as you grow.

Get started with smarter Shopify AI chatbot apps today

The right Shopify AI chatbot app can seriously change your business by automating support, boosting sales, and giving customers a top-notch experience 24/7. While a basic free tool like Shopify Inbox is a decent starting point, a dedicated platform will give you the power and control you need to really scale.

For a solution that offers a fast setup, brings all your knowledge together, and lets you test everything with a powerful simulation engine, eesel AI is a versatile option that complements your existing tools. If you are looking for a complete, industry-leading helpdesk environment, Gorgias remains a powerful and trusted choice for the ecommerce world.

Ready to see how much time you could get back? Start your free trial of eesel AI today.

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