An AI assistant for a Shopify store: Shopify Inbox, Gorgias, Tidio or a general tool

A Shopify store owner who wants an AI assistant faces a crowded app store. Most options fall into four groups, and the choice between them depends less on the AI, which is broadly similar across vendors, than on what else you need: a helpdesk, order lookups, live chat, or just answers.

This note compares the four routes from published information, as of September 2026. Prices and features change often; check the vendors’ own pages before deciding.

The four routes

Route	Example	What it is	How it charges
Shopify’s own chat	Shopify Inbox	Free chat app with an optional AI agent	Listed as free in the Shopify App Store1
E-commerce helpdesk	Gorgias	Support inbox for email, chat and social, with an AI agent	Plan by ticket volume, plus a fee per automated resolution2
Chat platform	Tidio with Lyro	Live chat and an AI agent, popular with small stores	Plans with a quota of AI conversations3
General AI builder	Chatbase	A bot trained on your site and files, embedded anywhere	Plans with monthly message credits4

Shopify Inbox

Shopify says Inbox learns from your catalogue, policies and store content, and lets you set the assistant’s tone and rules.⁵ It’s free and native, which makes it the obvious first try.

Good for: small stores with simple policies and a handful of chats a day, where the main questions are about products, delivery and returns.

Watch for: it reads what’s in Shopify. If your delivery or returns rules live on a page builder, a PDF or a third-party app, check that Inbox actually sees them. We didn’t find a dedicated pre-launch test tool in Shopify’s public help pages, so testing means asking it yourself, as a customer.

Gorgias

Gorgias is a helpdesk built for online stores, with deep Shopify integration: agents and the AI agent can see order history and, with the right setup, act on orders. It adds an outcome-based fee when the AI agent resolves a ticket without a person; Gorgias counts it as automated when the customer doesn’t need a human agent within 72 hours.² It has a Playground for test conversations that don’t reach shoppers.

Good for: stores with a support team handling many tickets across email, chat and social, where order questions (“where is my parcel?”) are a large share.

Watch for: the per-resolution fee means wrong answers that end a conversation are billed too. Test answers against your pages, not only in the Playground.

Tidio with Lyro

Tidio combines live chat and the Lyro AI agent and is widely used by small and mid-sized stores. Lyro answers from your website, FAQ and Q&A pairs; plans include a quota of Lyro conversations. We wrote a setup guide for Lyro.

Good for: stores that want live chat with an AI first line, without a full helpdesk.

Watch for: the imported website copy doesn’t always update when your pages change; refresh it after every policy change.

A general builder like Chatbase

General AI builders train a bot on your website and documents and embed it anywhere, Shopify included. They give you control over the model and instructions, but no order data unless you build integrations.

Good for: stores with lots of product knowledge (specifications, compatibility, care) and few order questions.

Watch for: retraining. The bot knows your content as of the last training, so every change to prices or policies needs a source refresh and a quick test.

How to choose

1. How many chats a day? Under a dozen: Shopify Inbox or Tidio is enough. Dozens or more, with a support team: a helpdesk like Gorgias.
2. What share are order questions? If most questions are “where is my order”, you need order data, which points to a helpdesk with Shopify integration.
3. How complex are your rules? Many conditions (made-to-order items, regional delivery, product-specific returns) need careful content work whatever the tool. The tool matters less than what you put in the knowledge base.
4. Who will check it? Every option needs someone to ask it what customers ask and compare the answers with your pages, especially after changes.

The fourth point is the one most stores skip. The cheapest tool with a weekly check usually beats the most capable one left alone. That’s what Assistant Care is for; if you’d rather have the whole setup done, see Assistant Setup.

Footnotes

1. Shopify App Store, “Shopify Inbox”, apps.shopify.com/inbox. ↩

2. Gorgias, “How you’re billed for using Gorgias”, docs.gorgias.com. ↩ ↩²

3. Tidio, pricing, tidio.com/pricing. ↩

4. Chatbase, pricing, chatbase.co/pricing. ↩

5. Shopify Help Center, Inbox chat settings and AI, help.shopify.com. ↩