11 AI Chatbots: Features and Pricing (2027)

An AI chatbot can help a shopper check an order or help a merchant update a product description. Those tasks require different tools and access to different information.

Nearly half of US adults (49%) report using AI chatbots, up from 33% just two years ago. Chatbots help with customer service, and the 2025 Shopify survey* found that 75% of business owners use AI tools to help run their online stores.

Below, compare customer support tools and AI business assistants by their Shopify connections, available actions, and costs. You’ll also learn what to configure and test before using them in your business.

What is an AI chatbot?

An AI chatbot is software that uses artificial intelligence, often a large language model, to interpret requests and produce responses. An ecommerce chatbot can answer product questions or retrieve information from connected store systems. Conversational AI is the technology that lets software interpret and respond to human language through text or voice.

How do AI chatbots work?

The process varies with the chatbot’s technology and connections. Here’s an example of how a generative AI chatbot configured to retrieve store information might handle a request:

1. User prompt. A shopper types (or even speaks) their question, like “Where’s my order?” or “Do you have this in a medium?”
2. Intent detection. Natural language processing (NLP) analyzes the prompt to identify what the shopper wants, even if they don’t use exact keywords.
3. Context retrieval. The chatbot pulls relevant information, e.g., order history, product data, or help center articles, to build an educated response.
4. Response generation. An LLM generates a natural-language reply based on the prompt and the retrieved context.
5. Action or handoff. Depending on its configuration and permissions, the chatbot can complete an allowed task or transfer the conversation to staff. Human handoff requires a configured process and a destination for the conversation.

Types of chatbots and AI assistants

Chatbots can be grouped by how they produce responses:

• Rule-based chatbots follow preset rules or conversation paths, such as a menu that directs shoppers to shipping information.
• Generative AI chatbots use language models to compose replies from the user’s request and available context.
• Hybrid chatbots combine scripted steps with AI-generated answers, such as a fixed order-verification process followed by a conversational explanation.

Who uses the tool is a consideration. Customer-facing tools handle shopper conversations. Internal assistants help merchants and staff complete business tasks. Shopify Inbox’s optional agent serves shoppers through online store chat, while Sidekick helps merchants work inside Shopify admin.

“Assistant” describes a tool’s helping role. “Agent” generally refers to a system that can choose and take actions toward a goal within defined permissions. These terms overlap, as a customer service chatbot can use generative AI to answer questions and perform permitted actions as an agent.

Best AI chatbot tools

Use the task you need to complete to narrow your comparison:

• Answer shoppers’ product and policy questions. Compare customer support tools that can use your store’s published information. Check how they handle questions that require a staff member.
• Manage requests across several channels. Consider a support platform such as Zendesk if your team handles email, messaging, and phone inquiries. Compare routing options and charges for automated resolutions.
• Update products or review store performance. Compare Sidekick with connected assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. Check which store actions each tool allows and what access it requires.
• Create marketing content or work with CRM records. Compare Jasper and Copy.ai for content tasks, or Breeze Assistant for work in HubSpot. Check what product information or customer records the assistant can use.

Pricing and features were checked in November 2026. Prices below are in US dollars, with billing terms and usage allowances specified for each plan. Regional prices and promotional offers may vary.

Customer support tools

Compare these tools by where customers contact you, the information available to the chatbot, and how conversations reach your staff.

Compare these starting costs in US dollars:

• Shopify Inbox: Free with a Basic, Grow, Advanced, or Plus subscription.
• Zendesk Suite Team: $55 per agent/month, billed annually, or $69 billed monthly. Automated resolutions above the included allowance cost extra.
• Chatfuel’s Shopify app: $59 every 30 days, with additional conversation charges above the included allowance.
• Botsify’s done-for-you service: $149 per month or $1,490 per year.

See each tool’s entry below for included usage and additional charges.

Shopify Inbox

Shopify Inbox lets your team chat with online shoppers and offers an optional agent that answers automatically. It is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus.

Staff can respond from desktop or mobile, share product links, and send discount codes. The Inbox agent operates in your online store’s chat widget, using your product catalog, store policies, Knowledge Base material, and published storefront content to answer questions.

As an example, imagine a shopper asking whether they can return a jacket. Before enabling the agent, the merchant checks that the published return policy and jacket details accurately explain any return conditions or exclusions.

To set up your Inbox agent, install Inbox and confirm that your store has an active online store and uses new customer accounts. In Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Inbox and choose an assignment mode:

• All conversations: Assign the agent to all new conversations.
• Only when your staff is unavailable: Assign the agent outside your configured staff availability hours.
• Never: Keep the agent off so staff handle conversations.

Availability hours default to always available. Set your staff’s hours before choosing the unavailable-hours option. Never is the default for stores that had Inbox installed before the agent launched.

Customers must sign in before the agent shares order information.

The shopper asks about the jacket in the online store’s chat widget, and the agent answers using the store’s information. If the shopper requests a person, available staff receive the conversation context. When staff are unavailable, the agent provides the store’s sender email address.

Best for: Shopify merchants handling product and policy questions through online store chat. Staff still need to take over conversations the agent cannot resolve.

Use cases: Product and policy questions, shopping recommendations, order lookups, and live chat.

Pricing: Free on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. A Shopify subscription is required.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a dedicated customer service platform, and its AI agents are built to hold full conversations with shoppers by answering questions and providing assistance. Zendesk connects to a Shopify store through the Shopify App Store to pull billing, shipping, and order information into a conversation.

Zendesk includes AI agents in every Suite and Support plan. Included resolution allowances and additional usage charges vary by plan and billing model.

Best for: Support teams routing customer requests across email, messaging, and phone. Budget for staff seats and automated resolutions above the included allowance.

Use cases: Customer service and experience.

Pricing:

• Suite Team: $55 per agent/month, billed annually, or $69 per agent/month, billed monthly.
• Included AI usage: Suite Team’s published allowance is five automated resolutions per agent/month, capped at 10,000 per account per year.
• Additional automated resolutions: $1.50 each with a committed allocation or $2 each on pay-as-you-go billing.
• Trial: 14 days. There is no ongoing free plan.

Zendesk also offers resolution-tier billing. Confirm which pricing model applies to your account and check its allowance and rates before estimating AI usage costs.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel creates automated conversations for messaging channels. Its Shopify app focuses on WhatsApp, with product recommendations and abandoned cart reminders. It can also send order confirmations and shipping updates, while staff can take over conversations through live chat.

Best for: Shopify merchants using WhatsApp for product recommendations and customer service. The Shopify app focuses on WhatsApp; other channels require separate setup.

Use cases: Product recommendations, abandoned cart recovery, order notifications, and live chat.

Pricing:

• Business plan: $59 per month, billed every 30 days.
• Included usage: 1,000 conversations per month.
• Additional conversations: $0.04 each.
• Trial: Seven days.

Botsify

Botsify comes with two options: Get a custom agency account to build your own bots and agents, or subscribe to the tool’s done-for-you option and have the Botsify team build out an AI customer service agent or other AI chatbot tool before hosting it on your website.

Best for: Merchants who want a provider to build and maintain their customer service chatbot. Confirm the Shopify actions, channels, and staff handoff process included in the setup.

Use cases: Customer service and experience, marketing, and sales.

Pricing:

• Monthly: $149 per month.
• Annual: $1,490 per year.
• Included usage: 30,000 message credits and 60 minutes of voice calls per month. One credit covers one message.
• Agency accounts: Contact Botsify for a quote.

Internal business assistants

These assistants help you and your staff complete business tasks. Sidekick runs inside Shopify admin. Other tools provide their own workspace for content, research, or connected store tasks.

For ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, install Shopify’s official integration from the AI tool, then sign in to Shopify and review the requested access. Reading store information and changing it require different permissions. The tool can make changes only when you grant write access and your Shopify user permissions allow the action.

Order and customer lookups and analytics are read-only. Even with write access, these integrations cannot issue refunds, cancel or capture orders, mark orders as paid, process returns, or create or adjust gift cards.

Use Shopify admin to change payment, tax, domain, and plan settings, and to review and publish theme changes. Customer-facing chat requires a separate tool and setup.

Compare these starting costs in US dollars:

• Shopify Sidekick: Included with your Shopify plan. Features and usage limits vary by plan.
• ChatGPT: Free tier available with feature and usage limits. Paid plans offer higher allowances.
• Microsoft Copilot: Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans. Agent usage can incur charges, and Copilot Cowork uses metered billing.
• Google Gemini: Free tier available with feature and usage limits. Paid plans offer higher allowances.
• Jasper Pro: $69 per month, billed monthly, or $59 per month, billed annually, for one seat.
• Copy.ai Chat: $29 per month or $288 per year, including five seats.
• HubSpot Breeze Assistant: Free with a HubSpot account. Some features require paid subscriptions.

Shopify subscription charges are separate from third-party assistant plans. See each entry below for paid options and feature requirements.

Shopify Sidekick

Sidekick is Shopify’s AI commerce assistant, built into the admin and included with your Shopify plan. It uses store data within your permissions to draft product descriptions, analyze performance, and prepare changes for your review.

Sidekick can find and summarize Shopify Inbox conversations. For example, ask it to find responses customers rated with a thumbs down. Open the linked conversations, review the answers, and correct inaccurate product details or policies.

Staff need the Customers permission and access to Shopify Inbox. Sidekick can read conversations but cannot reply to customers, assign or close conversations, or mark them as read. Open Shopify Inbox to take those actions.

You can also generate apps with Sidekick on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. App generation requires a desktop browser and the App development > Develop permission. Hourly and weekly usage limits vary by plan. Generated apps run inside Shopify admin. They cannot add a customer-facing chatbot to your storefront.

Best for: Shopify teams preparing product updates and reviewing performance inside the admin. Staff permissions and plan-specific limits determine which features they can use.

Use cases: Content generation, store design edits, workflow automation with Shopify Flow, custom app creation, data analysis and reporting.

Pricing: Included with all Shopify plans.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT, built by OpenAI, helps merchants draft content, research products, and analyze information. With an authorized Shopify connection, it can also handle product management and reporting tasks.

In a 2025 Shopify survey,* 67% of respondents reported using ChatGPT.

The Shopify plugin for ChatGPT requires a desktop browser for setup. Once connected, you can ask ChatGPT to look up orders or summarize store performance from your chat.

For example, ask:

Draft a shorter description for [exact product name] using its existing Shopify details. Flag missing information and wait for my approval before changing the product.

Check the draft against the product’s materials, dimensions, and care instructions. After correcting any errors, ask ChatGPT to apply the approved description.

With write access and the required Shopify permissions, ChatGPT can also update products, collections, and inventory, or create new percentage-off discount codes. Use Shopify admin to edit existing codes or create fixed-amount discounts.

For store content, the plugin can make changes such as creating a page or updating a navigation menu. It asks for confirmation before making these changes; review the results in Shopify admin.

You can also describe a business idea to create a Shopify store before signing up. Save the store to a Shopify account and finish its payment, tax, and domain settings in Shopify admin.

Best for: Merchants who already use ChatGPT for content and research and want to manage product information from the same chat. Store changes require approved access and review.

Use cases: Product copy, catalog updates, order lookups, and store reporting.

Pricing options include:

• Free: Access with feature and usage limits.
• ChatGPT Go: $8 per month in the US.
• ChatGPT Business Standard: $20 per user/month, billed annually, or $25 per user/month, billed monthly. Two-seat minimum.
• Shopify connection: No additional Shopify plugin fee. Your Shopify subscription is separate.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot helps teams draft documents, analyze spreadsheets, and work with information in Microsoft 365.

The Shopify plugin for Microsoft Copilot works in Copilot Cowork and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Your organization’s Microsoft 365 settings may require an administrator to deploy it.

In Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, open the Shopify agent to perform store tasks, including permitted product changes when write access is approved. The Shopify agent accesses store information. Use Copilot Cowork for tasks that also require your Microsoft 365 email, documents, or spreadsheets.

The Shopify plugin returns store information as text. To add a product photo through Copilot, provide a public web link to the image. Upload photos stored on your device through Shopify admin.

Best for: Microsoft 365 teams working with Shopify information and business files. Use Copilot Cowork for tasks involving Microsoft 365 content; the Shopify agent in Copilot Chat accesses store information.

Use cases: Product updates, order lookups, store reporting, and analysis using Microsoft 365 files.

Pricing:

• Copilot Chat: Included at no additional charge with eligible Microsoft 365 plans. Agent usage can incur charges.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on: List price of $21 per user/month, billed annually, or $25.20 per user/month, billed monthly. Requires a separate eligible Microsoft 365 subscription.
• Promotional annual price: $18 per user/month for eligible purchases through December 31, 2026, applying to the first year.
• Copilot Cowork: Usage-based charges apply in addition to subscription fees.

Google Gemini

Google Gemini helps merchants research products, draft content, and analyze files. Its free plan provides access with usage limits, while paid plans offer higher allowances and additional features.

The Shopify connector for Gemini works in Gemini on desktop and mobile. With the required access, it can add products, update prices and descriptions, and create collections. You can also ask it to review orders and store performance. Manage or disconnect the connection through Gemini’s connected apps settings.

Best for: Merchants who use Gemini for research and want to update products or review store performance from that workspace. Available actions are limited by Shopify permissions and Gemini’s access controls.

Use cases: Content drafts, product updates, order lookups, and store reporting.

Pricing:

• Free: Access with feature and usage limits.
• Google AI Plus: $4.99 per month on the US pricing page.
• Google AI Pro: $19.99 per month on the US pricing page.
• Shopify connection: No additional Shopify connector fee. Your Shopify subscription is separate.

Jasper Chat

Jasper Chat is the conversational interface inside Jasper, an AI content platform, not a customer-facing chatbot. It generates product descriptions, ads, and marketing copy in a brand’s specific voice, learned from existing content.

Best for: Marketing teams creating product and campaign copy from shared brand reference material. Publishing that content to Shopify requires a separate workflow.

Use cases: Product descriptions, ad copy, FAQ drafts, and revisions using brand reference material. Plagiarism checks use Jasper’s separate Copyscape add-on.

Pricing:

• Pro: $69 per month, billed monthly, or $59 per month, billed annually. Includes one seat.
• Business: Custom pricing for additional seats and advanced features.
• Trial: Seven days on Pro.
• Usage charges: Certain Business features consume credits. Standard content creation in Chat and Canvas does not drive credit usage.

Copy.ai Chat

Copy.ai Chat helps merchants draft product descriptions, ads, and other marketing content. Supply product information and brand voice instructions, then ask it to adapt the material for a specific channel. Review factual claims and offers before publishing the copy.

Best for: Marketing teams adapting product information into ads and website copy. Chat uses the information you supply; Shopify updates require a separately configured workflow.

Use cases: Product descriptions, ad variations, and revisions to existing website copy.

Pricing:

• Monthly: $29 per month.
• Annual: $288 per year, equivalent to $24 per month.

Both include five seats, unlimited words in Chat, and unlimited Chat projects.

HubSpot Breeze Assistant

Breeze Assistant is HubSpot’s conversational AI assistant for internal work. It can answer questions about CRM records, summarize customer activity, draft sales emails, and create records or notes within a user’s permissions.

Shopify merchants can use HubSpot’s Shopify Data Sync integration to sync customer and product records and bring order and cart data into their CRM. Review the sync settings to confirm which records are available and which changes can pass back to Shopify.

Best for: Merchants already managing customer relationships in HubSpot who need record summaries and sales email drafts. Check which Shopify records are synced into the CRM before relying on the answers.

Use cases: CRM queries, customer-record summaries, sales email drafts, and record creation.

Pricing: Free with a HubSpot account. Certain features, including creating agents and workflows, require a Professional or Enterprise subscription.

Benefits of using AI chatbots

AI chatbots can answer routine customer questions and reduce repetitive work for staff.

Enhanced customer service and experience

A chatbot can explain a published return window while staff investigate disputed refunds or missing deliveries. Customers get routine information sooner, and staff can spend time on requests that need investigation.

In a 2025 survey of 1,000 Czech consumers, 53.8% preferred a bot that found relevant information in three seconds to a human who took three minutes.

Increased conversions and sales

A chatbot can answer questions that hold up a purchase, such as whether a product comes in a particular size or meets a shopper’s requirements. For example, the Shopify Inbox agent uses catalog information and available customer preferences to recommend products.

Results vary. In Deloitte Digital’s 2025 customer service research, 40% of respondents reported a positive sales impact from AI, while 52% reported no impact. Those findings cover AI use across customer service.

Review purchases following chatbot conversations and the questions shoppers ask before buying. Use recurring questions to improve product descriptions and recommendations.

Reduced operational costs and increased efficiency

Automating routine questions can reduce the time staff spend repeating shipping or return information. Internal assistants can also prepare product copy and summarize store reports for review.

In the same Deloitte study, 61% of respondents reported a positive impact from AI on customer-service costs.

Expanded market reach and accessibility

A multilingual chatbot can answer shoppers in the language they use. For example, the Shopify Inbox agent replies in the customer’s language, although product titles and other catalog details may appear in the store’s language.

When configured for after-hours conversations, a chatbot can also answer routine questions while staff is unavailable.

How to choose an AI chatbot

Before subscribing, check whether the tool can complete your chosen task using the information and permissions you’re prepared to provide. Compare setup effort and ongoing costs, then test representative requests before making the tool part of your daily work.

Identify your needs and goals

Start with who will use the tool. For shoppers asking about products, shipping, or returns, compare customer-support tools such as Shopify Inbox and Zendesk. For staff updating product copy or reviewing sales, compare internal assistants such as Sidekick or an authorized Shopify connection in ChatGPT.

Decide whether an existing tool meets your requirements or you need a custom build. An existing tool still requires store information, configuration, and testing. Building a custom chatbot through an API also requires developers to maintain its connections, prompts, and workflows.

In the same 2025 Shopify survey,* 29% of respondents who weren’t using AI said they were unsure what AI tools could do. Starting with one clear use case, like answering shipping questions, gives you a jumping off point for your first AI chatbot.

Find out if it’s ready to use out of the box

A no-code chatbot still needs accurate source content and configuration before launch. Review your product details, shipping information, and return policy. Set the tasks the chatbot can handle and the conditions for handing conversations to staff.

For Shopify Inbox, review your knowledge base under Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base. Check published facts against your store policies and the pages they reference. Correct missing or outdated information. Facts generated from storefront scans stay unpublished until you review and publish them.

Compare the replies with your store information. After correcting a source, ask the same question again to check the answer.

Consider cost, time, and resources needed

Calculate the total cost of ownership, including subscriptions, usage charges, setup, maintenance, and staff time spent handling conversations or correcting answers.

For customer support, measure cost per resolved task over a consistent period:

Cost per resolved support task = (software + setup + maintenance + staff-handling costs) ÷ successfully resolved support tasks

For example, $2,000 in total monthly costs divided by 500 successfully resolved tasks gives a cost of $4 per task.

A vendor’s automated resolution fee is one charge within your software costs. Check which events qualify for billing and what additional usage costs.

Understand data privacy and ownership concerns

Review what information the provider receives, how long it retains that information, and whether it uses conversations or uploaded files to train models. Check who owns generated content and how to delete stored information.

For third-party AI tools connected to Shopify, the provider’s terms and privacy policy govern the data shared with that tool. Limit access to the records needed for the task, review staff permissions, and confirm how to revoke the connection.

The Inbox agent displays an automatic notice that customers are chatting with AI powered by Shopify. This notice cannot be removed or customized. Before activation, review your privacy policy to ensure it accurately describes how Shopify processes customer chat communications.

Check integrations

For a customer-service chatbot, confirm how it retrieves current product, inventory, and order information. Check whether the integration comes through the Shopify App Store, requires another service, or needs custom development. Test which actions the chatbot can complete and how it transfers conversations to staff.

Shopify’s official integrations for AI tools give your team authorized access to store tasks from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. A chatbot that serves shoppers requires its own installation and configuration.

Review read access and write permissions separately. Confirm which records the tool can retrieve, which changes it can make, and whether the connected staff account has the required permissions.

Ensure that it works for your channels

Choose tools for the channels your customers use. Shopify’s Inbox agent operates in your online store’s chat widget, while Chatfuel’s Shopify app focuses on WhatsApp. Check channel availability for the specific plan and integration you’re considering.

For omnichannel customer service, confirm whether customer identity and conversation history carry across channels. Test the staff handoff on each channel before launch.

Understand current limitations

AI chatbots can misread questions or give incorrect answers. Require store-specific answers to use current product information and published policies.

Define which requests need staff attention, including disputed refunds, lost orders, billing errors, and requests to speak with a person.

For internal assistants, give each tool only the access needed for its assigned tasks.

How to test an AI chatbot

Choose representative customer requests and write down the expected answers using your current store information. Use test accounts, orders, and products for checks involving private data or changes to your store.

Run the checks relevant to your tool:

• Product and policy answers. Ask about a product detail and a return condition. Include an ambiguous question and a request involving missing or conflicting information. Check whether the chatbot asks for clarification or refers the question to staff when it cannot establish an answer.
• Order lookup and authentication. Request the same test order before and after verifying the customer’s identity. Confirm that private order details appear only after verification and belong to the correct customer.
• Actions outside its permissions. Request an action the chatbot cannot perform, such as a refund when it has no refund access. Confirm that it declines the action and explains how to get further help.
• Staff handoff. Ask to speak with a person during and outside staff availability hours. Check that staff receive the conversation history when handoff is available. When staff are unavailable, confirm that the customer receives a working contact method.
• Channels and languages. Repeat relevant tests on the channels and in the languages your customers use. For conversations that move between channels, check whether customer identity and conversation history carry over.
• Internal assistant tasks. Ask the assistant to retrieve a test product’s current price, then draft a description update. Review the proposed edit before approving it, and check the saved result in Shopify admin.

For Shopify Inbox, open Sales channels > Inbox > Training > Practice scenarios. Review the generated conversations, choose a preferred response, or write your own. This feedback refines response style. Correct factual errors in the underlying product information, policies, or knowledge base. Review suggested persona updates before accepting them.

Record answer accuracy and response time, plus whether each request was successfully resolved. Log failed handoffs and the time spent correcting answers. Calculate total cost per resolved task using the formula above. Verify that the customer’s request was addressed before counting it as resolved; a vendor’s billing definition may use different criteria.

After correcting a source or configuration, repeat the affected tests. Review conversation logs after launch and retest when products, policies, or permissions change.

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.