Buying guide
What is the cheapest way to add AI support on Shopify?
Shopify Inbox, which is free, and nothing paid beats free. Among paid options the math gets more interesting. Simple Chat charges $0.29 per closed conversation and nothing else, no seats, no subscription: $290 for 1,000 AI tickets. Richpanel undercuts that per conversation ($0.20) but seats start at $89/user, which is how its modeled three-user bill reaches $467. Tidio’s free plan is the cheapest way to put a widget on the page if you can live without AI volume. Gorgias starts at $10/month on the App Store, but the same 1,000-ticket model prices the full stack at $1,200.
Listings and prices checked .
Facts reuse the Simple Chat vs pages. Review counts are not invented for Simple Chat. Confirm current rates on App Store listings and vendor pricing pages.
Lowest cost: included with Shopify
Nothing on this list beats included. Inbox is Shopify’s own chat product, so there is no third-party bill at all. It is not an AI helpdesk and does not publish a per-resolution rate, and that is fine. Keep it either way; these pages do not recommend uninstalling Shopify products.
Pricing. Included. $0 third-party subscription.
Cheapest paid AI closer with no seats
One number: $0.29 when the AI closes a conversation. No seat fees, no platform fee, and tickets your team answers are free. At 1,000 AI tickets that is $290, against modeled totals of $1,200 for Gorgias and $1,245 for Intercom, both of which stack a helpdesk or seat bill on top of their AI rate. Richpanel is the interesting one: its $0.20 unit price is lower than ours, and its $89 seats are why the modeled three-user total still lands at $467.
Pricing. $0.29 per AI-closed conversation. Modeled at 1,000 AI tickets: $290.
Lowest published AI unit price, then seats
Richpanel’s pitch is an AI that does more per conversation: refunds, cancellations, and subscription edits on its own, inside limits you set. Its $0.20 AI rate is the lowest published in this set. The catch for a small team is the seat model, since every user is $89/month before the AI meter starts.
Pricing. Everything on the Richpanel listing is a SKU. PRO is $89/month ($828/year) and each additional user is another $89. PRO MAX runs $119 per user. Self Service is its own product at $119/month, plus $299 per extra 20k orders. AI conversations start at $0.20 apiece on every listed plan.
Cheapest live chat without buying AI volume
The free plan is genuinely useful: live chat for 50 users, Flows for 100 visitors a month, ticketing, and social integrations. AI is where the bill starts. Lyro is a separate pack ($39/month for up to 200 conversations on the App Store, or $32.50/month for 50 from the vendor), human conversations get metered past the free cap, and there is no published all-in price at 1,000 AI conversations.
Pricing. Three products, three meters. Customer Service bills on human conversations, Flows on visitors reached, Lyro on AI conversations. The App Store lists Customer Service from $29/month, Flows from $29/month, and Lyro from $39/month for up to 200 AI conversations; tidio.com/pricing shows annual rates of $24.17/mo for Starter (100 billable conversations) and Lyro from $32.50/mo for 50.
Lowest third-party helpdesk starting price, then it stacks
The $10/month Starter tier on the App Store is real, but it is 50 tickets and 3 agents, a size that does not survive real AI volume. Gorgias bills the helpdesk by ticket tier and AI Agent as a separate prepaid allowance, and a resolved AI ticket draws down both. Modeled at 1,000 AI resolutions on annual list prices: $1,200.
Pricing. One Gorgias invoice, two meters. The helpdesk plan is sized by how many tickets it includes; AI Agent is a prepaid allowance of automated interactions on top. A ticket the AI resolves draws down both, once as a helpdesk ticket and once as an AI interaction. Simple Chat runs a single meter: $0.29 when the AI closes a conversation, nothing otherwise.
Direct answers. Updated August 17, 2026.
Shopify Inbox. It comes with Shopify, so no paid app can beat it on price. The rest of this page is about the cheapest way to add AI on top, and these pages do not recommend uninstalling Shopify products.
Richpanel, at $0.20 per AI conversation, genuinely lower than Simple Chat’s $0.29. The unit rate is not the bill, though. Richpanel seats start at $89/user, so three PRO users plus 1,000 AI conversations model out to $467, while Simple Chat’s no-seat total is $290. Elsewhere: Gorgias AI Agent lists at $0.90 per automated interaction on annual billing plus the helpdesk subscription, Intercom Fin at $0.99 per outcome plus seats, and Tidio sells Lyro in packs rather than one per-close rate.
Because the AI rate is only half the Gorgias bill. At 1,000 AI-resolved tickets you are paying for the Pro helpdesk, $300/month on annual billing, plus about $900 of AI Agent usage at $0.90 each: $1,200 together. Simple Chat’s $290 has no helpdesk line on it.
No. Free covers live chat, a small Flows allowance, and ticketing. Lyro is a separate paid pack, so if AI volume is the point, price Lyro packs against a per-close rate instead of counting the free plan as an AI helpdesk.
Named apps are trademarks of their respective owners. Simple Chat is not affiliated with them. Shopify is a trademark of Shopify Inc. Simple Chat is a third-party Shopify App Store app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Shopify. These pages compare independent App Store products and do not recommend uninstalling Shopify products such as Shopify Inbox. See shopify.com. List prices verified .
