AI chatbot for ecommerce: what to buy and what it costs

Which ecommerce questions should you automate first?

Order status. Every vendor in this guide with an ecommerce page leads with it.

• Gorgias markets itself as "the only AI Agent built for ecommerce" and says it powers customer conversations for 40% of Shopify brands.
• Fin's ecommerce page shows it pulling real-time order statuses and estimated delivery updates straight from Shopify.
• Tidio says Lyro detects and answers questions about order status, shipping policies and product availability within seconds.
• My AI Front Desk lists AI order status lookup plus Shopify and WooCommerce integrations.

Returns and shipping-policy questions come next, because the answers live in your help center rather than in a customer's head. Product-availability questions follow the same pattern.

What stays human: anything involving judgment, exceptions or money movement beyond a standard refund policy. Fin charges nothing if the customer asks for a human. Tidio's Lyro creates a ticket when a question is outside its knowledge. Gorgias re-bills an AI interaction as a regular helpdesk ticket if an agent replies within 72 hours.

If your store also takes phone orders, note that most tools here are chat-first. Retell AI is the voice option: it handles order-status calls at $0.07-$0.31 per minute. See our voice agent vs chatbot breakdown before deciding.

The tools, side by side

Only facts each vendor publishes. Where a vendor does not publish something, we say so.

Two things to watch in this table. First, Gorgias counts each AI Agent interaction as a helpdesk ticket too, so automated conversations consume both your ticket allowance and the per-interaction fee ($0.90 on annual plans, $1.00 monthly). Second, Crisp's AI runs on dollar credits ($5/$25/$75 included per plan), and Crisp does not publish the cost of extra credits once those run out.

Per-resolution math for a store doing 2,000 tickets a month

Assumption, clearly labeled: the AI resolves 40% of your 2,000 monthly tickets, so 800 AI resolutions and 1,200 human-handled tickets. No vendor here publishes a guaranteed rate that high on a standard plan. Tidio reports a 75% average resolution rate across customers and guarantees 50% on Premium; treat 40% as a conservative planning number, not a promise.

Using only published rates:

• Gorgias AI Agent. 800 AI interactions x $0.90 per interaction (annual rate) = $720/month in AI fees, plus the helpdesk subscription. The Pro plan at $300/month billed annually includes 2,000 tickets and 190 automated AI interactions. Note the double-count: AI interactions also consume ticket allowance. On monthly billing the AI rate is $1.00 per interaction, so $800.
• Fin. 800 outcomes x $0.99 per outcome = $792/month, plus $19 per seat per month if you run it with the Intercom helpdesk. With an existing helpdesk, the $49/month minimum includes 50 outcomes, so the marginal math is the same $0.99. Fin refunds the outcome if the conversation reopens.
• Tidio Lyro. 800 conversations x $0.5 per conversation = $400/month. Self-serve Lyro quotas cap at 1,000 AI conversations per month, so 800 fits; above that you need a custom plan. Lyro Connect (to keep Zendesk, Intercom or Salesforce) requires Plus from $300/month plus usage.

For comparison, a flat-monthly option: Crisp Plus at $295/month includes roughly 1,350 automated conversations, which would cover 800 AI resolutions with headroom. The trade-off is that "roughly" is Crisp's own word, and overage credit pricing is not published.

Run your own numbers with our AI call center savings calculator.

How do the billing models differ?

Three models show up in this category.

Per-resolution. Gorgias ($0.90-$1.00 per AI interaction), Fin ($0.99 per outcome), Tidio ($0.5 per conversation). You pay when the AI closes the conversation. Fin's definition is the most detailed: an outcome counts when the customer confirms resolution, does not ask for more help, or Fin completes a workflow, and you pay nothing if the customer requests a human. Tidio counts any interaction with at least one Lyro reply as one conversation, however many replies it takes.

Flat monthly. Crisp ($45-$295/month by plan, with AI credit allowances) and My AI Front Desk ($99/month with 200 voice minutes and 100 chatbot conversations) (My AI Front Desk pricing). Predictable, but watch the caps: My AI Front Desk moves heavy phone traffic to overage credits at $0.25/minute.

Per-minute. Retell AI at $0.07-$0.31 per minute. This is the voice model. Retell's own watch-out: billing continues during silence and hold time because the speech-to-text engine stays active.

Quote-only: Ada publishes no pricing, plans or free trial. Costs require a sales call.

If you are comparing chat against phone automation for your store, our AI receptionist cost guide covers the per-minute side in more detail.

What about Shopify specifically?

Four vendors state Shopify integrations: Gorgias, Fin, Tidio and Crisp. My AI Front Desk also lists a Shopify AI integration alongside WooCommerce.

Depth differs. Gorgias is built around ecommerce helpdesks and lists the surrounding stack too: Loop Returns, Recharge, Klaviyo, Yotpo, Attentive. Fin's ecommerce page describes pulling live order status and delivery estimates from Shopify into chat answers. Tidio appears in Shopify's live chat app listings. Crisp syncs Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop and Adobe order data into its inbox.

Ada lists retail and ecommerce as an industry but names no specific platform integrations, only open APIs and SDKs. Retell AI lists no ecommerce platform integrations at all; it connects through Twilio, SIP trunking, Make, n8n and similar infrastructure, which means developer work.

If your store is on Shopify and you want the shortest path to automated order-status answers, the vendors with stated integrations are the lower-risk starting point. Confirm the exact data each one can read and write before signing.

How we would shortlist

Match the tool to your ticket mix and your stack.

• Shopify store, want one bill for helpdesk plus AI: Gorgias. Entry at $10/month, per-resolution AI at $0.90-$1.00. Confirm current pricing, because Gorgias's pricing page carries a conflicting second data block with higher plan prices.
• Already on Zendesk, Salesforce, Freshdesk or HubSpot: Fin at $0.99 per outcome with a $49/month minimum, or Tidio Lyro via Lyro Connect on Plus from $300/month plus usage (Tidio Lyro pricing).
• Want a free start: Tidio gives every account 50 free Lyro conversations and a 7-day trial. Crisp has a free-forever plan with the chat widget and ecommerce integrations, but no AI credits. Fin offers a 14-day trial with all features.
• Phone-heavy store: Retell AI at $0.07-$0.31/minute, or My AI Front Desk if you want flat monthly billing. Neither is chat-first.
• Enterprise, compliance-driven: Ada lists HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI DSS and AIUC-1, but everything else requires a sales call. Fin lists SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, HIPAA and AIUC-1 with published pricing.

We have not made test calls or run these agents against a live store yet. Our methodology page explains how we verify vendor claims, and how to test an AI receptionist applies to chat agents too. Or get matched with tools that fit your volume.