Best AI Sales Chatbot for Shopify: A DTC Brand’s Guide (2026)

A shopper on a DTC product page has one or two questions standing between them and checkout: Will it fit? Which one is right for me? Can I return it? An AI sales chatbot answers those questions from your catalog and policies, recommends the right product and adds it to the cart. A support chatbot answers "where is my order?". Both are useful; they are not the same tool.

This guide compares the main Shopify options by the job they are built for and by how they charge. Prices come from vendor pages and pricing guides as reported in October 2026 and often disagree, so check each app's Shopify App Store listing before you install.

Sales chatbot or support chatbot?

Many DTC brands run one of each: a support tool in the helpdesk and a sales agent on product pages.

The options

Rep AI A sales-first assistant that recommends products to shoppers. Reviews describe pricing based on store traffic, which means you pay for visitors whether or not they chat; check the current tiers on its App Store listing.

Zipchat A sales-focused chat that also covers WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and email from one place. Plans are monthly with reply allowances; its own posts report starting prices between about $49 and $80 per month.

Gorgias AI Agent Gorgias is a helpdesk built for ecommerce, and its AI Agent handles support and shopping questions. It bills per automated interaction, and pricing guides note that each automated interaction also uses a helpdesk ticket. Strong if support is your main problem.

Tidio (Lyro) Self-serve chat with the Lyro AI agent billed by AI conversations on top of a plan. A low-cost way to start; unresolved conversations still use your quota.

Shopify Inbox Shopify's free chat app. A sensible starting point for answering shoppers yourself, rather than an autonomous sales agent.

Sonic Prospect for Shopify (early access) An AI sales rep on your product, collection, cart and checkout pages. It asks what the shopper needs, recommends and compares products by level, size, budget or occasion, answers pre-purchase questions from your store's published content, adds the chosen variant to the cart and replies in the shopper's language. It does not do order tracking or post-purchase support and does not use contact-harvesting pop-ups.

Pricing is tied to sales: chats are free, and you pay 3.5% of orders placed within 72 hours after a helpful chat, with no commission on your first $500 of sales. You can see which chat led to each order and dispute a charge within 30 days. Billing runs through Shopify. It is in early access: join the waitlist.

How DTC brands should choose

1. Start from the job. If most chats are "where is my order?", buy support automation. If shoppers hesitate on fit, sizing or which product to pick, buy a sales agent.
2. Test answers on your own catalog. Ask five real pre-purchase questions from your inbox and compare the answers.
3. Model the bill for a normal and a peak month. Traffic-based pricing grows with visitors, conversation-based with chats, and order-based with sales that follow a chat.
4. Check attribution. If you pay on orders, ask how a chat is matched to an order and how disputes work.
5. Keep the brand voice. No hard sell, no pop-ups that interrupt browsing.

For a broader comparison of pricing models, see our AI sales agent pricing guide.

Sources

Competitor details as reported in October 2026; check each app's current listing.

• Rep AI review and pricing (SalesRobot)
• Rep AI on the Shopify App Store
• Best Shopify chatbot apps (Zipchat)
• Gorgias AI Agent pricing (eesel)
• Tidio pricing at volume (CostBench)