Introduction
Most ecommerce support tickets ask the same few things. Where is my order, can I change the address, how do I return this. That repetition is why AI agents work better in retail support than almost anywhere else, and it's why every helpdesk vendor now sells one.
The products below differ less in what the AI can say than in two practical areas: whether it can act on an order (look it up, cancel it, refund it) and how you pay for it. Billing now comes in three shapes: per seat, per AI resolution, and metered tokens. At volume, the gap between them adds up to hundreds of dollars a month, so this roundup leans hard on pricing.
A note on scores. scored.tools has no rating data on file for any of these six tools yet, so none of them carries a score here, and the entries are listed alphabetically. All prices come from each vendor's public pricing page as of October 2026 and are in US dollars.
1. Gladly
Score: not scored
Gladly builds its helpdesk around the customer. Each shopper gets one continuous conversation history across channels like chat, email, SMS and voice, so agents see a person's full record and don't have to piece it together from separate tickets. The pricing page lists no plans and no prices. It points you to a demo, a contact-sales link and an ROI calculator. That tells you who the product is for: larger retail brands with a real contact centre, often including phone support. A small Shopify store can't even estimate its cost without a sales call, which is reason enough for most small teams to start elsewhere.
Best for mid-market and enterprise retailers running phone and digital support from one team.
Pricing is not published. Contact sales.
2. Gorgias
Score: not scored
Gorgias is the helpdesk most Shopify brands look at first, and its pricing is built around ticket volume, with no per-seat charge. Plans run from Starter at $10/month (50 tickets) through Basic at $50/month billed annually or $60 monthly (300 tickets), Pro at $300 or $360 (2,000 tickets) and Advanced at $750 or $900 (5,000 tickets), with Enterprise on custom terms. Overage is $0.40 per ticket on the lower tiers and $0.36 on Pro and Advanced. Every plan includes AI Agent, which costs $0.90 per automated interaction on an annual contract, $1.00 on monthly, and $1.50 above your plan allowance. Plans include a base of automated interactions ranging from 30 on Starter to 530 on Advanced. Read the billing definition carefully. Gorgias counts a billable ticket as any conversation that includes a message from a human agent, a Rule or AI Agent, so a conversation the AI resolves can count against your ticket allowance as well as your AI usage. Unlimited seats make it a good fit for seasonal teams that bring on temporary agents for Q4.
Best for Shopify brands with a dedicated support team and seasonal headcount swings.
Pricing runs $10 to $750/month (annual) by ticket volume, plus $0.90 to $1.50 per AI automated interaction.
3. Intercom (Fin)
Score: not scored
Intercom prices by seat and adds a flat fee per AI outcome. Essential costs $29 per seat per month, Advanced $85 and Expert $132 (billed monthly), and Fin AI Agent is included on every plan at $0.99 per outcome. Intercom counts an outcome when the customer confirms the answer resolved things, when they don't ask for more help, or when Fin completes a workflow. For stores, the Shopify app is what matters. Per Intercom's help docs, Fin can answer order questions from synced Shopify data (status, items, shipping address, tracking), and agents can edit addresses, cancel orders and issue refunds from the inbox. The docs also say Fin's Get order info action does not process returns, refunds or order edits itself, so those still reach a human unless you build a custom action. A single, published per-outcome price makes Fin the easiest AI agent on this list to budget for.
Best for stores that want the most predictable AI pricing and a strong general-purpose agent.
Pricing is $29 to $132 per seat/month, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome.
4. Richpanel
Score: not scored
Richpanel is a helpdesk aimed at ecommerce, and it bills AI on a token meter instead of per resolution. The helpdesk costs $99 per seat per month on annual billing or $119 monthly. AI agents carry a $200/month minimum, with credits at $0.50 each on annual billing or $0.60 on monthly. Richpanel puts the typical cost at about $0.20 per conversation and says it is roughly 5x cheaper than other AI agents. The cheapest combined setup, one seat plus the AI minimum, starts at $299/month on an annual commitment. QA AI, a social media agent and a self-service portal are included with no add-on fee. A Returns and Exchanges add-on starts at $99/month, and Richpanel offers a money-back guarantee if it doesn't deliver a 10% better exchange ratio within 60 days. Token billing tracks usage rather than outcomes, so ask how long or escalated conversations are metered before you assume the $0.20 figure applies to your store.
Best for high-volume stores where per-resolution fees would get expensive, especially those with heavy returns traffic.
Pricing starts at $299/month (annual) for one seat plus the $200 AI minimum. AI is billed per credit.
5. Tidio
Score: not scored
Tidio is the cheapest way in. The free plan covers 50 billable conversations and 10 seats. Starter costs $24.17/month for 100 conversations, Growth starts at $49.17/month for up to 2,000, and Plus starts at $300/month plus usage fees. A custom Premium tier comes with what Tidio calls a guaranteed 50% Lyro AI resolution rate. Lyro, the AI agent, is an add-on that starts at $32.50/month for 50 conversations, about $0.65 per conversation at that entry tier. Tidio says Lyro solves up to 67% of customer problems on its own. Every plan has a 7-day free trial with no credit card. The pricing suits a small store. At higher volumes the add-on structure becomes harder to compare, because Lyro tiers above the entry level aren't listed on the main pricing page.
Best for small stores and solo founders who want live chat and a basic AI agent for under $100/month.
Pricing starts with a free plan. Paid plans from $24.17/month. Lyro from $32.50/month for 50 conversations.
6. Zendesk
Score: not scored
Zendesk is the default for teams with complex routing, many channels and a long list of integrations. Suite Team costs $55 per agent per month billed annually ($69 monthly) and includes 5 automated resolutions per agent per month. Suite Professional costs $115 ($149 monthly) with 10 per agent. Additional automated resolutions cost $1.50 each on a committed plan or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, the highest per-resolution rate in this roundup. Copilot, the agent-assist add-on with auto assist and intelligent triage, costs another $50 per agent per month on annual billing. A 10-agent team on Professional with Copilot pays $1,650/month before any AI resolutions beyond the 100 included. If you already run Zendesk, adding its AI is the least disruptive option. For a new Shopify store choosing from scratch, it's hard to justify the cost.
Best for larger support teams already on Zendesk with multi-brand or multi-region routing.
Pricing is $55 to $115 per agent/month (annual), $1.50 to $2.00 per extra automated resolution, Copilot $50 per agent/month.
Comparison table
| Tool | Score | Entry price | AI pricing model | Free plan or trial | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gladly | Not scored | Contact sales | Not published | Demo only | Enterprise retail with voice |
| Gorgias | Not scored | $10/month | $0.90 to $1.50 per automated interaction | Starter plan at $10 | Shopify brands with support teams |
| Intercom | Not scored | $29/seat/month | $0.99 per Fin outcome | Trial | Predictable AI cost |
| Richpanel | Not scored | $299/month (annual) | Token credits, $200/month minimum | Not listed | High-volume, returns-heavy stores |
| Tidio | Not scored | Free | Lyro add-on from $32.50/month | Free plan, 7-day trial | Small stores |
| Zendesk | Not scored | $55/agent/month (annual) | $1.50 to $2.00 per automated resolution | Trial | Existing Zendesk teams |
What 1,000 AI resolutions a month costs at list price
This is simple arithmetic from published rates, ignoring included allowances and base plan fees:
- Gorgias: $900 on an annual contract, $1,000 on monthly.
- Intercom: $990.
- Zendesk: $1,500 committed, $2,000 pay-as-you-go.
- Richpanel: about $200 if its own $0.20-per-conversation average holds for your traffic, which also happens to be the monthly minimum.
Tidio and Gladly don't publish enough to run the same sum.
Final picks
- Small store, tight budget should pick Tidio. A free plan, paid tiers from $24.17, and Lyro from $32.50 make it the cheapest way to try an AI agent.
- Shopify brand with a real support team should pick Gorgias. Ticket-based pricing with no seat fees, and AI Agent included on every plan.
- Most predictable AI bill belongs to Intercom. One published price per Fin outcome, and Shopify order lookups documented in the help center.
- Lowest claimed AI unit cost: Richpanel, provided its token metering matches its $0.20 average on your conversations. Confirm that on a trial before you sign an annual deal.
- Already on Zendesk: stay on Zendesk and add its AI, but price out the $1.50 resolutions and the $50 Copilot seats first.
- Enterprise retail with phone support: Gladly, once sales gives you a quote.
