The best free chatbot for Shopify is a free plan you can outgrow gradually
If you want a free AI chatbot for Shopify, Tidio's free plan is a practical place to start: live chat and Flows (rule-based chatbot automations) run on the free plan, and you get 50 Lyro AI conversations to test the AI. The plan costs USD 0 a month, covers 50 billable conversations a month and 10 seats, and a 7-day trial needs no credit card.
"Free" has limits, though. The AI is not free forever: the 50 Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance. This guide covers what the free plan does, what it does not, how to install it on Shopify, and when to upgrade.
Everything below was checked on October 13, 2026 against Tidio's pricing page, the Tidio listing on the Shopify App Store and Tidio's Shopify integration page. For a full breakdown of paid tiers, see the Tidio pricing guide; this article stays focused on starting free.
Your next step: sign up for the free plan, connect your Shopify store, and have the bot answer one common question, such as shipping times.
Who a free Shopify chatbot like Tidio's suits
Tidio's free plan suits small stores that want live chat, a basic chatbot and an AI trial in one inbox, without paying up front. The Shopify App Store has other chat apps with free tiers; their allowances were not checked for this article, so there is no numeric comparison here. To weigh several tools side by side, read the AI chatbot comparison.
Tidio's free plan tends to fit when:
- You get a few dozen customer messages a month and want to see how a bot behaves first
- One to a few people share the inbox
- Most questions are repeats: shipping, returns, stock
If you already field hundreds of chats a month, treat the free plan as a trial and jump ahead to the upgrade section.
What the free plan includes (checked October 13, 2026)
The free plan covers live chat, Flows for up to 100 visitors a month, ticketing, a mobile app and social media inbox integrations. Here is what the pricing page and Shopify listing show.
| Item | Free plan |
|---|---|
| Price | USD 0 per month |
| Billable conversations (human-handled) | 50 per month |
| Seats | 10 |
| Flows (chatbot automations) | 100 visitors reached, refreshed every 30 days |
| Lyro AI agent | 50 conversations, one-time and lifetime |
| Also listed | Live chat, ticketing, mobile app, social media integrations (Shopify App Store) |
It helps to think of two kinds of chatbot here. Flows are rule-based: a shopper taps "Where is my order?" and gets a prepared answer. Lyro is the AI agent: it reads your store content and answers questions in its own words. On the free plan each has a separate allowance.
Tidio's Shopify page lists more than 40 Flows templates, including cart recovery and free-shipping prompts. It also says agents can see carts and order history from the inbox.
What the free plan doesn't cover, and what happens at the limit
The limits you will hit first are the 50 Lyro conversations and the 50 human-handled conversations per month. The Lyro allowance does not refresh monthly. Monthly-refreshing Lyro capacity comes with paid Lyro packages.
The Shopify listing's paid-plan descriptions also show what is not on the free plan:
- "Native Shopify actions" appear under the Lyro plan (order status, refunds, cancellations, edits). Check in your account how much of this is available inside the free 50 conversations
- The Customer Service plan lists analytics, a live visitors list, operating hours and an AI reply assistant
- Removing Tidio branding is listed as a paid add-on
The listing also says Lyro pauses when usage reaches your cap. Before you go live, check in your own account how the widget behaves once an allowance runs out.
How to add the chatbot to Shopify in 5 steps
Install from the Shopify App Store, then switch the widget on in your theme's app embeds. Tidio's help center recommends the app over pasting code on Shopify.
- In Shopify admin, open Apps, search for "Tidio", add Tidio Live Chat & AI Chatbots and install it
- In the Tidio panel, create your account and set the widget's look and opening greeting
- In the theme editor's App embeds, turn on the Tidio Chat Widget and save. The help center notes you need to re-enable it after changing themes
- In Flows, pick a template and turn it on for a common question such as shipping or returns
- Add your shipping and returns policy to Lyro and check its answers within the free 50 conversations
Use either the app or the pasted JavaScript snippet, not both, or the widget can be installed twice. The Tidio getting started guide walks through the setup screens.
A simple first bot to build with the free plan
Start with one narrow bot so you can see how fast the free allowances are used. With Flows capped at 100 visitors and human chats at 50 a month, a focused bot teaches you more than a store-wide launch.
One workable setup:
- A Flow with three buttons (shipping status, how to return, opening hours) that returns prepared answers
- Live chat hand-off only for shoppers whom the buttons do not help
- Lyro trained on your shipping and returns pages, tested within the 50 free conversations
How Lyro handles order lookups is covered in Tidio Lyro order status, and the product itself in the Lyro overview.
When to upgrade from the free plan
Upgrade when you see the allowances running out, not before. Three signals:
- Human-handled chats pass 50 a month (Customer Service: USD 29 a month, or USD 24.17 a month equivalent billed annually, from 100 conversations)
- You want Lyro to keep answering (Lyro: USD 39 a month, or USD 32.50 a month equivalent billed annually, starting at 50 Lyro conversations)
- Flows needs to reach more than 100 visitors a month (Flows: from USD 29 a month, USD 24.17 equivalent annually, covering 2,000 visitors on the pricing page)
These figures come from the Shopify App Store listing, which shows monthly and annual prices, and from the pricing page, which does not label its prices as monthly or annual. Switch between Monthly and Annual before you buy. The pricing guide shows how to estimate a normal month against a busy one.
FAQ
Is Tidio really free for Shopify? Yes, up to the allowances: 50 billable conversations a month, Flows for 100 visitors every 30 days, and 50 one-time Lyro conversations. Beyond those you need a paid plan.
What happens after the 7-day trial? The trial needs no card. If you do not pick a paid plan, the account moves to the free plan. You can see the paid options and prices inside the account during the trial.
Does it work in languages other than English? Tidio's Shopify page lists English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian, among others, for Lyro. If your store sells in another language, test Lyro's answers in that language before relying on it.
Can I stay on the free plan? If your volume is low, the human-chat and Flows allowances refresh monthly, so yes. Lyro's 50 conversations do not refresh, so ongoing AI answers mean a paid Lyro plan.
Next step
Sign up for Tidio's free plan, install it from the Shopify App Store, and let the bot answer one shipping or returns question. No card is needed, and you will see how quickly your own traffic uses the free allowances.
Official sources checked (October 13, 2026)
- Free plan contents, 7-day trial, product prices: Tidio pricing page
- Free plan features, monthly and annual prices, Lyro Shopify actions, pause at usage cap: Tidio on the Shopify App Store
- Flows templates, Shopify features in the inbox, Lyro languages: Tidio Shopify integration page
- Shopify install steps (app search, app embeds, re-enable after theme change): Install Tidio on Shopify (Tidio help center)
