Live Chat for Shopify: Set Up Shopify Inbox or an App

The quickest way to add live chat to Shopify is Shopify Inbox, Shopify’s own free app. You install it, switch on Online store chat in your theme’s App embeds, and answer customers from the Shopify admin or the Inbox mobile app. A paid chat app starts to make sense when you want Instagram, WhatsApp and email in the same inbox as chat, or a helpdesk shared by several people.

Shopify facts below come from the Shopify Help Center on Inbox; app prices and ratings were read on their App Store listings on October 23, 2026.

How to add live chat to Shopify with Shopify Inbox

People search for a Shopify live chat “plugin” or “extension”. On Shopify, chat comes from an app, and the app puts the chat button on your store through an app embed in the theme editor. Shopify Inbox works this way.

1. Install Shopify Inbox from the Shopify App Store. It is free and rated 4.6 from 5,805 reviews.
2. Turn the chat on. In the admin go to Online Store, click Edit theme, open App embeds, select Online store chat, switch it on and click Save.
3. Make the button fit your theme. In the same panel set the Colors (background and font), the Activator (icon, label, horizontal and vertical position), the font, the corner radius, and the Greeting message. Leave the greeting empty and Inbox writes one from your store name.
4. Set your real hours. Go to Sales channels > Inbox > Chat settings > Availability. By default your store shows as always available, which tells customers someone is there at 3 a.m. Pick the hours you actually answer.
5. Turn on automatic first replies. In the same Availability screen, Automated first reply > Turn on, then write one message for During available hours and one for Outside of available hours (up to 2,048 characters each). The outside-hours message is where you say when you will reply.
6. Add instant answers. Under Chat settings > Instant answers, write questions and answers that customers can tap before they type. You can create as many as you like and show up to 100.

Staff can answer from the admin, the Shopify Inbox desktop app, or the iOS and Android apps, and can send product links, discount codes and images in the chat.

To make customers sign in before they chat with staff, go to Sales channels > Inbox > Overview > Chat settings > Require customer sign-in and turn on Require sign-in to chat with staff. This works with new customer accounts; on legacy accounts the same place offers a Customer pre-chat form that asks for contact details instead. Order lookups in chat always need the customer to sign in.

The Inbox agent: what the AI answers

Shopify Inbox includes an AI Inbox agent. It is opt-in, and you choose when it works under Sales channels > Inbox > Inbox agent:

The agent answers questions about products, availability, prices, shipping, returns and sizing from your product catalog, store policies, pages and Knowledge Base. It can recommend products, add them to the customer’s cart, and reply in the language the customer writes in. Shopify lists its limits plainly (Inbox agent):

• It looks up order status only after the customer signs in.
• It works only inside the chat widget on your online store.
• It needs new customer accounts. On legacy customer accounts, chats stay with your staff.
• Customers see a notice that the chat is powered by Shopify and that they are talking to AI. You cannot remove or edit that notice.
• Complex or sensitive questions go to your staff, with the conversation so far. If no one is available, the agent gives the customer your store’s sender email.
• You are responsible for what it says, so it is only as accurate as your policies and product pages.

If your returns policy says “30 days” in one place and “14 days” in another, the agent can quote either. Clean up your policy pages before you switch it on.

When a live chat app is worth paying for

Inbox handles chat on your store. Paid apps add other channels, more automation, and a helpdesk for a team. Tidio is a chat-first app and Gorgias a helpdesk; both have hundreds of App Store reviews and list several channels. Here they are next to Inbox, as their listings showed them on October 23, 2026:

Gorgias and Tidio charge by tickets or conversations, so a busy month costs more. Before you pick a plan, count last month’s support emails and DMs.

Move to a paid app when one of these is true:

• Customers write to you on Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger as much as in chat, and switching between apps loses messages.
• Two or more people answer, and you need assignment, internal notes and a shared history.
• Most questions are about orders (“where is my parcel”, “change my address”), and you want to edit or refund the order without leaving the conversation.

Our list of helpdesk apps for Shopify compares more options, and chatbots for Shopify customer service covers automated answers.

What to put in instant answers

Customers open chat when something on the product page did not answer them, usually right before they buy. Your last month of support emails is the best source for instant answers. The usual questions:

• Delivery time to their country, and the order cut-off for shipping the same day.
• Sizing: how the item fits, with a link to the size chart.
• Returns: how many days, who pays return shipping, how to start one.
• Discounts: whether there is a code for a first order, and why a code did not apply.
• Stock: when a sold-out size comes back.

Copy the wording from your policy pages so the chat and the pages say the same thing. When a question shows up in chat every week, the answer belongs on the product page too.

Running chat on a small team

Chat has to be answered quickly, so promise only what you can staff. Set availability to the hours someone is near a phone, and let the outside-hours reply say when you will be back. Turn on notifications in the Inbox mobile app. Save quick replies for the answers you type every day, such as tracking links and return steps. If nobody can cover evenings, the “Only when your staff is unavailable” mode lets the Inbox agent take those chats. For questions it cannot answer, it gives the customer your store email, so check your inbox first thing in the morning.

Mistakes to avoid

• Leaving availability on “always available”, the default, while nobody is online. Customers wait for a reply that is not coming.
• Placing the chat button over Add to cart. Open your product page on a phone after you place the button; if it covers the buy button or a cookie banner, change the position in the app embed.
• Running two chat apps at once. After you switch apps, turn off the old app embed in the theme editor, or customers see two buttons.
• Switching on the AI agent before fixing contradictions in your policy pages, which it answers from.

More on support channels: chat or email for Shopify customer support and our running a store guides.

Frequently asked questions

Is live chat on Shopify free? It is with Shopify Inbox. The app is listed as free, and its listing shows no separate charge for the Inbox agent. Shopify lists Inbox for the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans.

Can I add chat to Shopify without an app? Shopify’s own option is an app too: Shopify Inbox, installed from the App Store and shown through the theme’s App embeds. Pasting a third-party chat script into the theme code also works, but an app embed is switched on and off in the theme editor and leaves your theme code untouched.

Does Shopify Inbox answer Instagram or WhatsApp messages? Shopify’s Help Center describes Inbox as chat on your online store, and the Inbox agent works only in that chat widget. If you need social channels in one inbox, apps such as Tidio and Gorgias list them.

Can the AI check a customer’s order? Only after the customer signs in to their account in the chat. Without sign-in, the agent can answer product and policy questions but not order questions.