Tidio vs Gorgias (2026): Which Costs Less for a Shopify Store?
Tidio vs Gorgias compared on billing, AI agents, Shopify order tools and seats, with worked monthly and annual costs for three Shopify store sizes.
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Tidio vs Gorgias comes down to how much of your support is about orders. Tidio is a live chat and help desk with a free plan, the Lyro AI agent and up to 10 seats; in every scenario we priced it cost the same as Gorgias or less. Gorgias is a Shopify-first helpdesk with no free plan, order actions in macros, 500 seats from Basic up and an AI agent billed only when it resolves a request. If you run a small or mid-size store and most conversations are pre-sale questions and “where is my order”, choose Tidio. If you have a support team working order changes, refunds and returns all day, or more than 10 agents, choose Gorgias. Prices below were checked on both vendors’ pricing pages on 31 October 2026 and are at the time of writing.
We have full guides to both tools: Tidio and Gorgias. For a scored verdict on each tool alone, read our Tidio review and our Gorgias review.
Tidio vs Gorgias at a glance
| Tidio | Gorgias | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Live chat and help desk with an AI agent | Ecommerce helpdesk with an AI agent |
| Pricing unit | Billable conversations (a human replied) | Billable tickets (any outgoing message) |
| Free plan | Yes: 50 conversations a month, 10 seats | No; 7-day trial, no payment details |
| Entry paid plan | Starter $29/month ($24.17 annually), 100 conversations | Starter $10/month (monthly only), 50 tickets |
| Seats | 10 on Free, Starter and Growth; custom on Plus | 3 on Starter; 500 on Basic, Pro and Advanced |
| AI agent | Lyro, from $39/month for 50 conversations | AI Agent bundles from $30/month for 30 automated interactions |
| AI is counted when | Lyro first replies in a thread | A request is resolved with no human reply within 72 hours |
| AI overage | Buy the next Lyro tier | $1.50 per automated interaction |
| Shopify order actions | Cancel, refund, edit address (Growth) | Duplicate, cancel, refund, edit, also in macros |
| Ecommerce platforms | Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress; product feed for any store | Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento; AI Agent needs Shopify |
| Voice and SMS | No | Paid add-ons, no public prices |
| Best for | Small and mid-size stores, chat-led support | Shopify support teams with many order tickets |
How each one bills: conversations vs tickets
Both charge by volume, not per agent, but they count different things.
Tidio bills a conversation only once a human agent replies or starts it. Replies from Flows (its automation builder) and Lyro do not count, and unanswered conversations are not billed. Lyro is metered separately: a Lyro conversation is counted the first time Lyro replies in a thread, and a thread closes after 15 minutes of inactivity, so a customer who returns later starts a new one.
Gorgias bills a ticket as soon as it contains one message from a human agent, a Rule or AI Agent, and counts it once however many messages follow. A reply to an old thread becomes a new billable ticket after more than 10 days of inactivity on email, or more than 3 days on chat, SMS and voice, according to its billing article. Newsletters, spam and auto-responders are filtered out. Overage is billed per ticket with no automatic upgrade. AI Agent has its own meter of automated interactions, and the pricing page states that each automated interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket.
The auto-reply trap
Because a Gorgias Rule counts as an outgoing message, a Rule that sends “thanks, we got your email” to every inbound message makes every one of those tickets billable, even the ones that would otherwise have gone unanswered. On Tidio, a Flows or Lyro reply on its own does not create a billable conversation.
Seats
Tidio caps Free, Starter and Growth at 10 seats. Beyond that you move to Plus, which starts at $300 a month plus usage and has a custom number of seats. Gorgias gives 3 seats on Starter and 500 on every plan from Basic up, so team size never changes a Gorgias bill.
Pricing compared
Tidio plans
| Plan | Monthly (annual) | Billable conversations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 | 10 seats; first 50 Lyro conversations (one-off) |
| Starter | $29 ($24.17) | 100 | 10 seats; 50 Lyro conversations (one-off) |
| Growth | from $59 ($49.17) | 250 to 2,000 | Tiers: 400 $89, 600 $129, 800 $159, 1,000 $179, 1,500 $249, 2,000 $349; adds macros, automatic assignment, permissions |
| Plus | from $300 + usage | custom | Custom seats, departments, OpenAPI |
Lyro AI Agent packages cost $39 for 50 conversations, $75 for 100, $110 for 150, $140 for 200, $210 for 300, $350 for 500, $525 for 750 and $700 for 1,000 a month. Annual billing is two months free on every plan and package (monthly price x 10/12).
Gorgias plans
| Plan | Monthly (annual) | Tickets | Ticket overage | With AI Agent, monthly (annual) | Automated interactions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $10 (monthly only) | 50 | $0.40 | $40 | 30 |
| Basic | $60 ($50) | 300 | $0.40 | $90 ($77) | 30 |
| Pro | $360 ($300) | 2,000 | $0.36 | $550 ($471) | 190 |
| Advanced | $900 ($750) | 5,000 | $0.36 | $1,430 ($1,227) | 530 |
| Enterprise | custom | over 5,000 | custom | custom | custom |
Automated interactions inside the bundle work out at $1.00 each monthly and $0.90 annually; above the bundle each costs $1.50. The annual plan cards show the same $0.40 or $0.36 ticket overage and $1.50 AI overage as the monthly cards.
Worked examples for a Shopify store
Our estimates from monthly list prices, not vendor quotes. Both tools see the same human-answered tickets; Gorgias counts each AI resolution as one extra ticket, as its pricing page states. Where AI is involved we show Tidio twice: Lyro touching only the threads it resolves, and also touching threads it hands off.
| Scenario | Tidio | Gorgias (cheapest plan) |
|---|---|---|
| A. 2 people, ~100 human-answered chats a month, no AI | Starter: $29 ($24.17 annually) | Starter: $10 + 50 extra tickets x $0.40 = $30 (monthly only) |
| B. 3 agents, 600 human tickets, no AI | Growth 600: $129 ($107.50 annually) | Basic: $60 + 300 x $0.40 = $180 ($50 + $120 = $170 annually) |
| B with AI: 600 human tickets + 150 AI-resolved | Growth 600 $129 + Lyro 150 $110 = $239 ($199.17 annually). If Lyro touches 250 threads: Lyro 300 $210, total $339 ($282.50) | Basic + AI $90; 750 tickets, so 450 extra x $0.40 = $180; 120 extra interactions x $1.50 = $180; total $450 ($77 + $180 + $180 = $437 annually) |
| C. 6 agents, 2,000 human tickets + 500 AI-resolved | Growth 2,000 $349 + Lyro 500 $350 = $699 ($582.50 annually). If Lyro touches 750 threads: $525, total $874 ($728.33) | Pro + AI $550; 2,500 tickets, so 500 extra x $0.36 = $180; 310 extra interactions x $1.50 = $465; total $1,195 ($471 + $180 + $465 = $1,116 annually) |
In scenario A the two are level, and Tidio’s 10 seats against Gorgias Starter’s 3 is the bigger difference. In scenario B with AI, Gorgias Pro + AI ($550, or $471 annually) would remove the overage but costs more than Basic with overage. In scenario C, Advanced + AI ($1,430, or $1,227 annually) covers 5,000 tickets and 530 interactions with no overage, but again costs more than Pro with overage. More than 10 agents pushes Tidio to Plus (from $300 a month plus usage), which narrows the gap.
AI agents: Lyro vs Gorgias AI Agent
Lyro learns from a website scan (up to 100 pages), Q&A pairs, CSV and PDF files, a Zendesk help centre import and a product sync from Shopify or WooCommerce. Procedures let you describe multi-step workflows in plain language, Actions call external APIs, and since September 2026 Lyro can connect to MCP servers. With a paid Lyro package or Plus it can recommend products as cards, from Shopify, WooCommerce or a Google Merchant Center feed, so it also works for stores on other platforms. Tidio’s help centre says Lyro is powered by Claude from Anthropic. It runs on website chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email, and is sold on its own for Zendesk or Salesforce users. Tidio’s pricing page claims customers average a 75% resolution rate; that is a vendor figure, and its own help centre says “up to 70%” of common questions.
Gorgias AI Agent answers support questions, helps shoppers before they buy and automates order tasks. You train it on your store website, help centre articles, documents and written Guidance, and it can take Actions such as cancelling an order (the pricing page lists Actions as unavailable on Starter). Its setup article lists a connected Shopify store as a prerequisite. It deploys to email, chat, SMS and, since 14 October 2026, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. You pay only when it fully resolves a request; if a human replies within 72 hours, the conversation is billed as a normal ticket instead.
That metering difference matters when you size a package. If Lyro answers 250 threads and hands 100 of them to a human, you use 250 Lyro conversations. The same month on Gorgias produces 150 automated interactions, while the 100 handoffs count only as tickets. Lyro is cheaper per unit in our scenarios, but buy a Lyro tier for the threads it touches, not the ones it closes.
Shopify and ecommerce features
Both tools show a customer’s Shopify orders beside the conversation. In Tidio, agents can cancel unfulfilled orders (with refund, restock and notification options), submit refunds by item and edit the shipping address from the chat panel; Tidio’s help article says cancel and refund are available on the Growth plan.
Gorgias goes further for teams. Agents refund and cancel orders from the ticket, and Shopify actions (duplicate, cancel, refund, edit order) can be added to macros, so one click sends the reply and runs the action. Shopify variables work in macros and automated Rules, several stores can share one helpdesk, and Pro adds revenue analytics. Gorgias’s self-service Order Management, which lets shoppers track orders and request returns or cancellations, needs an AI Agent subscription and is Shopify-only; cancellations and refunds requested there still need an agent to approve them.
Tidio’s extras lean towards sales: Flows templates for cart recovery and cross-selling, and a WordPress plugin for WooCommerce stores. One note for TikTok sellers: Gorgias retired its own TikTok Shop app on 30 October 2026 and now points users to TikTok Shop’s official app; existing tickets stay, but the old app no longer syncs new messages or orders.
Channels, voice and WhatsApp
Both cover website chat, email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Gorgias also sells Voice and SMS as add-ons for any plan; the pricing page says only that pricing scales with call and text volume. Tidio has no phone channel, but it does include live video calls.
WhatsApp fees
Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for service replies inside the 24-hour window. Tidio says it gives 1,000 free outgoing WhatsApp messages per number per month, then bills Meta’s per-country rates with no markup on paid plans; sending WhatsApp templates needs Growth or above. Gorgias’s pricing page does not say how Meta’s fees are billed, so ask before you commit if WhatsApp is a big channel.
Which should you choose?
Choose Tidio if you have up to 10 agents, most conversations are pre-sale questions or order lookups, and price matters. It is also the safer pick if you are not on Shopify.
Choose Gorgias if you run a Shopify store with a support team, a large share of tickets need order changes, refunds or returns, you have more than 10 agents, or you need phone and SMS in the same inbox. Watch the Rules that send automatic replies, and size the AI bundle to resolutions, not conversations.
Choose neither if your support is mostly chat volume on a per-seat budget (see our Tidio vs LiveChat comparison), your customers live on WhatsApp, or your conversations start in Instagram comments and DMs; our Manychat vs Wati comparison covers those two. The support and messaging tools directory lists more options, our guide to the best AI tools for customer support teams prices Zendesk, Intercom and Freshdesk alongside both, and the comparisons hub has our other head-to-heads.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tidio cheaper than Gorgias?
In every scenario we priced, yes or about the same. At around 100 human-answered conversations a month, Tidio Starter ($29) and Gorgias Starter with overage ($30) are level. At 600 tickets a month without AI, Tidio Growth costs $129 against $180 for Gorgias Basic with overage, and with an AI agent the gap widens because Gorgias counts each AI resolution as a ticket as well. Prices are monthly list prices at the time of writing.
Is Gorgias better than Tidio for Shopify?
For order-heavy Shopify support, usually yes. Both show Shopify orders next to the conversation and let agents cancel, refund or edit orders, but Gorgias also puts Shopify actions (duplicate, cancel, refund, edit) into macros, lets you use Shopify variables in macros and Rules, offers up to 500 seats from Basic, and its AI Agent is built around a connected Shopify store. Tidio is the better value if most conversations are pre-sale questions or simple order lookups.
Does Gorgias have a free plan?
No. Gorgias offers a 7-day trial with all features and no payment details, then plans start at $10 a month (Starter, 50 tickets, monthly billing only) at the time of writing. Tidio has a permanent free plan with 50 billable conversations a month and 10 seats.
How is Gorgias AI Agent billed compared with Tidio Lyro?
Tidio counts a Lyro conversation the first time Lyro replies in a thread, whether or not it later hands off to a human, and sells packages from 50 conversations for $39 a month. Gorgias charges only for automated interactions, meaning requests resolved with no human reply within 72 hours, at $1.00 each monthly or $0.90 annually inside a plan's bundle and $1.50 over it; each automated interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket.
Can I use Gorgias without Shopify?
The helpdesk, yes: Gorgias lists WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento integrations. But its help centre says AI Agent requires a connected Shopify store, and the self-service Order Management feature is Shopify-only, so non-Shopify stores lose most of what makes Gorgias worth its price. Tidio's Lyro works with Shopify, WooCommerce or any store that can publish a Google Merchant Center product feed.
