11 best WhatsApp chatbots and AI agents compared (2026)

The 11 best WhatsApp chatbot platforms

1. Kanal, the WhatsApp AI agent built for Shopify stores

The Kanal app: automations list.

The Kanal app: home dashboard.

Kanal is a WhatsApp marketing and sales app for Shopify stores, installed as a native Shopify app. Its AI agent learns your product catalog, FAQ, store policies and brand voice. Then it answers on WhatsApp, day and night.

It does more than deflect tickets. It recommends products, handles objections and guides shoppers to checkout inside WhatsApp. It gives order status and tracking, and walks customers through returns. When a question needs a person, it hands the conversation to your team with the full history.

• AI: AI agent trained on your Shopify catalog, FAQ and policies, answering in 96+ languages according to its Shopify App Store listing
• E-commerce: native Shopify app (every Shopify plan, including Shopify Plus), plus Klaviyo, Recharge, Crisp and Gorgias. PrestaShop connects through the store API, with setup done by a Kanal expert (PrestaShop integration)
• Also included: abandoned cart recovery and WhatsApp campaigns on the same platform
• Price: Pro at $89/month and Scale at $149/month on the Shopify App Store; the AI agent is listed on the Scale plan (see plans)

Why it is our pick: the bot is connected to real store data, it sells as well as it supports, and it works in the app your customers open every day. The agent learns from your Shopify catalog automatically, and you set responses and escalation rules from the dashboard.

2. Wati, a WhatsApp inbox with chatbots and AI agents

Screenshot of the Wati website.

Wati combines a WhatsApp team inbox, campaigns and a no-code chatbot builder. On Shopify, its app Wati: WA Cart Recovery & AI starts with cart recovery, then hands over to AI agents and a shared inbox. The app's flow builder combines chatbots, automation rules and AI agents.

• AI: an AI agent for FAQs and product assistance on the Pro plan of the Shopify app, with AI billed at $30 per 1,000 credits
• E-commerce: Shopify app. The listing also names WooCommerce, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM and Zapier
• Price: Growth at $69/month on the Shopify App Store, Pro at $149/month, Business at $349/month, with a 7-day free trial. Message charges come on top and vary by country

Built for: recovering carts and increasing sales "with AI-powered WhatsApp chat", in the words of its listing. Our Wati alternative page compares it with Kanal.

3. Interakt, WhatsApp automation with AI agents on its top plan

Screenshot of the Interakt website.

Interakt automates WhatsApp for marketing and support, with a Shopify app built around notifications and cart reminders. The chatbot grows with the plan: a basic WhatsApp chatbot on Growth, an advanced one on Advanced, and WhatsApp AI agents on Premier.

• AI: WhatsApp AI agents (sales, FAQ, lead qualification) on the Premier plan, which also adds Shopify actions in the workflow builder
• E-commerce: Shopify app with abandoned cart reminders, order updates, cash-on-delivery confirmations and a shared team inbox
• Price: Starter at $21/month on the Shopify App Store, Premier at $99/month, with a 14-day free trial. WhatsApp message charges are extra

Built for: automating WhatsApp "for sales, marketing & support", as its listing puts it. See our Interakt comparison.

4. Gallabox, chatbot flows plus AI credits

Screenshot of the Gallabox website.

Gallabox is a WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat platform organized around capturing and qualifying leads. Every plan includes chatbot flows and a monthly pool of AI credits.

• AI: chatbot flow builder on all plans. AI agents on WhatsApp and Instagram start with the Essential plan. Advanced adds AI voice on WhatsApp and phone
• E-commerce: Shopify app (Gallabox WhatsApp Automation) for order notifications, abandoned cart messages and no-code bots for product discovery and cross-sell. Catalog and payments are included from the Basic plan
• Price: Basic at $112/month billed annually (500 AI credits), Essential at $248/month billed annually (2,000 AI credits). WhatsApp message fees are billed separately. The free trial includes 500 AI credits, with no credit card required

Built for: teams that capture and qualify leads in chat (its pricing page opens on "Reply in seconds. Qualify in minutes. Close in days."). See our Gallabox alternative page.

5. AiSensy, the WhatsApp API with an AI agent add-on

Screenshot of the AiSensy website.

AiSensy sells the WhatsApp Business API with campaigns, click-to-WhatsApp ads and a shared team inbox. Its pricing page is built for India: prices in rupees, and per-message rates shown for Indian users.

• AI: a WhatsApp AI agent add-on at ₹1,350/month for 1,000 AI messages, with natural-language replies, knowledge base Q&A, long-term memory and tool calling. A drag-and-drop chatbot builder is a separate add-on (₹2,500/month for 5 chatbots)
• E-commerce: Shopify and WooCommerce integrations on the Basic plan, for order, shipping and abandoned-cart notifications. The Shopify app also sends COD confirmations
• Price: a Free Forever plan (no broadcasting), then Basic at ₹1,500/month billed monthly. Its pricing page states that every WhatsApp Business number gets 1,000 free service messages each month, and that each service message after that costs ₹0.145 for Indian users, in line with Meta's pricing since October 1, 2026

Built for: businesses in India first, judging by its pricing page ("WhatsApp Business API Pricing in India"), with AI as an add-on. See our AiSensy comparison.

6. Respond.io, an omnichannel inbox with AI Agents

Screenshot of the Respond.io website.

Respond.io manages conversations from many channels in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, TikTok, email, web chat and more. Its AI Agents answer from approved knowledge sources, qualify leads, route chats, recommend products, update CRM fields and escalate when a conversation needs judgment.

• AI: AI Prompt and AI Assist on Starter, AI Agents from the Growth plan. AI usage is included at no extra cost on the self-service Growth, Advanced and Enterprise plans
• E-commerce: its integrations page lists Shopify (a web chat plugin for the Shopify website), WooCommerce and Magento, plus HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Make and n8n
• Price: Starter at $79/month billed yearly, Growth at $159/month billed yearly, with a 7-day free trial and no credit card needed. WhatsApp fees are not included in any subscription

Built for: customer conversations across channels (respond.io describes itself as "an AI-powered customer conversation platform"). See our respond.io comparison.

7. Tidio, the Lyro AI agent in a multichannel helpdesk

Screenshot of the Tidio website.

Tidio is a helpdesk for chat, email and social, powered by its Lyro AI agent. WhatsApp is one channel of the inbox, next to live chat, email and Instagram.

• AI: Lyro answers from your knowledge base and hands off to a human. With Lyro Actions, it can process refunds and order edits in Shopify or via API. On product pages, it compares, recommends and adds to cart. AI usage is capped: Lyro pauses at your limit
• E-commerce: Shopify app with native Shopify actions on the Lyro plan. The listing also names Klaviyo, Judge.me, Mailchimp, Zapier and Zendesk
• Price: free plan, then Customer Service at $29/month and Lyro AI Chatbot at $39/month (up to 200 Lyro conversations) on the Shopify App Store, with a 7-day free trial

Built for: "a helpdesk for chat, email and social", in its own words, with WhatsApp as one channel of the inbox. Our best Shopify chatbot apps list covers Tidio in detail.

8. ManyChat, social automation with a WhatsApp channel

Screenshot of the ManyChat website.

ManyChat says it helps "creators and social-first businesses handle engagement at scale". It works across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, email and SMS, and it bills by active contacts.

• AI: automations on every plan, with Manychat AI and AI-powered conversations from the Pro plan
• E-commerce: no e-commerce platform is named on its pricing page
• Price: free plan (25 active contacts, 2 channels), Essential at $14/month billed annually, Pro at $29/month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial on Essential or Pro. The final price depends on the billing country

Built for: creators and social-first businesses, with WhatsApp among the channels you can connect. Read ManyChat pricing explained and our ManyChat comparison.

9. Gupshup, a conversational AI platform with a Shopify app

Screenshot of the Gupshup website.

Gupshup presents itself as "a leading conversational AI platform for marketing, commerce, and support automation". Its Shopify app connects the store to WhatsApp.

• AI: on Shopify, an AI shopping assistant trained on your catalog for discovery and checkout, AI cart recovery messages, and AI post-purchase support for returns, exchanges and tracking, with escalation
• E-commerce: Shopify app (Gupshup: WhatsApp Marketing), which uses Shopify segments for campaigns
• Price: the Shopify app is free to install, with zero platform fee and per-message WhatsApp or RCS charges. Gupshup's self-serve pricing shows a $0.001 platform fee per message, with WhatsApp fees billed at actuals

Built for: stores that want per-message pricing with no platform fee, which is how its Shopify listing presents the app.

10. Landbot, a no-code builder mixing flows and AI

Screenshot of the Landbot website.

Landbot is a no-code builder for AI agents and chatbots on the web and WhatsApp. It combines AI agents with rule-based flows, and you feed the agent your own knowledge base. Its pricing page describes it as an EU-based platform.

• AI: AI agents on paid plans, with AI chats included (100 on Starter, 300 on Professional, 500 on Professional WA), then €0.10 per extra AI chat. Human takeover from a shared inbox
• E-commerce: its Shopify integration embeds the chatbot on your Shopify website (live chat, pop-up, embedded or full page). HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, Sheets, webhooks and API come with Professional
• Price: free plan with a WhatsApp test number, then Starter at €32/month billed annually. WhatsApp on your own number starts with Professional plus the WhatsApp add-on: Professional WA shows €160/month billed annually. Meta fees may vary according to Meta's price list

Built for: building agents and chatbots without code, on the web and on WhatsApp, on what its pricing page calls a "GDPR, EU-based platform".

11. Botpress, an AI agent builder with a WhatsApp integration

Screenshot of the Botpress website.

Botpress is a platform to build AI agents, priced by conversation rather than by seat. Its WhatsApp integration connects your AI chatbot to WhatsApp to handle inquiries, send notifications and perform actions.

• AI: 3 AI agents on the free plan, unlimited from Plus. Plus includes $25 of AI usage
• E-commerce: a Shopify integration in the Botpress Hub. Setup needs your Shop ID plus Admin and Storefront access tokens from a Shopify app you create, with read access to customers, orders and products
• Price: free plan (100 conversations), Plus at $150/month billed annually (250 conversations a month, extra packs of 100 for $65), Team at $750/month billed annually. WhatsApp is part of the Plus plan

Built for: teams that build their own AI agent and connect it to WhatsApp as one integration.

What does a WhatsApp chatbot really cost?

Budget three lines: the platform, the AI and Meta.

1. The platform subscription. Pricing models differ a lot. Kanal charges a flat platform fee. ManyChat bills by active contacts, Botpress and Tidio by conversations, and Gupshup per message. Wati, Interakt, respond.io and Gallabox add WhatsApp message fees on top of the plan.

2. AI usage. Several vendors meter AI separately: Gallabox with monthly AI credits, Landbot at €0.10 per extra AI chat, Wati with AI credits on its Shopify plans ($30 per 1,000), Botpress with an AI usage allowance. Respond.io includes AI usage from the Growth plan. Tidio caps Lyro at your limit.

3. Meta's fees. Since July 1, 2025, Meta charges per delivered template message. Rates depend on the template category (marketing, utility, authentication) and on the recipient's country calling code. Service messages, the free-form replies a person or a third-party AI sends inside an open 24-hour customer service window, were not charged until September 30, 2026, and neither were utility templates sent inside that window. Since October 1, 2026, both are billable: service messages cost the market's utility rate after 1,000 free service messages per business phone number each month. Source: Meta's pricing documentation.

So until September 30, 2026, a chatbot that answers incoming questions inside the customer service window added no Meta fees. Since October 1, 2026, its replies are billed like any other service message, beyond the 1,000 free ones each month. Campaigns, notifications and other template messages are billed per delivered message. For a country-by-country breakdown, read our WhatsApp Business pricing guide. To compare the underlying API providers, see WhatsApp API providers compared.

Kanal's plans are on the pricing page; the AI agent comes with the Scale plan.

Which is the best WhatsApp chatbot for Shopify?

Start from what the bot can read. A chatbot that only knows a FAQ answers general questions; one connected to Shopify can answer about a product, an order or a cart. Kanal's AI agent learns the Shopify catalog and is our pick for Shopify stores that want WhatsApp as a sales and support channel. Wati, Interakt, Tidio and Gupshup also publish a Shopify app whose listing mentions an AI agent or assistant: compare on which plan the AI sits, and what it costs once message fees are added. Our best WhatsApp apps for Shopify list goes further.

How do you choose a WhatsApp chatbot?

Five questions settle most decisions.

1. Where do you sell? On Shopify or PrestaShop, pick a platform that reads your orders and catalog natively. On WooCommerce, check the integration lists above. Still choosing between the two? See our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.
2. What should the bot do? Menus and FAQ answers work with scripted flows. Product advice, order tracking and selling need an AI agent connected to your store data.
3. Which channels matter? A WhatsApp-first platform is built around templates, campaigns and the WhatsApp inbox. A multichannel inbox suits teams that also answer on Instagram, email or web chat.
4. Who takes over? Test the handoff. The agent should pass the conversation, with its history, to a person.
5. What is the full monthly bill? Add the plan, the AI usage and Meta's message fees at your volume.

Choose Kanal if you run an online store and want a WhatsApp chatbot that knows your catalog, sells and hands off cleanly, with abandoned cart recovery and campaigns in the same tool. It is the option that goes furthest on Shopify. Book a demo or see the plans.

The other tools start from a different place: Wati, Interakt, Gallabox and AiSensy from a WhatsApp inbox, with AI on a higher plan or as an add-on; respond.io, Tidio and ManyChat from several channels, WhatsApp among them; Gupshup from per-message pricing; Landbot and Botpress from an agent you design yourself.