Best WhatsApp Chatbot & AI Agent: 11 Tools, Prices (2026)

A WhatsApp chatbot is software that answers customers on a business's WhatsApp number, with scripted flows (buttons, menus, keywords), an AI agent that understands free text, or both. The best one for an online store reads the catalog and orders, not only a FAQ: our pick is Kanal, whose AI agent comes with the Scale plan at $149/month on the Shopify App Store as of November 4, 2026. The ten other platforms compared here are built around other needs: a multichannel inbox, social automation, per-message pricing or a custom-built agent.

We compared 11 platforms, Kanal included, on three things: the type of AI and the plan that includes it, the e-commerce integrations, and the starting price each vendor displays (re-read on November 4, 2026).

Best WhatsApp AI chatbots: comparison table

The starting price is the entry plan shown on the page we cite. AI features often sit on a higher plan, so read the section for each tool.

How do you set up a WhatsApp chatbot?

Five steps cover most setups, whichever platform you pick:

1. Get WhatsApp Business Platform access through one of the platforms below, which connects your number to the API for you.
2. Choose the job: a scripted menu for a few fixed questions, or an AI agent for free-text questions about products, orders and delivery.
3. Give it your data: FAQ and policy pages for a scripted bot; catalog and orders for an AI agent that sells and tracks.
4. Set the handoff: decide which questions go to a person, and check that the conversation history goes with them.
5. Test, then measure: run real customer questions before going live, then track resolved conversations, handoffs and sales from the chat.

For the step-by-step setup on a store, with ready-made flows, read our WhatsApp chatbot guide for e-commerce.

This page compares platforms. To compare web chat apps you install on Shopify, see our best Shopify chatbot apps. For campaigns and automated flows, see our WhatsApp marketing tools comparison. To compare tools that automate cart reminders, order updates and back-in-stock alerts, read our guide to the best WhatsApp automation tools. These are chatbots a business runs on its own number: for the general-purpose assistant, see ChatGPT on WhatsApp.

Scripted chatbot or AI agent: what is the difference?

Every tool below calls itself a chatbot. They do not all do the same job.

• A scripted chatbot follows a decision tree you build: buttons, menus, keywords. It is predictable. It also stops at the first question you did not plan for.
• An AI agent reads free text and answers from your own data: catalog, policies, order status. It can act, for example check an order or recommend a product. It passes the conversation to a human when needed.

In practice, most platforms now mix the two. Landbot combines AI agents with rule-based flows. Wati's Shopify app puts chatbots, automation rules and AI agents in one flow builder.

What does a WhatsApp chatbot do for an online store?

Most questions a store receives on WhatsApp fall into a few jobs, and each one needs different data:

• "Where is my order?": the bot needs the order and its tracking from Shopify. Proactive shipping updates (order notifications) cut these questions before they arrive.
• Product questions and recommendations: sizes, ingredients, compatibility, which product to choose. The bot needs the catalog, not only a FAQ.
• Returns and delivery policies: answered from your policy pages, the same text every time.
• Cart questions: a customer who replies to a cart reminder with a question is close to buying, so the answer has to come fast.
• Everything else: a handoff to a person, with the conversation history. Our guide to WhatsApp customer support on Shopify covers the team side.

Our e-commerce guide has a detailed rule-based vs AI comparison. If you are still choosing between a website widget and WhatsApp, read AI chatbot for ecommerce. Meta also has its own agent, covered in our Meta Business Agent guide.

How did we compare the platforms?

We first read each vendor's pricing page, product pages and, when it exists, its Shopify App Store listing on September 10, 2026, and re-read the pricing page or listing of all 11 tools on October 8, October 19, October 24 and again on November 4, 2026. Every price and feature below comes from those pages. ManyChat's pricing page could not be loaded on November 4, so its prices are left out. We looked at five points:

• Type of AI: scripted flows, AI agent, or both, and on which plan the AI is included.
• Store data: whether the bot can use your catalog and orders, not only a FAQ.
• E-commerce integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, or none named.
• Human handoff: whether a person can take over with the conversation history.
• Pricing model: flat fee, active contacts, conversations, AI credits or per message, plus Meta's own fees.

Prices are shown as each page displayed them. Some vendors show a different currency depending on the visitor's country. We did not convert anything.

The 11 best WhatsApp chatbot platforms

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

The Kanal app: automations list.

Kanal is a WhatsApp marketing and sales app from the Shopify App Store, rated 5.0 on its listing as of November 4, 2026. On the Scale and Business plans, its AI agent answers customers on WhatsApp and recommends products, and your team takes over from the shared team inbox when a question needs a person.

It works next to the store's other WhatsApp flows, so the same conversation can start with a cart reminder, an order notification or a back in stock alert and end with an answer from the AI agent.

• AI: an AI agent on the Scale and Business plans, which answers questions and recommends products on WhatsApp
• E-commerce: Shopify app, with automations on store events
• Also included: abandoned cart recovery, WhatsApp campaigns to segments, order notifications, post-purchase offers, review collection and back in stock alerts on the same platform, with revenue tracked per message
• Price: Pro at $89/month and Scale at $149/month on the Shopify App Store on November 4, 2026; the AI agent is listed on the Scale plan, and Meta bills WhatsApp messages on top (see plans)

Why it is our pick: the agent works inside a WhatsApp app built for selling on Shopify, it sells as well as it supports, and it works in the app your customers open every day. The WhatsApp AI agent page shows how it works on a Shopify store.

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 on November 4, 2026, 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 on November 4, 2026, 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.

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: on Gallabox's pricing page on November 4, 2026, 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.").

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 on AiSensy's pricing page (November 4, 2026), with 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, then Basic at ₹1,500/month billed monthly, which adds broadcasting. 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.

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. Each plan includes AI credits: 5,000 on Starter, and from 10,000 on Growth and 20,000 on Advanced
• E-commerce: its integrations page lists Shopify (a website chat widget for the Shopify store), plus WooCommerce and Magento through Zapier, and HubSpot, Salesforce, Make and n8n
• Price: on respond.io's pricing page on November 4, 2026, 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").

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

Screenshot of the Tidio website.

Tidio combines an AI chatbot, live chat and a helpdesk, powered by its Lyro AI agent. WhatsApp is one channel of the inbox, next to email, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

• AI: on Shopify, Lyro starts proactive chats on product pages, recommends products from what is in stock and adds them to the cart, and answers FAQs and order status questions in the shopper's language, according to its Shopify App Store listing
• E-commerce: Shopify app with Shopify orders beside each chat and native Shopify actions on the Lyro plan. The listing also names Google Analytics, Judge.me, Klaviyo, Mailchimp and Zapier
• 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 on November 4, 2026, with a 7-day free trial

Built for: selling and support in one tool, "with an AI chatbot, live chat and email helpdesk", as its listing puts it, 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, with Manychat AI and AI-powered conversations on its paid plans
• E-commerce: no e-commerce platform was named on its pricing page when we last read it
• Price: see ManyChat's pricing page. We could not load it on November 4, 2026, so we do not quote its plan prices here

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, its app listing (read November 4, 2026) describes 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 listed as free to install, with additional charges that may apply. Gupshup's self-serve pricing showed a $0.001 fee per message on November 4, 2026, with WhatsApp fees billed at actuals

Built for: per-message pricing on a conversational AI platform, as its pricing page presents it.

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, from Starter
• E-commerce: its Shopify integration embeds the chatbot on your Shopify website (live chat, pop-up, embedded or full page). HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, Google Sheets and webhooks come with Professional
• Price: on Landbot's pricing page on November 4, 2026, a 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 (+€100/month): 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: three Shopify integrations on the Botpress Hub, one maintained by Botpress that syncs your products to a knowledge base, and two maintained by third parties that look up customers and orders. Setup uses access tokens from a Shopify app you create in your Shopify admin
• Price: on Botpress's pricing page on November 4, 2026, a 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. Botpress's pricing FAQ lists WhatsApp among what the Plus plan includes

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 monthly plan, with Meta billing WhatsApp messages on top. 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 (prices as of November 4, 2026): 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 a monthly allowance of AI credits in each plan. Tidio's Lyro plan covers up to 200 Lyro conversations on its Shopify listing.

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, updated September 30, 2026 and read on October 24, 2026. Meta's non-template messages page adds that a business using a third-party AI typically pays the AI provider for AI usage and its messaging provider for delivery.

Source: Meta for Developers, Non-template messages pricing, read on October 24, 2026.

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 AI chatbots does Meta allow on WhatsApp?

A store's own chatbot is allowed, but not every AI product is. The Meta Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform (last modified September 23, 2026, read on October 24, 2026) bar "AI Providers", such as general-purpose AI assistants, from using the platform when the AI is the primary functionality being offered, rather than incidental or ancillary, as Meta decides. A business can still retain an AI provider as its solution provider, but WhatsApp data may not be used to train other AI models: fine-tuning a model for the business's exclusive use is allowed.

Source: Meta, Meta Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform, section 4.7, read on October 24, 2026.

That is why the tools in this comparison are business tools: the AI answers about one store's products, orders and policies. Using ChatGPT itself on WhatsApp as a person is a different topic, covered in our ChatGPT on WhatsApp guide linked above.

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, a WhatsApp marketing and sales app from the Shopify App Store with its AI agent on the Scale plan, is our pick for Shopify stores that want WhatsApp as a sales and support channel. For AI agents beyond WhatsApp, see our best AI agents for e-commerce. 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, 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 a Shopify store and want a WhatsApp AI agent that recommends products and hands off to your team's shared inbox, with abandoned cart recovery and campaigns in the same tool, installed as a Shopify app. 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.