Shopify Inbox, Shopify Magic and Sidekick vs an AI chatbot: what each does
Shopify Inbox now has an AI agent that answers shoppers, while Shopify Magic and Sidekick work for you in the admin. What each one does, its limits, and when a separate AI chatbot is worth adding.
MagizAI Team7 min read
Shopify AI comes in three parts with different jobs. Shopify Inbox is the chat on your store, and its Inbox agent is an AI that answers shoppers. Shopify Magic is the name Shopify used for AI tools inside the admin, such as suggested replies. Sidekick is an assistant for you and your staff. Only the Inbox agent talks to customers.
This guide follows Shopify's own help center, App Store listing and product pages, read on 22 October 2026. Shopify changes these features often, so each one is linked for you to check.
What Shopify Inbox does
Shopify Inbox is Shopify's own chat app, and its App Store listing gives the price as Free. Your staff answer shoppers from the Inbox apps for desktop, iOS and Android, send product links, discount codes and images, and set the hours they are available. You can also add instant answers: fixed questions and answers a shopper taps in the chat window, with up to 100 on display.
Does Shopify Inbox have AI features?
Yes, two kinds. One talks to your customers. The other only helps your staff.
The Inbox agent answers shoppers
Shopify's help center describes the Inbox agent as an opt-in AI that answers questions about your products, shipping, returns, sizing and store policies. It draws on your catalog, policies, Knowledge Base facts and files, and published pages such as blog posts and product care guides. For a product you sell, it can also add cited web results about reviews and ratings. It recommends products, adds them to the cart, helps a customer check an existing order after they sign in, and replies in the language the customer writes in.
You choose when it works: on all conversations, only when your staff are unavailable, or never. Complex or sensitive chats can move to your staff with the AI's context; when nobody is available, it gives the customer your store's email address. Customers see a notice that the chat is powered by Shopify and that they are chatting with AI, and you cannot remove or change it.
You can train its voice by rating real chats and reviewing practice conversations. Shopify says training does not change what the agent knows about your store, so a wrong answer is fixed in the product, policy or page it came from.
The requirements are Shopify Inbox installed, an active online store, the new customer accounts (it does not work with legacy ones) and the Basic, Grow, Advanced or Shopify Plus plan. It works only inside your online store's chat window.
Suggested replies help your staff
Suggested replies are drafts written by AI for your team, not messages sent to shoppers. Shopify's page on them says a person reviews each one before sending, that they need your online store and admin to be in English, and that they work only in English. The AI-written suggestions for instant answers are English only too.
What is Shopify Magic?
Shopify Magic is the name Shopify has used for the AI features built into the admin. On 22 October 2026, shopify.com/magic redirects to the Sidekick page, and the help center lists the same features under AI-powered tools. The name still shows up in places: the App Store's review summaries say they are generated by Shopify Magic.
The features themselves are small helpers in specific screens: suggested replies in Inbox, a suggested product category from your product details, a theme made from a description of your business, an image background replaced with a colour, a plain-language description of each customer segment, and review summaries for some apps. Shopify says many are available at no additional cost, with availability varying by plan, device and language. Every one of them works for the merchant. None answers a shopper.
What does Shopify Sidekick do?
Sidekick is an AI assistant in your Shopify admin. You ask in plain language, and it gives guidance, writes product descriptions, blog posts, pages and Shopify Messaging emails, builds theme blocks and custom apps, and carries out tasks such as analysing data, managing orders or editing products. The help center says it presents changes for your review before applying them. Shopify's Sidekick page says it is included with your plan, with features and usage limits that vary by plan, that each staff member can use it within their admin permissions, and that it can help in multiple languages.
Sidekick works for you, not your shoppers. It can draft the page or product description the Inbox agent will later quote, but it does not sit in the chat window.
Shopify Inbox, Magic and Sidekick side by side
| Read on 22 October 2026 | Who it talks to | Where it works | What it does | Cost Shopify lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inbox agent | Shoppers | Your online store's chat window | Answers, recommends, adds to cart, checks orders after sign-in, hands over | Inbox listing: Free |
| Suggested replies | Your staff | Shopify Inbox | Drafts English replies for staff to send | Many such tools cost nothing extra, Shopify says |
| Other admin AI tools (Shopify Magic) | You | Product, theme, file and customer screens | Categories, themes, images, segment descriptions | Same as above |
| Sidekick | You and your staff | Shopify admin | Guidance, content, apps and admin tasks you review | Included with your plan |
| A separate AI chatbot | Shoppers | Your site, often also WhatsApp, email or social | Depends on the vendor | The vendor's own pricing |
When a separate AI chatbot makes sense
The Inbox agent covers a lot without a monthly fee, so start with what it cannot do for your store.
- Your store does not meet the requirements: a plan outside Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, or legacy customer accounts.
- You want one assistant beyond the store's chat window, for example on WhatsApp, by email, or on a second site that does not run on Shopify.
- You want AI that changes orders. The Shopify pages we read describe answers, cart help, order status and hand-off. They do not describe cancelling, refunding or editing an order, which some help desks list as AI actions.
- Your team needs more control over hand-off: routing rules, business hours, alerts on a phone, or a full help desk with tickets and reports.
- You want to pick the AI model, or pay for AI with your own provider key.
MagizAI, our product, is one chatbot of this kind: one line of script in your theme, the same assistant on your store and on WhatsApp, and order look-ups for a customer your store's server signs in, with no changes to orders. How it works on Shopify covers the setup. For the wider market, see AI chatbots for Shopify compared, with prices from each vendor's own page.
What to check before you add an AI chatbot to Shopify
- Order questions. How does it know the person asking owns the order? A safe tool needs the customer signed in. An email address typed into the chat proves nothing.
- What it may change. Answering is low risk. Refunds, cancellations and discounts need limits you set and a record of what it did.
- Where its answers come from. It should answer from your catalog, policies and pages and say when it does not know. How a chatbot answers from your own content explains the method. If it can also quote the wider web, as the Inbox agent can for product reviews, decide whether you want that.
- Hand-off at night. When nobody is online, does the shopper get a form, an email address or a callback promise? When a chatbot should hand off to a person covers the rules.
- Billing. Per resolution, per AI conversation, credits or a flat plan. Count a week of your real chats against each.
- Data access. Every App Store listing shows which store data the app can view and edit. Shopify Inbox's own listing, for example, asks to edit customers, products and orders. Read it before you install.
Then test it the plain way: ask the ten questions your customers ask most, once as a guest and once signed in, and read every answer as if you were the customer.