# Garrio Alternative for Shopify: $10/mo Plus 10¢ Overage

> Garrio Starter is $10/mo for 200 AI interactions, then 10 cents each, genuinely cheaper than Arbyn at low volume. Arbyn is $99/mo flat once you outgrow it.

Source: https://arbyn.app/compare/garrio

## How Garrio charges

$10/mo, then 10 cents an interaction. Garrio is free for 100 AI interactions a month, then $10/mo for 200 with a published $0.10 for each one after that. Genuinely cheaper than Arbyn below about 1,090 interactions a month; Professional jumps to $500/mo unlimited.

Garrio's Starter plan really is $10 a month for 200 AI interactions, with a published $0.10 for every one after that. Below about 1,000 interactions a month it beats Arbyn's flat $99. Past that, the per-interaction overage adds up quickly, and there is no way back to a flat rate until you jump to the $500-a-month Professional plan.

## Where Garrio beats Arbyn

- Garrio's Starter plan is genuinely cheaper than Arbyn below about 1,090 AI interactions a month: $10 plus 10 cents each easily beats a flat $99 at low volume.
- The free plan is real and permanent, 100 AI interactions a month, not a countdown trial.
- Garrio also offers a managed human-agent service on top of the AI, for stores that want 24/7 coverage without hiring, something Arbyn does not offer.

_2025_

## Where Arbyn wins

### Flat past the point Garrio isn't

Arbyn stays $99 a month no matter how large your support volume gets. Garrio's 10-cent overage on Starter means your bill keeps climbing with every conversation past 200, and by roughly 1,090 interactions a month it has already passed Arbyn.

_Garrio's own cost calculator prices 650 monthly interactions on Starter at about $55, and the same calculator has no ceiling on how high that number goes as volume grows._

### No jump to a $500 plan

Garrio's own plan comparison shows the next step up from Starter's climbing overage is Professional at $500 a month, a 50x jump from the entry tier. Arbyn has one plan past free, and it is $99.

_Professional's unlimited AI interactions come with a separate, second meter: $1.00 per agent-handled interaction past the 100 included._

### Acts on the order, not just answers

Arbyn updates a shipping address inside the conversation on its own, and prepares a refund for your approval. Garrio's own listing and pricing page describe chat, email, social support and an AI-managed knowledge base, with no claim of changing an address, cancelling an order or issuing a refund.

_Garrio's own comparison frames itself against hiring a person, not against acting on a Shopify order._

## Cost at real volumes

| Scenario | Volume | Their cost | You save with Arbyn |
|---|---|---|---|
| You stay under 1,000 interactions | 650 AI interactions a month | Garrio Starter: about $55/mo | cheaper than Arbyn's $99/mo flat, at this volume |
| Your volume keeps climbing | You cross 1,500 AI interactions a month | Garrio Starter: $10 + 1,300 x $0.10 = $140/mo | Arbyn: still $99/mo flat |
| A customer wants their money back | Refund or address change, mid-chat | Garrio: not claimed on their listing or pricing page | Arbyn: changes the address itself, prepares the refund for approval |

Source: [apps.shopify.com/garrio and garrio.ai/pricing](https://apps.shopify.com/garrio). Every Garrio figure here comes from apps.shopify.com/garrio (the Free, Starter and Professional tiers, the $10/mo and $500/mo prices, the April 28, 2025 launch date) and garrio.ai/pricing (the 200-interaction Starter allowance, the $0.10 and $1.00 overage rates, and Garrio's own cost-calculator example pricing 650 monthly interactions on Starter at about $55). Both checked July 2026. Verified against

## Pricing

- **Arbyn Starter** - $0/month, permanently free. 150 conversations / month. Resets 1st of each month.
- **Arbyn Agent** - $99/month flat, unlimited conversations. Or $990/year (2 months free, saves $198, 17% off).
- **There is no trial.** Billing starts immediately on the Agent plan. The free Starter plan is permanent.
- The conversation cap is the only difference between plans. There is no feature gating.

## Channels

Live today: **support email** and **on-site live chat**. That is the complete list.

SMS, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Voice are on the roadmap and are NOT live. Arbyn does not edit orders or change line items. Money-moving actions (cancel, refund, discount, gift card, reship, return) require the store owner's approval, and then Arbyn performs them. Running them fully autonomously is a beta authorization and is in development. Shipping address changes are already autonomous.

## What Arbyn does on a Shopify order

- **Change the shipping address**: Live. Arbyn does this on its own. Arbyn updates the shipping address on the Shopify order itself, inside the conversation, and writes the change to the order timeline.
- **Cancel an order**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn cancels the order. Anything that moves money waits for the store owner's approval. That is a deliberate control, not a missing feature. Once you approve, Arbyn fires Shopify's order cancellation itself and confirms it to the customer.
- **Issue a refund**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn issues the refund. Arbyn prepares the refund against the original payment method and sends it to you. On approval it files the refund in Shopify. You can cap the value it is allowed to prepare, per channel.
- **Apply a discount**: Live. Arbyn creates a real Shopify discount and applies it to the cart, handing the shopper a checkout with the code already on it. It can also issue a discount code on an order once you approve it.
- **Send a gift card, or reship an order**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn does it. Arbyn creates the gift card, or raises the replacement order, in Shopify once you approve.
- **Start a return**: Live. You approve it, then Arbyn opens the return. Arbyn opens the return in Shopify on your approval.
- **Look up a gift card or store-credit balance**: Live. Arbyn does this on its own. "Do I have store credit left?" is a question most support tools answer with a human. Arbyn reads the balance itself, for a verified customer or from the code they give you, and reports the masked card, the balance and the expiry. If there is no card, it says so rather than guessing.
- **Handle a subscription question**: Live. You choose what it does. Arbyn knows which of your products are sold as a subscription, shows that on the product card in the conversation, and sends a subscriber to their subscription management page to pause, skip or cancel. It answers how your subscriptions work from your own knowledge, but it does not read an individual customer's contract, so it will not state their renewal date or status. Most cancels are a customer with product piling up, and the fix is getting them to the page where they can slow the cadence down. Reading the contract itself is on the roadmap.
- **Answer support email and live chat**: Live. Arbyn reads every inbound support email and every chat, works out the intent, pulls the live Shopify context, and replies in your brand voice.

Money-moving actions (cancel, refund, discount, gift card, reship, return) require the store owner's approval, and then Arbyn performs them. Running them fully autonomously is a beta authorization and is in development. Shipping address changes are already autonomous.