Tidio meters three things at once, and when one runs out it stops you. Arbyn charges $99, flat.
Human conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors are three separate quotas that stack on one bill. There is nothing to absorb a busy month, because there is no overage rate. Tidio's own help center says that at the limit you "will no longer be able to respond to incoming messages, nor see their details."
The real bill
What you’d actually pay.
Three real scenarios at three real volumes, using Tidio's published 2026 pricing and the automation rate their own team recommends. Arbyn is $99 flat at every one.
500 AI conversations a month. Tidio's own cost calculator, with the Monthly toggle set, prices the 500-conversation Lyro pack at $350. The human replies here stay inside the Free plan's 50 billable conversations, so the human meter costs nothing yet. Which pack you need is our assumption. The $350 is theirs.
1,000 answered by the AI, 250 that a human takes. That is two quotas running at once, and Tidio prices them separately: the 1,000-conversation Lyro pack is $700 on their calculator, and Growth's 250 billable conversations is $59. The split is our assumption. Both prices are theirs. Worth knowing before you size the pack: Tidio's help center says a thread dies after 15 minutes of inactivity, and the next reply starts a new one that bills again, so one customer issue spread across a day can burn more than one Lyro conversation.
This is where the published ladder runs out. Tidio's help center: the Lyro packages "range from 50 conversations per month up to 1,000 conversations per month. More is also possible, but reserved for custom subscriptions." So at this volume the AI half of your bill has no published number at all and you are talking to sales. What we can price is the human half: Growth's 2,000 billable conversations is $349/mo on their calculator. Arbyn is $99 for all of it, AI and human, with no cap on either.
Verified July 2026, and every price here is the MONTHLY rate, read step by step off Tidio's own cost calculator with the Monthly toggle clicked. Check it yourself and click Monthly first: the page loads with Annually preselected, so a cold visit shows $24.17, $49.17 and $32.50 instead. Lyro AI packs: 50 = $39, 100 = $75, 150 = $110, 200 = $140, 300 = $210, 500 = $350, 750 = $525, 1,000 = $700, and above 1,000 is a custom subscription. Billable conversations: 50 = $0 (Free), 100 = $29 (Starter), then Growth at 250 = $59, 400 = $89, 600 = $129, 1,000 = $179, 2,000 = $349. The per-conversation figures ($0.78 at the entry pack, $0.70 at the top pack) are OUR division of THEIR published prices, not a rate Tidio publishes anywhere. Tidio's own AI agent page advertises "Pay just $0.5 per conversation", and no published pack matches it, so we quote that only as their claim. The 15-minute thread rule, the three separate quotas and the hard stop at 100% are quoted from Tidio's help center. Verified against tidio.com/pricing.
Pricing model decoded
Five tiers. Three meters running at once.
Tidio's pricing page looks like a normal plan table, and then you notice it is metering three different things. You buy a quota of human conversations, a separate quota of Lyro AI conversations, and a third quota of Flows visitors reached. They do not share. And when one empties there is no overage to fall back on: there is a banner at 80% and a stop at 100%.
Three quotas, and they do not share. Tidio's help center is explicit: "the conversations limit affects only person-to-person communication; flows (automated messages), Lyro (the AI agent), and Campaign (email marketing) quotas are entirely separate." So you are sizing three packs a month, not one plan, and any of the three can be the counter that empties first. Arbyn has one number and no counters.
A thread dies after 15 minutes, and the next reply bills again. Their help center defines the AI meter: "a single Lyro use is essentially a single time Lyro responds for the first time in a new conversation thread or ticket thread", and "a thread closes after 15 minutes of inactivity; any new message from the visitor will start a brand new thread, and Lyro's new response will be counted against your quota once more." One customer issue spread across a working day can therefore burn several Lyro conversations. In fairness: Tidio's marketing FAQ says a returning customer still counts as a single conversation, so their own two pages do not agree. We quote the help center because it is the billing document.
The AI ladder tops out at 1,000 conversations a month. Read off their own cost calculator with the Monthly toggle set: 50 = $39, 100 = $75, 150 = $110, 200 = $140, 300 = $210, 500 = $350, 750 = $525, 1,000 = $700. Above 1,000 is "reserved for custom subscriptions". Divide their prices and the entry pack works out to $0.78 a conversation and the top pack to $0.70. That division is ours. Tidio's AI agent page advertises "Pay just $0.5 per conversation", which no published pack actually matches.
There is no overage. There is a hard stop. Most of this category charges you for going over. Tidio does not, and that cuts both ways. A banner appears at 80%, and their help center says of the limit: "you will no longer be able to respond to incoming messages, nor see their details." Your bill is protected. Your Tuesday is not. You upgrade a tier or you wait for the reset on the 1st.
Tidio's own sources contradict each other, so read the calculator. Their Shopify App Store listing prints "250 - 1000 conversations for $59". Their own live cost calculator prices 400 conversations at $89 and 1,000 at $179. The same listing sells the $29 Flows plan as "Reach up to 40k visitors", while their pricing page sells the $29 Flows plan as "From 2 000 visitors reached". Both are first-party Tidio pages. We publish the calculator's figures and we are not going to reconcile theirs for them.
Side by side
Feature for feature. Honestly.
Where Tidio and Arbyn actually differ. Not marketing checkboxes, just real features that work today, as of 2026.
| Capability | Arbyn$99 flat | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat $99/mo | Three separate quotas: billable conversations, Lyro AI conversations, and Flows visitors reached |
| Cost predictability | Fully flat | Three meters, and a hard stop instead of an overage |
| Unlimited conversations | Yes | No. Their published tiers cap billable conversations, up to 2,000 on Growth |
| Unlimited AI resolutions | Yes | No. Lyro packs run 50 to 1,000 a month, $39 to $700. Above 1,000 is a custom subscription |
| Email + chat + IG + FB | Email + chat, IG/FB soon | Yes. Live chat, tickets and email, plus Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp all handle conversations today. Broader than Arbyn |
| Acts inside Shopify | Yes, in-thread | Smart Actions: their page says Lyro can update addresses and trigger refunds through secure APIs. No Tidio page states whether that needs your approval |
| Replies in your voice | Voice Fingerprint | No brand-voice model claimed on their pricing or AI agent pages |
| Free plan | Yes, 150/mo | Yes. $0/mo, 50 billable conversations, 10 seats, plus 50 Lyro AI conversations one-time |
| Setup time | In minutes | Not published |
The honest part
Where Tidio actually wins.
A page that only says “we win” is a sales pitch, not a comparison. So here are three things Tidio genuinely does better than Arbyn today, no hedging. Take them seriously if they matter to your store. Most Shopify store owners weigh them against a flat $99 a month (or $0 to start) and an agent that can act on the order, and switch anyway.
Where Tidio is genuinely ahead, stated plainly.
Tidio is a real product with a real track record, and there are things on their page that are not on ours. They are on more channels than we are. They have live video calls on every plan including the free one. Their Smart Actions builder is genuinely more extensible than Arbyn, and Lyro Connect can bolt their AI onto a help desk you already run. Seats are not the meter at Tidio either, and we are not going to pretend they are: 10 seats on Free, Starter and Growth, custom above that. That is parity with Arbyn, not a weakness. Every paid plan also carries a 7-day no-charge period before billing starts.
The disagreement is the model. Tidio bills you on three quotas at once, and they are explicitly separate: their help center says "the conversations limit affects only person-to-person communication; flows (automated messages), Lyro (the AI agent), and Campaign (email marketing) quotas are entirely separate." That is three counters to watch in one month, and any of them can be the one that empties first. When one does, there is no overage line to absorb it. There is a banner at 80% and a stop at 100%. Arbyn has one number, $99, and it does not move.
Stay with Tidio if Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are the job you are hiring for today, if you want live video in the chat, or if your store is small enough to live inside 50 human conversations a month for $0. Switch to Arbyn when you are tired of sizing three quota packs before the month starts, when a hard stop in the middle of a busy week is not something you can absorb, and when you want the AI to take the real Shopify order action and tell you plainly who has to approve it.
- 01Channels that ship today and ours do not. Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp all handle conversations on Tidio, and live video calls are checkmarked on all five plans, including the free one. Arbyn is support email and live chat, SMS is in beta, and we have no video channel at all.
- 02Their free plan carries a real store, and it is free where ours is not. Tidio's $0 plan gives you 50 human conversations a month across 10 seats. Arbyn's $0 Starter meters AI conversations instead. A small store that just wants a human live chat widget can genuinely run Tidio for nothing, and 4.7 stars across 1,285 Shopify App Store reviews suggests plenty of them do.
- 03Lyro is more extensible than Arbyn. Their Smart Actions page says Lyro can update addresses, log new leads and trigger refunds through secure APIs, built in a visual builder "without writing a single line of code", with Model Context Protocol support: connect it once to your CRM, billing platform or database and it can use every tool that system exposes. Lyro Connect even lets Lyro sit on top of an existing help desk, on Plus and Premium. Arbyn does none of that.
Where Arbyn wins
Three reasons store owners actually switch.
One quota, not three
Arbyn is $99 a month, flat: unlimited conversations, unlimited AI resolutions, no separate AI pack to size and no third meter for automations. There is nothing to forecast, because there is nothing that moves.
Tidio's AI agent page advertises "Pay just $0.5 per conversation". Their own published packs work out to $0.78 a conversation at the 50-pack and $0.70 at the 1,000-pack, by our division of their prices. No published pack hits $0.50.
No hard stop, ever
Arbyn does not stop answering. There is no quota that empties, no banner at 80%, and no month where the tool goes quiet because a counter ran out. On the $0 Starter plan you get 150 AI conversations every calendar month, and it resets on the 1st. On Agent it is unlimited.
Tidio's help center, at 100% of the conversations quota: "If you do reach the limit at any point, however, you will no longer be able to respond to incoming messages, nor see their details." You upgrade, or you wait for the reset.
Arbyn performs the action, and publishes who approves it
Arbyn updates the shipping address on its own. Cancel an order, issue a refund, apply a discount, send a gift card, reship, start a return: you approve with one click and then Arbyn performs the real Shopify mutation and confirms it to the customer, writing every action to the order timeline. Arbyn does not edit orders or line items, and we say so.
Tidio's Smart Actions page says Lyro can "trigger refunds". No Tidio page we read states whether a refund fires with or without your sign-off. We are not going to guess at their model. We published ours.
Arbyn vs Tidio: common questions
Arbyn is a flat $99/mo for unlimited AI conversations and resolutions, with no per-ticket, per-resolution or per-seat fees. Tidio is priced three separate quotas, and no overage, so their bill moves with how much your store is used and the gap widens as you grow. This page shows the actual math at three real volumes. There is also a free Arbyn Starter plan with 150 AI conversations per month at $0.
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