Let’s clear something up before we begin. This isn’t about LiveChat, the platform. This is about Gorgias Live Chat, the built-in live chat feature of the Gorgias help desk.
If you run a Shopify or ecommerce store, Gorgias might already be on your radar. It’s a help desk tool that connects support channels like email, chat, and social messaging into one workspace. One of its core features is live chat, which allows support teams to speak with customers directly on-site and respond to questions in real time.
Gorgias Live Chat is available on every plan, and it does the basics well. You can trigger messages on key pages, use pre-made replies, and see order data without switching tabs. But how much it helps your team depends on how it’s set up.
But while live chat is available on every plan, what you do with it depends on your setup. If you stay manual, your agents handle every conversation themselves. If you turn on automation, Gorgias starts tagging, routing, and responding with AI.
In this guide, we’ll explore what Gorgias Live Chat does well, how automation pricing actually works, and what to consider if you are comparing manual replies with a smarter and more flexible AI alternative like eesel AI.
What Gorgias Live Chat does well and where it stops
Live chat works well for real-time support, but as conversation volume increases, keeping up without automation can put pressure on your team. Delays, repeated answers, and manual follow-ups all take time, and that time adds up quickly.
Automation helps reduce that load by taking care of the repetitive work. It tags tickets, assigns priority, and can respond to common questions based on customer behavior or message content. The result is faster replies, fewer missed tickets, and more time for agents to focus on more complex issues.
Here’s what it handles well:
- Real-time conversations: You can chat with customers while they are browsing and answer questions as they come in.
- Proactive messaging: Gorgias allows you to send targeted messages on specific pages, like product or checkout, to encourage engagement.
- Order data in the chat view: Agents can view recent customer orders and basic information directly inside the live chat panel.
- Conversation history across channels: Live chat threads are stored alongside email, social, and SMS conversations, giving your team full context when replying.
Key benefits of automation
Manual support works well up to a point, but once volume increases, it becomes harder to maintain fast, consistent responses across all channels. That is where automation can help fill the gap.
With automation turned on, Gorgias can help handle some of the repetitive work that slows teams down. It can tag incoming tickets based on keywords, route them to the right team, and respond to common questions automatically. These small shifts can add up to major time savings.
Here are a few ways automation changes the day-to-day:
- Faster ticket routing: Tickets can be tagged and assigned automatically based on topic, language, or sentiment. This helps reduce wait times and ensures the right people are handling the right issues.
- Consistent responses: Instead of relying on agents to copy and paste replies, automation tools can send answers instantly using templates or AI-generated responses, keeping support consistent across your team.
- Around-the-clock coverage: Even when your team is offline, automation can still respond to simple questions or confirm receipt of a message, helping maintain service coverage during evenings, weekends, or holidays.
- Lower agent workload: By handling routine questions, automation frees up your team to focus on more complex or sensitive issues that require human input.
Gorgias Live Chat AI pricing
Gorgias does not charge per agent like most support platforms. Instead, its pricing is based on two things: how many tickets you expect to handle each month, and what percentage of those you want to automate.
To keep things simple, we are focusing on the Pro plan in this comparison. It sits in the middle of Gorgias’ pricing tiers, between the Basic and Advanced plans, with the Enterprise plan sitting above them for higher-volume teams. The Pro plan is commonly chosen by growing ecommerce businesses that handle around 2,000 tickets per month. This makes it a practical reference point for understanding how automation affects both cost and capacity.
| Automation Level | Monthly Price | Helpdesk Tickets | Automated Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zero percent | $300 | 2,000 | None |
| Twenty percent | $675 | 2,000 | 400 |
| Thirty percent | $833 | 2,000 | 600 |
| Fifty percent | $1,050 | 2,000 | 1,000 |
Prices based on monthly billing. Overages may apply if you exceed your ticket limits.
On paper, this model gives teams some flexibility. But in practice, it can be difficult to predict monthly costs, especially if your support volume changes or you want to adjust automation levels over time.
Understanding how Gorgias Live Chat fits into pricing
Live chat is included on every Gorgias plan, even if you have zero percent automation turned on. That means you can use the chat widget to talk to customers, answer questions in real time, and apply macros or templates manually.
But if you want Gorgias to help automate those replies like tagging tickets, assigning priority, or sending quick responses, and you’ll need to pay for automation. This is where things start to get a little tricky.
When you choose an automation level, such as 20%, 30%, or 50%, you are setting a limit for how many tickets can be handled by AI. That automated volume is capped. If you exceed it, the remaining tickets are handled manually or billed as overages.
Here’s how Gorgias counts chat interactions:
| Chat scenario | Ticket type |
|---|---|
| Agent replies manually in live chat | Helpdesk ticket |
| AI responds through live chat | Automated ticket |
So while live chat is always available, the way tickets are counted depends on who does the replying. The more automation you use, the more your monthly bill can shift based on volume or unexpected spikes in demand.
For teams that want a more predictable setup, eesel AI offers flat per-interaction pricing. There are no automation tiers or ticket caps. Just one price, no surprises.
Sample cost breakdown
Gorgias has a pricing calculator on its website that helps estimate monthly costs based on your support volume and automation settings.
To give you a practical example, let’s say your team handles around 2,500 tickets per month and plans to automate thirty percent of those. Based on Gorgias’ current plans, you would fall under the Pro tier, which includes up to 2,000 total tickets per month. The remaining 500 tickets would be counted as overages.
Here’s what the cost might look like:
| Cost Component | Details | Estimated Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Pro plan with 30 percent automation | Covers 2,000 tickets (600 handled by AI) | $833 |
| Additional 500 tickets | Priced at $0.36 per extra ticket | $180 |
| Estimated monthly total | $1,013 |
This example shows how pricing can change quickly when your ticket volume exceeds the plan’s limit. Even a small increase in demand can result in overage fees that make monthly costs harder to predict.
When Gorgias’ built-in AI isn’t enough
For many support teams using Gorgias, the decision to add automation starts with efficiency. But when they take a closer look at pricing, integration options, and long-term scalability, Gorgias’ built-in AI isn’t always the best fit.
Truth is, eesel is not a help desk. But it works alongside platforms like Gorgias, enhancing what your team can do without replacing your existing setup. It connects with your knowledge sources, reads past tickets, and helps automate replies in live chat and other support channels.
Here are a few reasons teams choose to layer eesel AI into their Gorgias workflow:
Flat, predictable pricing
eesel offers a flat rate per interaction, without requiring you to commit to a specific automation percentage or worry about hitting ticket caps. This makes budgeting simpler and eliminates surprise fees when volume fluctuates.
Custom bots, not just one
With eesel, you can create multiple bots, each trained on different topics or channels. This means you can separate product inquiries from order status questions or even build bots tailored to specific regions or languages.
More integrations beyond Gorgias
eesel connects with platforms like Slack, Confluence, Google Drive, and even internal documents. This allows your AI assistant to pull from a wider range of knowledge, making its replies more accurate and more helpful over time.
Supports agents, not just customers
eesel can be used as an agent assistant too. It suggests responses based on your own past tickets and documentation, helping your team respond faster without losing control over tone or accuracy.
Quick to set up, easier to adjust
Unlike some AI tools that require heavy configuration or engineering support, eesel is easy and quick to install. You can go live in under two weeks and make adjustments as you go without needing to overhaul your workflow.
How to integrate eesel AI into Gorgias in 4 steps
Adding eesel AI to your Gorgias setup does not require a full system change or complex implementation. It runs alongside your existing workflow and connects to the tools you already use. Most teams can complete setup in 1-2 weeks.
Here is what the process typically looks like:
1. Sign up and connect Gorgias
Start by creating an eesel AI account and connect it to your Gorgias workspace. You can also bring in other sources like Google Drive, Confluence, or your help center to expand your AI assistant’s knowledge base.
2. Train the AI on your docs and past tickets
You can upload previous support tickets or documents to give the AI a better understanding of how your team communicates. This helps it learn tone, phrasing, and how to handle different types of requests more effectively.
3. Customize and test
Define how your assistant should respond, including what types of questions it should handle, when to escalate to a human agent, and what tone to use. You can also create multiple bots for different topics or workflows if needed.
Once your settings are in place, test responses in a staging environment or within a limited part of your support flow. When everything looks good, you can launch it across your channels.
4. Launch and track performance
After launch, monitor key metrics like deflection rate, replies created, and feedback. eesel’s built-in ROI dashboard helps you see what’s working and where improvements can be made. Regular check-ins make it easier to fine-tune your bot and expand its coverage over time.
Try eesel AI with your Gorgias setup
Gorgias Live Chat gives ecommerce teams a strong starting point for real-time customer support. As your business grows and ticket volume increases, relying on manual replies alone can slow your team down.
Automation can help improve efficiency, but depending on your plan, Gorgias’ built-in AI may come with added complexity and rising costs. This is why some teams look for more flexible tools like eesel AI, which works alongside Gorgias to reduce repetitive work, support agents in real time, and streamline day-to-day support tasks.
With simple pricing, quick setup, and the flexibility to scale without changing your existing workflow, eesel AI gives you a way to add automation without locking into rigid plans or volume thresholds.
If you’re ready to see how it fits, you can start a free trial or book a demo to explore it with a member of our team.
