Stay AI is the subscription platform built around AI-driven retention. This guide covers what its AI does and the scale at which it pays off.
AI retention, natively on Shopify
Stay AI is a native Shopify subscription platform (built on Shopify’s checkout), but its differentiator is not billing — it is retention intelligence. The core engines:
- RetentionEngine — AI ranks save-offers per subscriber, personalizing cancel flows with pauses, discounts, and surprise gifts to save churners.
- WinbackEngine — automated reactivation triggered by churn-risk signals.
- Predictive churn alerts — flags high-risk subscribers before they cancel.
- ExperienceEngine — personalizes the subscriber experience (dynamic carousels, in-portal banners, A/B tests) with reinforcement-learning models that self-optimize over time.
The proof point is Stay AI’s own published OLIPOP case study: a 26% reduction in active churn and a 35% lift in subscription revenue after migrating off Recharge.
The honest caveat: a high floor
Stay AI publishes a single $499/mo plan + a 1% transaction fee + $0.19 per subscription order, with custom pricing above. There is no multi-tier entry for smaller brands, so below a few thousand active subscribers the AI machinery does not pay back the floor. The ecosystem is also smaller than Recharge’s. See the Stay AI pricing breakdown.
Who this is for
Stay AI fits Shopify and Shopify Plus DTC brands with enough subscription volume that a few points of retained churn clears the $499/mo floor several times over — and that want AI running their save-and-winback flows. It is a top pick in our best subscription app roundup; Skio vs Stay AI and Recharge vs Stay AI cover the head-to-heads.