SearchIQ: Visual Search & Tags user guide

SearchIQ uses your product photos for similar items, sold-out alternatives and photo search. Starter and above add cart and More in your style picks; Growth and above add shoppable looks. In your admin, Catalog Vision scores your catalog and proposes alt text, tags and attributes for review. Reports show revenue SearchIQ influenced and searches that found nothing. Results depend on the covered index, your settings and available allowance. Catalog Vision and some newer surfaces roll out gradually; the app shows what is available for your store.

Set up your store

1. Open the app in Shopify admin and follow the setup checklist.
2. Check Catalog index. Indexing normally starts after installation; use Start indexing if needed. Large catalogs can take more than a day because coverage limits, daily processing limits and the shared AI allowance apply. Progress uses the smaller of your eligible catalog and coverage limit. You can continue setup while indexing runs.
3. Choose your search preferences, then open the theme editor. Under App embeds, enable SearchIQ search launcher and save the theme. Choose a floating camera button or placement beside the theme's search field. Placement depends on the theme's markup.
4. If you want a dedicated page, use Create visual-search page in setup, then place the SearchIQ search widget block on that page's template in the theme editor and save.
5. Add SearchIQ recommendations to a product template if you want similar items and sold-out alternatives. Save and preview the theme.
6. Preview the storefront and run a search. The app detects a widget after a storefront page containing it loads; detection alone does not prove that a search can run.

On a first build, the search entry point normally becomes available at 80% index progress, provided visual search is enabled. A previously completed index can keep its entry point during later updates. Neither readiness nor a camera icon guarantees that every product is indexed or a paid search is available.

Search by photo, crop or words

Shoppers open the camera button, upload or take a photo, or paste an image screenshot into the photo panel, then run a search. The panel says “Saw it on Instagram? Paste or upload a screenshot”. They can crop the image to focus on an item. The app returns visually similar indexed products; a match is not an exact-item guarantee. If no strong match exists, it may show closest matches or an empty result.

On Starter and above, shoppers can add words to a photo or search by keyword when photo-plus-text search is enabled. Keyword searches also use the shared AI allowance. Type-ahead uses indexed product titles. In Settings → Search terms, you can manage up to eight popular-search phrases for the opening panel. These are merchant-curated phrases, separate from the popular product cards.

Growth and above add exact variant SKU matching and merchant synonyms. Review suggested synonyms before saving them; suggestions from no-result searches do not publish automatically. Indexed-title typo fallback is available on keyword-search plans when semantic matches are weak or empty.

The Show 'find similar' camera on product images theme setting controls camera buttons on eligible product cards. These use that image to start a new search and consume allowance. They do not appear on all possible images in every theme. Storefront languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Hindi and Arabic, with English fallback. Shopify's storefront language selects the translation; your own headings remain as entered.

Test in Visual search

Open Visual search, upload a supported image, and select Run search. You can inspect match confidence and try refinement words if your plan allows them. The out-of-stock preview option helps compare availability behavior. Admin tests use the same search and AI allowances as shopper searches. Use a result card's pin or bury controls to change merchandising. Pin rank must be a positive number; Unpin and Unbury remove those overrides.

Catalog Vision

Catalog Vision is being rolled out gradually. If your store shows a rollout notice, you can use it once access is enabled. Reading scores and reviewing suggestions does not require optional write access.

Read your score and create suggestions

1. Open Catalog Vision and select Read my catalog, or Refresh score after the first scan. A manual refresh is available every 15 minutes; the app also refreshes daily once enabled. The previous score can remain visible while a refresh runs.
2. Review the Visual data score, from 0 to 100. It checks alt text, visual attributes, image count, resolution and near-duplicate images. Supported standard category attributes also contribute when applicable. Free sees the full score. The score does not measure search ranking or feed eligibility.
3. Select Create suggestions. SearchIQ reuses stored visual attributes; products without them can use image tagging within your Catalog Vision and paid AI allowances. New and changed products are checked automatically after Catalog Vision is enabled.
4. Review Current and Proposed values under each product. Alt text and tags are available on every plan within allowance. Growth and above also support SearchIQ attribute metafields for color, pattern, material, style, occasion and season.

Existing alt text and standard attributes are preserved by default. To request replacements, select Include existing alt text and standard attributes in the next preview before creating suggestions. Review each replacement. Tags are added alongside your existing tags.

Filter, preview and apply

1. Use Field, Status, Product status and Search product title to find suggestions. Standard attributes is a separate field filter.
2. Approve, Reject or Edit before apply for a field, or approve/reject the product's fields. Standard category values cannot be edited as free text. Approval alone does not write to Shopify.
3. Choose Preview apply or Preview product apply. For bulk alt text or tags, use Approve all alt text… or Approve all tags… with your filters. The Dry-run preview shows the affected products, fields and values, with up to 500 fields per preview. No Shopify changes are made by previewing. Cancel if the selection is wrong.
4. Select Approve and apply, or Grant access and apply if access is missing. Shopify asks only for the optional permissions needed: image-file write access for alt text, product write access for tags and metafields, and additional metaobject access for standard attributes. Translation changes need translation access. Declining keeps scores and suggestions available.
5. Watch Job progress and undo history. If a job says its outcome is unconfirmed, use Check again to check Shopify before starting another apply job.

Auto-apply future suggestions

Auto-apply starts off. Under Auto-apply future suggestions, choose Alt text, Tags or Attribute metafields (Growth+), then select Save auto-apply preferences. Only saved fields apply automatically, with permissions and allowance checked for each job. Existing alt text is preserved. Standard category attributes always need manual approval; these switches do not enable automatic standard-attribute, Pro or translation writes.

Undo and allowance

Use Undo this write or Undo job in the history within 30 days. Undo restores supported previous values, preserves later merchant edits and removes only tags SearchIQ added. If an attribute field was absent before SearchIQ added it, the history shows Remove in Shopify and an Open product in Shopify link. Remove that attribute there if you no longer want it. Shared definitions and standard entries remain available to other products. Undo does not refund allowance.

The allowance card shows products used in the current UTC month. Free includes 50 products/month; paid plans use their covered-product limit, with trial coverage capped at 10,000 products. Base fields on the same product count once. Successful tagging or an applied base field uses that product's slot. Pro and translated alt text have separate monthly product allowances equal to covered products. Paid AI limits still apply. When allowance is used, scores and undo remain available.

For text, identifiers and feed checks, use the Full catalog & feed audit (free) card.

Standard category attributes

On Growth and above, Catalog Vision can suggest supported Shopify standard attributes for the product's existing category, using its visual attributes. SearchIQ does not assign a category. If you see Set a product category in Shopify to unlock standard attributes, set the category in Shopify, refresh your catalog and create suggestions again.

1. Filter Field → Standard attributes in Catalog Vision.
2. Review labels such as Color: Green (standard) against the product photo. Only supported values from that category can be proposed. A missing suggestion can mean no supported match was found.
3. Preview and approve the desired values. On the first standard apply, grant the optional product and metaobject permissions Shopify requests. Standard suggestions never auto-apply.
4. Check the result in Shopify. Existing values stay intact unless you explicitly requested replacement; later changes are checked again before applying.

Standard category fields are separate from SearchIQ's custom attribute metafields. SearchIQ fills product attributes; it does not change variant options. Within 30 days, undo can restore an existing previous value. A newly added attribute needs manual removal in Shopify, as described above. Configure any storefront filters in Shopify separately; filling attributes does not promise search ranking, feed acceptance or placement in an external channel.

Shoppable looks (Growth and above)

This feature is a release candidate and becomes available after the app and theme extension are released. Growth includes 20 looks and Scale includes 100. Drafts count toward the limit.

1. Open Looks, choose Choose photo from Files, and grant optional Files access when asked. Select a lifestyle or UGC image from Shopify Files. The photo stays in Shopify; SearchIQ keeps its file reference and refreshes its image link when needed.
2. Select Find products in this photo. Photo matching uses the same monthly AI allowance as other paid AI work. If that allowance is closed, matching pauses. This action proposes up to six item regions, each with up to three covered, in-stock product matches. Matches are suggestions, so check each one. You can also use Add hotspot without running photo matching.
3. Choose a suggested match or use Swap product, adjust its label and region percentages, and select Confirm this hotspot. Remove any unwanted hotspots. Products outside your current coverage or out of stock cannot be saved as hotspots.
4. Give the look a title, choose Published, and select Save look. Draft looks remain hidden.
5. In the theme editor, add the Shop the look app block to a section, enter the look ID shown in the editor, and save the theme. You can enable Show Add to cart for a quick-add link.

Shoppers can tap or hover over a dot to see the product, shop-currency price and link. Keyboard users can focus a dot, press Enter to open it and Escape to close it. Add to cart uses an indexed variant; shoppers can open the product to choose other options. Products that become unavailable or leave the covered set are hidden when the look loads. The block also follows SearchIQ's emergency presentation control and holdout assignment.

Product clicks and quick-add links use the existing consent-aware cart attribution. Eligible orders can appear as SearchIQ-influenced revenue from looks; attribution does not prove that SearchIQ caused a purchase. Removing a look deletes its hotspots and hides that look's block.

Catalog index and allowances

Catalog index shows progress, image and product counts, failed images, recent jobs and the Image and AI allowance card. Check this card when coverage stops growing or searches cannot run.

• Catalog coverage counts products, using their main image. Free, Starter and Growth use one image per covered product before add-ons. Scale includes up to two alternate images. Existing alternate vectors are retained, and current coverage limits apply when results are served.
• Photo and keyword searches, indexing, automatic tags and demand labels share the monthly AI budget and call allowance. Indexing can use allowance that would otherwise be available for shopper searches.
• The logical monthly search ceiling is an additional upper bound. It is not a promise that this many searches remain after indexing or other AI activity. The first exhausted limit pauses new paid work.
• Monthly AI allowances reset at the start of the next month in UTC. A higher plan can add room; processing can also pause while usage is being verified. Existing indexed images are retained.
• Daily processing limits can delay a build across days. Catalog changes are combined briefly, and repeated paid processing of the same image is subject to a cooldown.

Rebuild index reads the catalog again; unchanged image content can reuse the existing index. Use product title/handle search and Shopify-status filters to inspect live product diagnostics. Retry product, where offered, queues eligible product work. It still respects coverage, allowance and processing limits. Failed files may need correction in Shopify before a retry helps. Re-scan catalog requests a catalog re-scan. Near-duplicate pairs are suggestions for review, not automatic product deletion.

Attributes and filters

Automatic image tagging is available on Starter and above, while allowance is available. It produces attributes such as category, color, material and style for the app's index. To write Shopify tags or supported attributes, review and apply Catalog Vision suggestions separately.

On Growth and above, Attributes shows aggregated facet values and product counts. Shoppers can use those attributes as filters in search results. Re-tag catalog queues eligible reindex work; unchanged images and processing limits may prevent an immediate new tag. You cannot manually edit or override extracted tag values in this version.

Recommendations

Similar items and sold-out alternatives are available on every plan. Open Recommendations to preview a product's visual matches, Auto picks and More in your style. The style preview uses the selected product as an example viewing history. Complete-the-look picks use visual similarity and category information.

Add SearchIQ recommendations to a product template in the theme editor. New blocks start with Similar or sold-out alternatives (Auto mode). When the product is sold out, the heading reads “This one's sold out — similar styles in stock”. Otherwise it reads “Similar styles”. Existing blocks keep their chosen kind and heading. All picks come from the currently covered catalog, with in-stock results.

On Starter and higher, add SearchIQ cart picks to the cart template, or More in your style to the home or product template. Each block has a Show checkbox in the theme editor. Cart picks start from the first cart product and exclude products already in the cart. The blocks hide when there are no picks.

Style picks use up to ten recently viewed product IDs stored in that shopper's browser while preferences processing is allowed. Enable the launcher across the store to remember product views. When Shopify's privacy API is available, its preferences permission controls history. When the API and its loader are absent, history is allowed only when no supported consent banner is detected. Denied or unknown permission keeps the style surface hidden.

The launcher's Find similar on collection cards setting starts off. It also requires product image cameras to be enabled. Supported collection structures have been checked in local Dawn, Refresh, Horizon, dark and reset-heavy theme fixtures. Preview your installed theme before enabling it. Free widgets display a small Visual search by SearchIQ link. Paid widgets hide the badge.

The Visual recommendations switch in Settings controls recommendation surfaces. Individual block and collection-camera controls live in the theme editor.

Merchandising

In Merchandising, select Add product, search indexed products by title or handle, then pin or bury your choice. Pin rank must be a positive number; lower ranks appear first among matching products. Bury hides a product from visual search results. Use Unpin or Unbury to remove an override. You can also use these controls on result cards in Visual search. Filter and page through existing overrides to review them. Products without an override rank automatically. Review results again after catalog images change; pinning does not bypass coverage or other result eligibility checks.

Analytics and Demand intel

Analytics shows search volume, match/no-result rates, latency, clicked product attributes and the recorded search → click → cart → purchase funnel. Attribution depends on the widget tracking the action; it does not capture every sale or prove an increase in revenue. Rejected searches can be missing from these charts. Top styles describe clicked product attributes, not a list of shopper keyword phrases.

The search-phrase report separately lists repeated keyword and photo-refinement phrases searched at least twice. Choose Searched but not found to review phrases without results in the selected range. These records are separate from Scale's grouped visual-demand clusters.

The revenue report shows SearchIQ-influenced revenue, with attributed products and surfaces such as search, recommendations and looks. Eligible interactions can be attributed within seven days. Amounts are grouped by currency. Consent and recorded interactions affect attribution; this is not a claim that SearchIQ caused extra sales. Revenue reporting and the Growth+ optional holdout test depend on the corresponding app and theme release. Holdout results compare observed browser buckets; they do not promise a statistically significant result.

Analytics lookback is 7 days on Free, 30 on Starter, 90 on Growth, and 365 days on Scale and Enterprise. Select a date range within your plan's window.

On Scale and above, Demand intel groups searches with no good match into named patterns that can help with stocking decisions. Clusters need enough search activity before they appear. They are summaries, not a gallery of the original shopper photos or a complete list of search words.

Connections and shopper recovery

Connections shows which compatible apps are installed and lets you manage available connections. Wishlist and back-in-stock actions require the destination app and the corresponding connection to be on. A shopper request may need contact details or sign-in and can remain pending if delivery fails.

With a compatible support app installed and the connection enabled, shoppers can use Can't find it? Ask us for help. This is connected support chat, not a separate SearchIQ shopping assistant. On Scale and above, stock and return information from connected apps can adjust ranking.

Settings and storefront controls

In Settings, adjust match strictness, results per search, sold-out product handling and widget branding. A higher match threshold marks fewer matches as strong; closest available results can still appear. Choose whether sold-out matches are demoted, hidden or shown.

You can switch visual search, photo-plus-text search, automatic tagging, recommendations and demand insights on or off where your plan permits them. These switches do not override plan limits. The plan summary shows product and logical search ceilings; use Catalog index for image/AI usage.

To stop a storefront surface:

• Turn visual search off in Settings to hide its search entry points.
• Turn recommendations off separately, or remove the recommendations block from product templates.
• Use Connections to turn off individual recovery and support options.
• For complete storefront removal, disable SearchIQ search launcher in App embeds and remove every SearchIQ search and recommendation block from the affected theme. Save and preview the theme.

Billing

The Billing page shows subscription status, monthly/yearly choices, trial eligibility and plan features. Charges use Shopify billing. The first eligible paid subscription can include a trial; returning paid subscribers do not receive a new trial automatically.

These are the configured product and logical search ceilings, not guaranteed searchable-product coverage or completed-search counts. A separate image cap and shared AI budget/call allowance can stop work earlier. Check the current image/AI allowance in the app before choosing a plan for your catalog.

• Free — $0/month covers up to 500 products with a 300-search monthly ceiling.
• Starter — $2.99/month covers up to 2,500 products with a 2,000-search monthly ceiling.
• Growth — $7.99/month covers up to 10,000 products with a 10,000-search monthly ceiling.
• Scale — $19.99/month covers up to 50,000 products with a 40,000-search monthly ceiling.

Enterprise remains available to existing subscribers. Contact support for catalogs above 50,000 products. Annual Starter, Growth and Scale prices are $24.99, $69.99 and $169.99. Eligible paid plans have one 14-day trial per shop. Trial coverage is capped at 10,000 products using main images until the first paid charge.

An upgrade takes effect when Shopify confirms the subscription. Downgrades retain existing indexed images, but lower image/search/AI limits and feature gates apply. New paid searches can pause if the lower allowance is already used. A failed payment has a 3-day grace period before Free entitlements apply; allowance limits still apply during that period. Check Billing after resolving a payment.

Add-ons

Add-ons roll out gradually and may show awaiting billing review for this store. When enabled, all five are available on every plan, including Free. They extend capacity or provide their named capability; buying one does not unlock unrelated features from a higher plan. Trial coverage still stays at up to 10,000 products with no alternate images until the first paid charge.

For Free and monthly plans, charges use a merchant-approved usage line with a 30-day cap. Prices below are in USD. Fixed add-on fees and the extra-search cap share the approved total cap.

Annual plans and active trials use separately approved one-time packs lasting 90 days:

• +2,500 products: $2.97 per pack.
• Alternate images: $2.97.
• Extra searches: 10,000 for $2.49; unused searches expire after 90 days.
• Catalog Vision Pro: $5.97.
• Multilingual alt text: $2.97 per extra language.

Choose and manage an add-on

1. Open Billing → Add-ons. Check the price and whether your store uses usage billing or one-time packs.
2. Select Enable add-on and the pack quantity where offered. For usage-billed searches, set Extra-search cap per 30 days (USD). Extra searches stop when their cap or pack is used.
3. For Multilingual alt text, choose a published shop language. The language picker requests optional access to read shop languages and manage translations. Declining leaves other add-ons available. Shopify cannot translate product tags; this add-on does not translate them.
4. Choose Review purchase in Shopify and complete Shopify's approval. To raise an existing search cap, use Review new cap in Shopify. The old approved cap applies until the new cap is confirmed.
5. Review This billing period, active grants and the Usage charge ledger. Use Continue Shopify approval for a pending approval; refresh to check an unconfirmed charge.

Pro and translation suggestions use the Catalog Vision review, preview, apply and undo workflow. Catalog Vision must also be available for your store; buying an add-on does not open that rollout. Check each proposed description and translation before applying it.

Cancel renewal keeps an add-on available until its paid period ends. A monthly plan change carries the approved monthly add-ons. Starting a trial, switching to annual or cancelling the base plan ends monthly add-ons when their paid period ends; annual/trial packs need their own approval.

API keys and Growth Services

API keys lets you create and revoke scoped integration keys. Free allows test-mode keys; Starter adds live read access; Growth and above add eligible catalog reindex and webhook management. Resource features still need the appropriate plan. Keep live keys secret and revoke unused keys. See the API reference for the integration contract.

Growth Services opens a booking page if you want setup or optimization help. Opening the page does not itself confirm a booking or create a service request.

Search photos and troubleshooting

The original uploaded search photo is analyzed and discarded, rather than saved as a photo file. The app retains search records, numeric search fingerprints and attributes used for analytics and unmet-demand patterns. If a shopper requests connected recovery, contact information can be needed for that request. See the app's privacy information for details.

If a search fails, check image coverage and allowance first, then visual-search settings and theme placement. If results are empty, try another photo, reduce filters, check sold-out handling and confirm the desired product is active and indexed. Reopen the app if Shopify access needs reconnecting. For help, contact SearchIQ support with the affected action and error; do not send passwords or app keys.

Email discovery with Klaviyo

Growth and above can add store-level similar-item sets to emails. See the Klaviyo feed setup guide for the URL, shared-feed behavior and a sample template.