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Marsell vs Tolstoy: AI Studios for Online Stores or an AI That Runs Your Marketing
Tolstoy makes product photos, videos and Meta ads and adds shoppable video and try-on to online stores, from $20 a month. Marsell runs the whole loop.
By Ilya Arbabi, 30 October 2026
Tolstoy calls itself "Applied AI for commerce", and it is built for online stores. Its Media Studio makes product photos, reshoots and videos from your catalog, its Ads Studio turns them into Meta campaigns you approve, and its Storefront Studio adds shoppable video, virtual try-on and an AI personal shopper to your store. AI agents it calls Shop Bots take a brief and prepare the work for your review, from $20 a month. Marsell does a different job: it plans the month and the week, makes the posts, pictures, short videos and films, publishes them on its own once it has learned how you like them, runs ads from your own Google or Meta account, finds buyers and emails prospects. If you run an online store and want product imagery, try-on and shoppable video on your own product pages, Tolstoy is the stronger pick. If you want your marketing planned, posted and sold for you, Marsell is built for that.
We make Marsell and wrote this comparison. Everything about Tolstoy below comes from Tolstoy's own pages and help center, read on 14 November 2026.
Tolstoy review: what it is in 2026
Tolstoy's home page reads "Your brand, AI-native" and sells three things: a platform, AI agents and hands-on help.
- Media Studio. Product photos, reshoots, colorways and videos; on-model, close-up and lifestyle images from a flat lay; UGC-style videos and talking videos with lip sync; product page, email and social creative. It works with a long list of image and video models, Seedance, Kling, Nano Banana and GPT Image among them.
- Ads Studio. Turns the creative into ads and Meta campaigns. You connect your Meta ad account, review the creative, audience and budget, and approve the campaign before it goes live; results feed the next creative test.
- Storefront Studio. Shoppable video on your product pages, virtual try-on, quizzes, landing pages built from its widgets, and Personal Shopper, an AI that answers shoppers' questions on your site.
- Shop Bots. Agents with ecommerce jobs: Creative Director, Ads Manager, Ecommerce Manager and Personal Shopper. "You review the results and decide what goes live." On the Ads Manager, Tolstoy says it plainly: "Preparing an ad does not publish it." A brief that works can be saved and put on a schedule.
- Tolstoy Forward. Hands-on help from its own team: a draft Shop Bot within an hour of signing, then a seven-week cohort with three shared sessions a week and a named Tolstoy lead, inside a three-month engagement.
- Integrations. Shopify, Shop App, TikTok Shop, Tapcart and Wix; Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Google Analytics 4 and Triple Whale; Klaviyo, Attentive and Postscript; review, loyalty, returns and support apps such as Yotpo, Judge.me, Loop Returns and Gorgias.
Tolstoy pricing
Prices are per workspace:
- Plus: $20 a month, or $16 a month billed yearly. 4,000 AI credits a month (3,000 for making content and running Shop Bots, 1,000 for shopper chats and try-ons on your site) and 5,000 video viewers; extra viewers cost $10 per 1,000.
- Business: $100, $200 or $500 a month, or $80, $160 or $400 a month billed yearly. 20,000, 40,000 or 100,000 AI credits, 25,000 to 125,000 video viewers and one-time credit top-ups. Tolstoy Forward is a separately quoted add-on.
- Enterprise: custom, with Forward included.
Extra team members cost $20 a seat a month. Each model and action uses a different number of credits, so Tolstoy says they are "not a fixed number of photos or videos". Yearly prices are charged upfront for the year. Its help center describes a free plan that needs no card, and a 14-day publishing trial once your first widget goes live.
Where Tolstoy is stronger
For an online store, Tolstoy has real advantages:
- Product imagery in volume. On-model, lifestyle and catalog images and product videos made from your own catalog, with a wide choice of models. Marsell makes pictures and videos for your posts, ads and pages, not for your catalog.
- Your own product pages. Shoppable video, virtual try-on, size advice and an AI shopping assistant, on Shopify and other sites. Marsell checks your site and checkout for what stops a visitor buying, and builds and hosts pages of its own.
- Commerce connections. Shopify, TikTok Shop, Klaviyo, review apps, returns and support tools.
- People to set it up. Forward's cohort and named lead. If you would rather have people do the work on Marsell's side, our Services page offers marketing and sales done for you.
- Price to start. $20 a month, and a free plan. Marsell starts at $49 a month and has no free plan or trial; its live demo opens after a free sign-up.
What Tolstoy leaves to other tools
Tolstoy's pages show where its work stops:
- Posting to social accounts. It makes social creative, but its pages describe publishing to your store, TikTok Shop, Shop App and Meta campaigns. A calendar that posts to your Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn is not described.
- Google Ads. Ads Studio publishes Meta campaigns. Google campaigns are not among its listed features.
- Finding buyers. Emailing prospects, Reddit threads and communities are not among its features.
- Search and AI answers. Tracking what ChatGPT or Google says about you is not listed.
- A business without a catalog. Its studios and Shop Bots start from your products. A service business, a channel or an event has less to work with.
How Marsell's loop works
Marsell runs the marketing as a loop, for a shop or any other business:
- You give it a link to your business (or a line about it, or your own AI sets it up over MCP). It reads your pages, products, public mentions and the way you write, and you correct what it got wrong.
- It plans the month and the week.
- It writes the posts and makes pictures, carousels, short videos (motion graphics drawn in code, or AI video) and films.
- It publishes to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook, Pinterest and Bluesky, plus Telegram and Google Business Profile, from accounts you connect. It learns each kind of post from your first few answers, then posts on its own, and you can steer, pause or undo any time.
- It runs ads from your own ad account: Google Search, Performance Max, and Facebook and Instagram campaigns, plus boosts for the posts that did better than most. Every ad spends only after your yes on its exact amount.
- It looks for buyers in Reddit threads, communities, directories, creators, search and AI answers, and emails prospects one by one: its Outreach agent writes each a checked first email, follows up after three days and again four days later, and stops at a reply or a no.
- It builds and hosts pages, counts visits without cookies and reports what worked.
Tolstoy and Marsell side by side
| Tolstoy | Marsell | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Online stores and their teams | A business that wants its marketing planned, made and published |
| Starts from | Your product catalog and brand files | A link to your business, a line about it, or your own AI over MCP |
| Making | Product photos, reshoots, on-model images, product and UGC-style video, ad, email and social creative | Posts, carousels, pictures, short videos and films |
| Your store | Shoppable video, virtual try-on, quizzes, an AI shopping assistant | Checks of your site and checkout; pages it builds and hosts |
| Ads | Meta campaigns from your ad account, approved before launch | Google Search, Performance Max and Meta campaigns from your own ad account, after your yes on the amount |
| Social posting | Social creative; posting to your accounts not described | Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook, Pinterest, Bluesky, Telegram, Google Business Profile |
| Finding buyers | Not listed | Reddit threads, communities, directories, creators, search and AI answers; one checked first email per prospect |
| Control | Shop Bots prepare the work; you approve what goes live | Learns from your first few answers, then runs on its own; steer, pause or undo any time |
| Price | Plus $20 a month; Business $100 to $500; Enterprise custom | $49 to $799 a month |
| Free | A free plan and a 14-day publishing trial | No free plan or trial; a live demo after a free sign-up |
Who should pick which
Pick Tolstoy if
- You run an online store and need product photos and videos made from your catalog, often.
- You want shoppable video, try-on and an AI shopping assistant on your own product pages.
- Meta ads are your main paid channel and you want the creative and the campaigns in one place.
- You want the vendor's own people to set it up with your team.
Pick Marsell if
- You want the week's posts, pictures, short videos and films made and published on your social accounts without approving each one.
- You want ads on Google as well as Meta, and buyers found and emailed.
- You are not a shop, or not only a shop.
A store could run both: Tolstoy for the catalog and the product pages, Marsell for the posts, the outreach and the ads. They overlap on Meta ads, so run those from one of them only.
Where Marsell fits
Marsell is an AI for marketing, sales and content creation. You give it your website, and it learns the business and how you like things, plans the month, makes the posts, pictures, films and pages, posts them to your accounts, and finds the people who will buy. Ten agents with one job each do the work. It learns each kind of work from your first few answers, then runs on its own, and you can steer, pause or undo any time.
Plans are Solo $49, Core $169, Growth $399 and Network $799 a month, and a year costs ten times the monthly price. There is no free plan or trial; the live demo, the real Marsell running a made-up business, opens after a free sign-up, and the code MARSELL20 gives 20% off the first 3 months of Core, Growth or Network on monthly billing, for a first subscription.
FAQ
What is Tolstoy?
An AI platform for online stores. Its studios make product photos, videos and ads and add shoppable video, virtual try-on and an AI shopping assistant to your store, and its AI agents, called Shop Bots, prepare that work for your review.
What does Tolstoy cost?
Plus is $20 a month, or $16 a month billed yearly. Business is $100, $200 or $500 a month by usage level, or $80, $160 or $400 billed yearly. Enterprise is custom, and extra team members are $20 a seat a month.
Does Tolstoy have a free plan?
Its help center describes a free plan that needs no card, and a 14-day publishing trial when your first widget goes live. To keep a widget live after that, you need a paid plan.
Does Tolstoy run ads?
Yes, on Meta. Ads Studio connects your Meta ad account, and you review the creative, audience and budget and approve the campaign before it goes live. Google campaigns are not among its listed features.
Does Tolstoy post to Instagram or TikTok?
It makes social creative, and it publishes to your store, TikTok Shop and Shop App. A calendar that posts to your social accounts is not described on its pages.
Is there a free trial of Marsell?
No. There is no free plan or trial, but the live demo, the real Marsell running a made-up business, opens after a free sign-up.
What are the alternatives to Tolstoy?
Marsell, if you want the whole marketing loop rather than tools for your store. For one tool per job, see our 10 best AI marketing tools for small businesses.
Sources
- Tolstoy: Your brand, AI-native, read 14 November 2026
- Tolstoy: Pricing and plans, read 14 November 2026
- Tolstoy: Ads Studio, read 14 November 2026
- Tolstoy: AI Studio for ecommerce product content, read 14 November 2026
- Tolstoy: Meet your Shop Bots, read 14 November 2026
- Tolstoy Help: Understanding Tolstoy plans, pricing, and usage, read 14 November 2026