Freemius

elyass

<p>FindAstra is AI product search for WooCommerce. It helps your store understand what shoppers actually mean, not just the exact words they type. Someone searching for “comfortable shoes for hiking” will find your “Trail Running Sneakers” even when the title never mentions comfort or hiking.</p>
<p>Ordinary keyword search only matches products that literally contain the words a shopper types. So a customer who describes things in their own way lands on a “no results” page and leaves. FindAstra closes that gap. It reads the intent behind each search, puts the most relevant products first, and offers helpful suggestions instead of dead ends.</p>
<p>And the free version runs completely on its own. There are no API keys to paste, no account to create, and no monthly fees. The AI runs right inside the shopper’s browser, so nothing about your catalog or your customers is sent to an outside server, and you can index your entire catalog with no product limit.</p>
<h4>What your shoppers get</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Answers, not just matches.</strong> Searches are understood by meaning, so shoppers reach the right products even when their wording differs from yours.</li>
<li><strong>Live suggestions as they type.</strong> A search-as-you-type dropdown attaches to your existing search bar, with no theme editing.</li>
<li><strong>A results page that makes sense.</strong> Your normal WooCommerce results page is simply re-ordered by relevance, keeping your theme’s design exactly as it is.</li>
<li><strong>No more empty pages.</strong> When nothing is a strong match, shoppers see popular products instead of a dead end.</li>
</ul>
<h4>What you get as a store owner</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Set up in minutes.</strong> Activate, click index once, and AI search is live. No keys, no account, no configuration headaches.</li>
<li><strong>Private by default.</strong> Your products and your customers’ searches stay on your own site.</li>
<li><strong>Fits your store.</strong> Works with classic and block themes, and includes a search block, a shortcode, and a sidebar widget. Developers also get filter hooks and a REST endpoint to build on.</li>
</ul>
<h4>How it works, in plain terms</h4>
<p>When you click index, FindAstra reads each product and builds a small understanding of what it is. When a shopper searches, it compares their wording to that understanding and lists the closest products first. The first time it runs, the browser downloads a small AI model (about 33 MB) and reuses it from then on, so searches stay fast.</p>
<h4>FindAstra Pro (optional)</h4>
<p>A separate paid version is available at findastra.com for stores that want more. It adds optional server-side engines for very large catalogs (using your own OpenAI or Hugging Face key), multilingual search for WPML and Polylang, and built-in search analytics. The free version here is complete on its own, and nothing in it is locked or time limited.</p>
<h3>External services</h3>
<p>Which external service (if any) FindAstra contacts depends on the search engine you choose during setup. Each is described below, including what data is sent and when.</p>
<h4>Hugging Face model hub (huggingface.co)</h4>
<p>Used by the default <strong>Local</strong> engine. The first time the Local engine runs (when you index products in wp-admin, or when a shopper performs a search), the browser downloads a roughly 33 MB open-source AI model from the Hugging Face model hub and caches it locally for later visits. Only the model files are fetched. No store, product, shopper, or site data is ever sent. After the download, all search runs entirely in the browser.</p>
<p>Hugging Face terms of service: https://huggingface.co/terms-of-service . Privacy policy: https://huggingface.co/privacy</p>
<h4>OpenAI API (api.openai.com)</h4>
<p>Used only if you select the <strong>OpenAI</strong> engine and enter your own API key. At index time, the text of each product (its title and the fields you choose to include) is sent to OpenAI to generate an embedding; at search time, the shopper’s query text is sent. Requests are authenticated with the API key you provide and are made only while the OpenAI engine is the active provider.</p>
<p>OpenAI terms of use: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use . Privacy policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy</p>
<h4>Hugging Face Inference API (router.huggingface.co)</h4>
<p>Used only if you select the <strong>Hugging Face</strong> engine and enter your own access token. The same data as the OpenAI engine (product text at index time, query text at search time) is sent to the Hugging Face Inference API to generate embeddings, authenticated with the token you provide, and only while the Hugging Face engine is the active provider.</p>
<p>Hugging Face terms of service: https://huggingface.co/terms-of-service . Privacy policy: https://huggingface.co/privacy</p>


FindAstra — AI Semantic Search for WooCommerce

AI product search that understands what shoppers mean, not just keywords. Runs in the browser. No API keys, no signup, no cost.

Samuel Silva

<p><strong>AI Search for WooCommerce</strong> makes your store’s search actually work. When a shopper types “summer blue dress” they find your “light cotton navy sundress”. When they search “headphones for running” they find your sweat-resistant wireless earbuds — even if the word “running” isn’t anywhere in the product description.</p>
<p>Default WooCommerce search matches keywords. AI Search matches <em>meaning</em>. It reads your entire product catalog — titles, descriptions, SKUs, categories, tags, and attributes — and converts each product into a vector that captures what it actually is. When a shopper searches, the plugin finds the closest matches by meaning, not by exact word overlap.</p>
<p>The result: fewer empty search pages, more products surfaced for long-tail queries, and shoppers who find what they wanted on the first try.</p>
<p>Also works with blog posts, pages, and any custom post type — so you can use the same intelligent search across your whole site.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>WooCommerce Product Search</strong>: Full product catalog indexing — titles, short and long descriptions, SKUs, categories, tags, and product attributes (size, color, material, etc.). Pre-configured defaults so you can go live in minutes.</li>
<li><strong>Understands Shoppers, Not Just Keywords</strong>: Semantic search means “cozy winter sweater” matches your “merino wool pullover”. Long-tail and descriptive queries stop returning empty pages.</li>
<li><strong>Cross-Lingual & Multilingual</strong>: Works with 100+ languages — Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and more. International stores get consistent search quality across every language, and an English query can still match content in other languages.</li>
<li><strong>SKU & Attribute Matching</strong>: Customers can search by SKU fragments, attribute values, or technical specs and still find the right product.</li>
<li><strong>Smart Fallback System</strong>: 4-tier fallback ensures shoppers never hit a zero-result page — if AI search finds nothing, standard WordPress search takes over automatically.</li>
<li><strong>No OpenAI Account Required</strong>: Uses our free embedding service (up to 10,000 embeddings per site). Works out of the box for most stores.</li>
<li><strong>Bring Your Own API Key</strong>: Optionally use your own OpenAI API key for unlimited indexing.</li>
<li><strong>Bulk Embedding Generation</strong>: Index your entire existing catalog in one click, filtered by post type or category.</li>
<li><strong>Quota Management</strong>: Real-time monitoring of AI service usage and limits (v1.14.0+).</li>
<li><strong>Works Beyond Products Too</strong>: Same intelligent search for blog posts, pages, and any public custom post type.</li>
<li><strong>ACF Compatible</strong>: Index Advanced Custom Fields data for deeper product metadata search.</li>
<li><strong>Tunable Similarity Threshold</strong>: Fine-tune how strict or broad search results are, per store.</li>
<li><strong>Intelligent Caching</strong>: Fast results with automatic local caching.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Perfect For</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>WooCommerce stores</strong> with large or varied product catalogs</li>
<li><strong>Fashion & apparel</strong> stores where shoppers describe products in their own words (“something flowy for summer”)</li>
<li><strong>Electronics & home goods</strong> stores with complex technical specs and model numbers</li>
<li><strong>Books, media, and marketplaces</strong> with thousands of titles</li>
<li><strong>International stores</strong> selling in multiple languages</li>
<li>Membership sites, knowledge bases, and directories — any content-heavy WordPress site</li>
</ul>
<h3>How It Works</h3>
<ol>
<li>Each product in your WooCommerce catalog is converted into a numeric “meaning fingerprint” (called an embedding) that captures its title, description, SKU, categories, tags, and attributes.</li>
<li>When a shopper types a search query, their query gets its own fingerprint in the same way.</li>
<li>The plugin compares the query’s fingerprint against every product’s fingerprint and returns the closest matches by meaning — not just by word overlap.</li>
<li>Results are ranked by relevance, so the products shoppers actually want appear first.</li>
<li>If no semantic matches pass the threshold, a 4-tier fallback kicks in so shoppers never hit an empty results page.</li>
</ol>
<p>Embeddings are generated automatically when you publish or update products — no manual work after setup.</p>
<h3>Learn More</h3>
<p>Visit our website for documentation, demos, and examples:<br />
<strong>https://wp-search.ai/</strong></p>
<p>Browse technical documentation, see live demos of the plugin in action, and learn best practices for AI-powered search.</p>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<ul>
<li>Your existing WooCommerce search form (and the default WordPress search) are automatically upgraded — no theme or template changes required.</li>
<li>Manage settings, switch providers, and monitor quota via the <strong>AI Search</strong> menu in your WordPress admin.</li>
</ul>
<h3>External Service</h3>
<p>This plugin connects with:</p>
<ul>
<li>OpenAI Embeddings API: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings</li>
<li>Custom Node.js Embedding Service</li>
</ul>
<p>Please read more here:<br />
https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings</p>


AI Search for WooCommerce – Intelligent Product Search


Love the idea and the implementation. I'll be using this more and more on all of our Woo sites.


Works like a charm

AI-powered semantic search built for WooCommerce stores. Understands what shoppers actually want — even when they use different words than your produc …

FindAstra — AI Semantic Search for WooCommerce vs AI Search for WooCommerce – Intelligent Product Search