AI Customer Support pricing compared
What 5 ai customer support tools actually cost — free tiers, the cheapest paid plan, and where each free plan runs out. Each figure is taken from the vendor’s own pricing page and dated, so you can see when we last checked.
| Tool | Free tier | Cheapest paid plan | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom Fin | Yes | $0.99/per resolution · Fin AI Agent | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Intercom | Yes | $0.99/per resolution · Fin AI Agent | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Zendesk AI | No | $19/agent/mo · Support Team | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Crisp | Yes | $45/month · Paid tier 1 | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Tidio | Yes | $300/mo · Plus | 14 Jul 2026 |
Prices are as published by each vendor and may be region-specific — many vendors price by country. Confirm on the vendor’s page before buying.
Sorted cheapest paid plan first. A “free tier” means there is a genuinely free plan — tap through to any tool to see the full tier breakdown and exactly where the free plan stops. We list no fabricated prices: where a vendor only quotes “contact sales” we say so.
What drives ai customer support pricing
The defining shift here is outcome-based pricing: you increasingly pay per resolution, not per seat. Intercom's Fin AI Agent charges $0.99 for each conversation it actually resolves, and Rep AI bills $0.75 per AI-resolved conversation, so cost tracks deflected tickets rather than headcount. That sits alongside older models. Human agents are still per seat (Intercom's $29, Zendesk's $19 to $115 per agent per month), and some vendors bundle AI as consumable credits inside a workspace fee, Crisp's tiers include $5, $25, and $75 of AI credits at $45, $95, and $295 per month. Tidio blends conversation caps with per-action AI billing. The mechanic that matters is how a "resolution" or "conversation" is defined and counted, because a pay-per-resolution model is brilliant when deflection is high and punishing when the bot escalates most tickets to humans you also pay for.
How to choose on price
Model your deflection rate first, because it decides whether outcome pricing saves or costs you money. At $0.99 per Fin resolution or $0.75 per Rep AI resolution, a bot that closes most tickets is dramatically cheaper than staffing them; a bot that resolves few just adds a per-resolution fee on top of the human seats those tickets still reach. Estimate monthly ticket volume times expected automation rate to get a real number. Watch the double-charge trap: you pay per agent seat and per AI resolution and per workspace, so a low-deflection deployment stacks all three. Credit-bundled tools like Crisp are predictable but the included AI credits are small, so heavy automation blows past them. The free and trial tiers (Tidio's first 50 conversations, Crisp's free workspace) are enough to test bot quality and deflection but not to run live support. Buy the outcome model only once you trust the bot's resolution rate.
AI Customer Support pricing FAQ
What does "pay per resolution" actually mean?
You are charged only when the AI agent fully resolves a conversation without human help. Intercom's Fin bills $0.99 per resolution and Rep AI $0.75 per AI-resolved conversation. Tickets the bot escalates to a human are not charged as resolutions, but you still pay the human seat that handles them, so the model rewards high deflection and penalizes a bot that mostly hands off.
Will outcome pricing be cheaper than paying for agent seats?
Only if your deflection rate is high. If the bot resolves most tickets, per-resolution fees are far cheaper than staffing those conversations. If it resolves few, you pay the resolution fee plus the human seats for everything it escalates, which can cost more than seats alone. Run the math on volume times automation rate before committing.
How do bundled AI credits in tools like Crisp work?
Crisp charges a flat workspace fee ($45, $95, $295) that includes a small pool of AI credits ($5, $25, $75 respectively). Light automation stays within the bundle, but heavy AI usage exhausts those credits and adds cost. The bundle makes budgeting predictable at low volume but is not sized for a bot handling the bulk of your tickets.
Can I test bot deflection before paying?
Yes, and you should. Tidio's first 50 conversations and Crisp's free workspace let you measure how many tickets the bot actually resolves, which is the number that drives your whole cost. Use the trial specifically to establish a deflection rate, then price the paid tier against it rather than trusting the vendor's headline resolution claims.
See the full breakdown
Open any tool for its complete pricing tiers, free-tier limits, screenshot and honest review.