AI support chat tools charge for the AI in four ways: per seat, per outcome or resolution, per conversation or session, and per message credit. In October 2026, one more AI chat cost anything from a few cents in credits (Crisp, Chatbase) to $2.00 per automated resolution (Zendesk pay-as-you-go), with Intercom Fin at $0.99 per outcome and Freshchat at $0.49 per session. Some tools also count the chats your team answers, and most charge per seat for every person on top, so the price of the AI alone rarely tells you the bill.

Below are the published prices of eight tools, side by side, then what a three-person team would pay at 100, 500 and 1,500 AI chats a month, with every formula shown so you can change the assumptions. All prices were read on the vendors’ own pricing pages on October 30, 2026 and are in US dollars, before tax.

If you only want your own figure, run your own numbers in the cost calculator.

The four ways tools charge for the AI

Per seat

You pay a monthly fee for each person who logs in to answer chats. This is how live chat and helpdesk software has always been sold, and almost every tool in this study still has seats. Intercom, Zendesk, LiveChat and Freshchat price people this way. Some tools also sell an AI assistant for your agents per seat: Zendesk Copilot is $50 per agent a month and Freddy AI Copilot is $29 per agent a month. Per-seat pricing is easy to forecast but grows with your team, not with your customers.

Per outcome or per resolution

You pay each time the AI is judged to have solved a chat. Intercom Fin ($0.99 per outcome), Zendesk ($2.00 per automated resolution pay-as-you-go) and LiveChat ($49.50 per 50 AI resolutions) work this way. The pitch is that you only pay when the AI works. The catch is in the definition: on Intercom, a customer who reads Fin’s answer and simply leaves can count as an outcome. A per-resolution bill rises as the AI gets better, which is fair, but it also rises with chats that were never really solved.

Per conversation or per session

You pay for every chat the AI takes part in, whatever happens next. Tidio counts a Lyro conversation once there is at least one AI reply. Freshchat counts a session as everything one person says to the AI within 24 hours, sold at $49 per 100 sessions. SupportVia’s plans include a set number of AI conversations a month, and one covers up to 30 AI replies. This model is the easiest to predict: the bill follows your chat volume and nothing else.

Per message credit

You buy credits and each AI reply uses some. Chatbase sells message credits (700 a month on Hobby, extra at $40 per 1,000). Crisp includes AI credits in dollars inside each plan and estimates how many automated chats they cover. Credits look cheap per unit, but the unit is a reply, not a chat, and on Chatbase a stronger model uses more credits per reply. A chat with five back-and-forths uses five replies’ worth.

The table: eight tools, side by side

All figures are as of October 2026, taken from each vendor’s pricing page (links under the table). “Entry price” is the lowest paid plan that includes the AI agent, on monthly billing where the page shows it.

The table: eight tools, side by side
Tool Entry price How the AI is metered What counts as one AI included Price of one more Chats people answer counted?
SupportVia $29 a month (Starter) AI conversations included in the plan An AI conversation 150 / 500 / 1,500 (Starter / Growth / Pro) $0.40 / $0.35 / $0.30, once allowed, up to a monthly cap No, unlimited on every plan
Intercom (Fin) $29 a seat billed yearly (Essential); new customers $19 while subscribed Per outcome, on top of seats Customer confirms it’s solved, doesn’t ask for more help, or Fin completes a workflow None $0.99 No, priced by seat
Zendesk (Suite) $69 an agent monthly, $55 yearly (Team) Per automated resolution, on top of seats A request resolved without a person stepping in 5 per agent (Team), 10 (Professional) $2.00 pay-as-you-go No, priced by seat
Tidio (Lyro) $24.17 a month billed yearly (Starter), $29 monthly Per Lyro conversation, in tiers beside billable conversations A chat with at least one AI reply 50 once, for life; Lyro from $32.50 a month for 50 Tiers from $39 for 50 to $700 for 1,000, billed monthly Yes, as billable conversations (100 on Starter)
LiveChat $25 a seat monthly, $19 yearly (Essential) Per AI resolution, on top of seats An AI resolution 10 (Essential), 200 (Growth) $49.50 per 50, about $0.99 each No, priced by seat
Freshchat (Freddy) $19 an agent a month, billed yearly (Growth) Per AI session, in packs Everything one person says to the AI within 24 hours 500 once per account $49 per 100, $0.49 each No, priced by seat
Crisp $45 a workspace (Mini, 4 seats) AI credits in dollars, inside the plan Credits per automated chat $5 / $25 / $75 of credits, about 90 / 450 / 1,350 chats About $0.06 a chat within credits; the page doesn’t say what happens past them No, priced by workspace
Chatbase $40 monthly, $32 yearly (Hobby) Message credits Each AI reply uses credits; more for some models 700 (Hobby), 4,000 (Basic), 15,000 (Business) $40 per 1,000 credits Not per chat on the page; the helpdesk inbox starts on Basic ($150 monthly)

Sources, all read on October 30, 2026: Intercom pricing, Zendesk pricing, Tidio pricing, LiveChat pricing, Freshchat pricing, Crisp pricing, Chatbase pricing and SupportVia pricing.

A few things the table can’t show on one line:

  • Zendesk’s committed rate for extra automated resolutions is printed in pounds (£1.30), so we only quote the $2.00 pay-as-you-go figure.
  • Tidio’s Lyro tiers step through 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 500, 750 and 1,000 conversations a month, from $39 for 50 to $700 for 1,000 billed monthly ($32.50 to $583.33 billed yearly), or about $0.58 to $0.78 a conversation. Our Tidio pricing guide lists every tier.
  • Freshchat’s page lists seat prices billed yearly only, and gives the $49 per 100 sessions price for the Growth plan.
  • Chatbase’s page doesn’t say how many credits each model uses. Its plans are shown per month billed yearly, with the higher monthly rate struck through beside them.
  • Intercom’s help center (Fin and Intercom plans explained) gives Essential at $39 a seat billed monthly and $29 billed yearly. We use $29 below, so Intercom’s worked costs are at the yearly list price, like Freshchat’s. On monthly billing, three seats add $30 a month.
  • Tidio’s page shows $24.17 for Starter billed yearly (“2 months free”) and $29 billed monthly.
  • SupportVia’s cost per included AI conversation is the published plan price divided by the plan’s allowance: $29 ÷ 150 is about $0.19, $79 ÷ 500 about $0.16, $199 ÷ 1,500 about $0.13. It assumes the whole allowance is used; the method is set out at the end.

Cite this table: “AI chatbot pricing in 2026: what 8 tools charge per answer”, SupportVia, October 30, 2026, supportvia.app/blog/ai-chatbot-pricing.

Worked costs at 100, 500 and 1,500 AI chats a month

Prices per unit don’t tell you a bill. Here is what the same small team would pay on each tool at three volumes.

Assumptions

  • A team of three people answers chats. Every one of them needs a seat where the tool sells seats.
  • Monthly billing where the page shows it, in US dollars, before tax. Intercom and Freshchat seats are at their yearly-billed list prices: Freshchat’s page prints only those, and Intercom’s is labeled as such in every row.
  • The lowest plan that fits three people and the volume, unless a higher plan works out lower.
  • “AI chats” means chats the AI joins. For per-outcome and per-resolution tools, the first line assumes every AI chat is billed, and the second assumes half are. Your real share depends on your customers and the vendor’s definition.
  • One-off free allowances (Freshchat’s 500 sessions, Tidio’s 50 Lyro conversations) are left out, because they don’t repeat.
  • For Chatbase, each chat has four AI replies at one credit each. Stronger models use more.
Worked costs at 100, 500 and 1,500 AI chats a month
Tool and plan Formula 100 AI chats 500 AI chats 1,500 AI chats
SupportVia Growth (5 teammates), Pro at 1,500 plan price, AI conversations included $79 $79 $199
Intercom Essential (yearly list price), every chat an outcome 3 × $29 + chats × $0.99 $186 $582 $1,572
Intercom Essential (yearly list price), half of chats an outcome 3 × $29 + (chats ÷ 2) × $0.99 $136.50 $334.50 $829.50
Zendesk Suite Team, every chat resolved 3 × $69 + (chats − 15) × $2.00 $377 $1,177 $3,177
Zendesk, half of chats resolved 3 × $69 + (chats ÷ 2 − 15) × $2.00 $277 $677 $1,677
LiveChat Essential, every chat resolved 3 × $25 + packs of 50 × $49.50 past 10 $174 $570 $1,560
LiveChat, half of chats resolved same, on half the chats $124.50 $322.50 $817.50
Freshchat Growth (seats billed yearly) 3 × $19 + chats ÷ 100 × $49 $106 $302 $792
Crisp Mini, Essentials, Plus workspace price; credits cover about 90 / 450 / 1,350 from $45 from $95 from $295
Chatbase Basic (3 members) $150 + extra credits × $40 per 1,000 past 4,000 $150 $150 $230
Chatbase, two credits a reply same, eight credits a chat $150 $150 $470
Tidio Growth + a Lyro tier $59 + the Lyro tier ($75 for 100, $350 for 500) $134 $409 n/a: tiers stop at 1,000

Some notes on reading it:

  • SupportVia at 100 chats. Starter at $29 includes 150 AI conversations but two teammates, so a three-person team needs Growth. A two-person team would pay $29.
  • SupportVia at 1,500 chats. Growth includes 500 AI conversations, so 1,500 needs Pro at $199, which includes 1,500. Past a plan’s allowance, new chats go to your team, unless you ask us to allow extra AI conversations ($0.30 each on Pro) and switch them on with a monthly cap, up to the limit we agree with you.
  • Crisp just past its credits. At 100, 500 and 1,500 chats a month, Crisp’s plans fall a little short of the estimated automated chats, and the pricing page doesn’t say what the extra costs or whether the AI stops. That is why the row says “from”.
  • LiveChat Growth. Moving to Growth ($99 a seat, 200 resolutions) works out higher for three people at every volume here: $594 at 500 and $1,584 at 1,500, with every chat resolved.

Spread across the chats, at 500 AI chats a month the bill per AI chat, seats included (Intercom at its yearly list price), comes to about $0.16 on SupportVia, $0.30 on Chatbase, $0.60 on Freshchat, $1.14 on LiveChat, $1.16 on Intercom and $2.35 on Zendesk, if every AI chat is billed. Halve the resolutions and Intercom drops to about $0.67, LiveChat to about $0.65 and Zendesk to about $1.35.

This comparison is about price only. These products do different jobs: Zendesk and Intercom are full helpdesks with email, tickets and many channels, and a large support team may find that worth the cost. Chatbase is a bot first, with its team inbox from the Basic plan. Read each one’s feature list against what you need before the price.

Intercom vs Zendesk AI pricing

Both charge for the AI per solved chat, on top of seats. The differences:

Worked costs at 100, 500 and 1,500 AI chats a month
Intercom Fin Zendesk AI agents
Price per unit (as of October 2026) $0.99 per outcome $2.00 per automated resolution, pay-as-you-go
Included each month None 5 per agent (Team), 10 (Professional)
Seat price $29 (Essential, yearly list price) $69 (Suite Team, monthly)
What counts Confirmed solved, no further request for help, or a completed workflow Resolved without escalation to a person
AI help for your agents Not priced in this study Copilot, $50 per agent a month, yearly

For a three-person team, Intercom comes out lower at every volume in our worked costs, mainly because of the lower per-unit price. Intercom’s monthly-billed seats cost more, but at these volumes the AI fee is most of the bill, so the order doesn’t change. Zendesk includes a few resolutions per agent, which helps only at very low volume. For the detail on how Intercom counts, read our explainer on Intercom Fin pricing.

What makes a bill move

The published price is the starting point. Three things change what you actually pay.

Chats counted as solved when the customer just left

On Intercom, an outcome can count when the customer doesn’t ask for more help after Fin answers. On a website, many people read an answer and close the tab, satisfied or not. Each of those can be billed. Per-resolution tools differ in how they treat silence, and the wording sits in their definitions, not in the headline price. Before you sign, ask the vendor how a chat where the customer stopped replying is counted, and get the answer in writing.

Credits running out

With credits, the question is what happens when they are gone. Chatbase offers auto-recharge at $40 per 1,000 credits, topped up when your balance drops below a level you set. Crisp’s page doesn’t say. Freshchat’s session packs expire at the end of your payment cycle. Tidio’s free Lyro allowance doesn’t refresh unless you buy a Lyro plan. If the AI goes quiet at the end of a busy month, customers get no answer; if top-ups are automatic, the bill grows. Know which one you are signing up for.

Seats added for the AI

The AI agent is rarely sold on its own. Intercom needs at least one full seat. Zendesk and LiveChat include AI resolutions per agent, so the allowance grows only when you add people. Copilot-style assistants for your agents are priced per agent on top. A small team that just wants the AI to answer often ends up paying for seats it doesn’t use, or for a bigger plan to get a bigger AI allowance.

There is a fourth, quieter one: a second meter. Tidio counts AI conversations and billable conversations (the chats your team handles) separately, and its pricing page also mentions Flows visitors. A busy month for your team can move you up a plan even if the AI was quiet.

How to read a pricing page in five questions

Take any pricing page and answer these five questions. If the page can’t answer one, ask sales and save the reply.

  1. What exactly counts as one? A chat, a session in 24 hours, a reply, an outcome or a resolution. Write the vendor’s definition down word for word.
  2. Are the chats my team answers counted? If yes, on which meter, and how many come with the plan?
  3. What happens when the allowance runs out? The AI stops, the chat goes to people, or you are charged automatically. Can you set a limit?
  4. What do I pay per person? Seats, and any AI assistant for agents priced per seat. Multiply by the people who will really log in.
  5. Is the headline price yearly? Many pages show the yearly rate per month. Compare monthly against monthly, and check the currency and whether tax is included.

Then work out the bill at your volume, not the one on the page. Take last month’s chat count from your current tool, or your contact form if you have no chat yet, and use the formulas above. The cost calculator does the arithmetic for you.

Where SupportVia fits

We make SupportVia, so read this part with that in mind. Its plans count one thing: AI conversations. Chats your team answers are unlimited on every plan, and answers from your own OpenAI, Claude or compatible AI account never use the plan’s AI conversations. Your own AI works on every plan, up to 1,000 conversations a month on Starter, 5,000 on Growth and no monthly cap on Pro.

The plans are Starter at $29 (150 AI conversations, 2 teammates), Growth at $79 (500, 5 teammates) and Pro at $199 (1,500, unlimited teammates). A yearly plan costs ten months. The free trial lasts 7 days or 50 AI conversations, whichever comes first, with no card.

The AI answers only from your own pages, Q&As and notes, shows up to five “Read more” links to the pages it used, and offers your team when it isn’t sure. What it doesn’t do: it is website chat only, with no ticketing, and no self-serve checkout yet, so paid plans start from a request. See the plans and prices, or how it compares with Intercom, Tidio and other tools. Or start with the AI chatbot for your website itself.

Method and sources

When. Every vendor price was read on its own pricing page on October 30, 2026. Prices change often in this market; we recheck them every quarter and update the date at the top when we do.

Which tools. Seven widely used tools that sell an AI agent for website chat, plus SupportVia. We picked tools with a published price for the AI. Two were left out for now:

  • Gorgias shows more than one set of monthly figures on its page, and its AI chat also uses a helpdesk ticket. We will add it once the figures are confirmed.
  • tawk.to’s AI Assist sells credits in tiers we couldn’t confirm on its page this month. tawk.to’s live chat itself is free.

What we counted. Plan prices on monthly billing where shown, in US dollars, before VAT or sales tax. Seats, AI allowances and the price of extra AI units. We did not count add-ons such as branding removal, extra workspaces, phone or email channels, or AI assistants for agents, except where named.

How SupportVia’s figures are worked out. The cost per included AI conversation is the monthly plan price divided by the AI conversations in the plan: $29 ÷ 150 = $0.193, $79 ÷ 500 = $0.158, $199 ÷ 1,500 = $0.133, rounded to $0.19, $0.16 and $0.13. This assumes the whole allowance is used. Past the allowance, new chats go to the team unless the owner asks us to allow extra AI conversations, at $0.40, $0.35 or $0.30 each, and switches them on with a monthly cap, up to the limit agreed with them. Answers from a workspace’s own AI account, on any plan, never use these AI conversations; they have a monthly cap of their own (1,000 on Starter, 5,000 on Growth, none on Pro). As the maker of SupportVia, we have an interest in this comparison, so every competitor figure links to the vendor’s own page for you to check.

Corrections. If a vendor’s price has changed or we have read it wrong, tell us and we will fix it and note the change.

Sources:

Run your own numbers: put your team size and chat volume into the AI chatbot cost calculator.