Customer Service Chatbot Pricing in 2026: 14 Tools Compared
Shayan, Founder10 min read
A customer service chatbot is sold four ways in 2026. Per resolution, at $0.75 to $2 a conversation it closes without a person. Per conversation or session, in packs, whether or not the answer worked. In credits or tokens, where the bill tracks how much the model wrote. Or by plan tier, where the AI is free once you are on the plan that has it. The unit matters more than the rate: the same 1,500 AI-handled conversations cost $40 on Chatwoot, $99 on tawk.to, $735 on Freshdesk, $1,485 on Intercom and $2,900 on Zendesk.
Every number here comes from the vendor's pricing page or billing documentation, checked in October 2026. UserJot, which we make, includes its AI agent on every plan with no meter, and it is costed at the end.
How each one bills the AI
| Tool | AI agent | Unit | Rate | Included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Fin | Resolution | $0.99 | Nothing |
| Zendesk | AI agents | Resolution | $2, or $1.50 on committed volume | 5 per agent a month on Team plans |
| Help Scout | AI Answers | Resolution | $0.75 | Three months free on new accounts |
| Front | Autopilot | Resolution, handoff, triage | $0.89, $0.39, $0.05 | Nothing |
| Freshdesk | Freddy AI Agent | Session, packs of 100 | $49 a pack | 500 sessions once on new paid accounts |
| Tidio | Lyro | Conversation, packs | $39 for 50 to $700 for 1,000 | 50 conversations once, never refilled |
| Smartsupp | Mira | Conversation, packs of 100 | $20 a pack | 10 conversations once, 25 more for onboarding |
| Crisp | Hugo | Dollar credits, by token | About $0.05 to $0.10 a conversation, Crisp's estimate | $5, $25 or $75 a month by plan |
| tawk.to | AI Assist | Message credits | 3 credits a reply on the default model, $30 per 1,000 | 100 credits a month free |
| Chatwoot | Captain | Credits | $20 per 1,000 | 300, 500 or 800 a month by plan |
| HubSpot | Customer Agent | Credits, 50 per resolution | $0.01 a credit, so $0.50 a resolution | 3,000 credits a month on Professional |
| Zoho Desk | Zia agents | Tokens, on Enterprise | $1 per million after the allowance | 30 million tokens a month on hosted standard models |
| Zoho SalesIQ | Answer Bot | Plan tier, bot sessions | Enterprise seat, $25 an operator | 200,000 bot sessions a month |
| JivoChat | AI Agent | Module | $99 a month, $69 on annual billing | Allowance not published |
Four of these need a plan before the meter starts. HubSpot's Customer Agent requires Professional at $100 a seat with a $1,500 onboarding fee. Zoho Desk's agents and Zoho SalesIQ's Answer Bot are Enterprise features, at $50 an agent and $25 an operator. Crisp's Hugo starts on Mini at $45 a month.
What counts as a resolution
The per-resolution tools do not agree on the word, and the difference is the bill.
Intercom bills Fin when the customer confirms the answer or goes quiet, and also when Fin completes a handoff you configured as a Procedure. A customer asking for a human, or Fin giving up, is free.
Zendesk bills a resolution the AI closes without a person, after the five per agent a month on Team plans. It introduced a model in May 2026 where a second model judges whether the request was resolved and the allowance is a pooled credit, and has not published the per-tier rates. The pricing page still prints $2.
Help Scout bills an answer the customer does not follow up on. Greetings, clarifying questions and anything that ends with a person are free. Several answers in one session are billed once.
Front bills the highest outcome in a conversation: $0.89 when nobody replied after Autopilot, qualifying after 24 hours of silence on chat or 72 on email; $0.39 when Autopilot drafted or replied and a person finished; $0.05 for routing, tagging or a summary.
HubSpot counts a reply with a source or an action as resolved if the visitor does not ask for a person within 72 hours. A later complaint does not reverse it, and an email reopened after 72 hours can be a second resolution.
What counts as a conversation, session or credit
The other tools bill the attempt, not the outcome.
Freshdesk bills a session: every AI reply within 72 hours of the customer's first email, or within 24 hours on chat. A session that ends in a handoff counts. Previewing the agent while you set it up counts.
Tidio bills a conversation when Lyro first answers in a thread. A thread that goes quiet for 15 minutes starts a new one when the customer returns. A thread handed off before Lyro answers is free; one handed off after is not.
Smartsupp bills a chat session Mira takes part in, in packs of 100 at $20, and Mira stops answering when the pack runs out.
Crisp bills the tokens Hugo uses, converted to dollars, including training runs, tests and the replies Copilot drafts for agents. Crisp's own estimate is $0.05 to $0.10 a conversation; the per-token rates are not published.
tawk.to bills credits per reply, three on the default model and one to ten or more on others, at $30 per 1,000 past the free 100 a month. Credits you buy do not expire.
Chatwoot bills credits for replies and for AI-assisted agent actions, with no dependence on whether the conversation resolved. Extra credits are $20 per 1,000 and expire after six months.
Zoho Desk bills tokens on its hosted models, $1 per million past the 30 million a month included on the standard tier, or $3 per million past 20 million on its Pro tier, and the agents only run on Enterprise. What a resolution costs in tokens is not published.
Zoho SalesIQ counts bot sessions against a plan allowance, 200,000 a month on Enterprise, with extra sessions at $10 per 5,000. There is no per-answer price.
JivoChat sells the AI Agent as a $99 a month module and publishes no allowance, no resolution definition and no overage price.
The AI bill for three teams
The same teams as in Help desk pricing compared, with the AI handling 30% of conversations: 150, 600 and 1,500 a month. This table is the AI line only, not the seats. Where the AI needs a plan jump, the row says so.
| Tool | 150 AI conversations | 600 | 1,500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot | $0 | $20 | $40 |
| tawk.to | $29 | $59 | $99 |
| Crisp | $2.50 to $10 | $5 to $35 | $50 to $125 |
| Smartsupp | $40 | $120 | $300 |
| Freshdesk | $98 | $294 | $735 |
| Tidio | $110 | $525 | Not published |
| Help Scout | $112.50 | $450 | $1,125 |
| Front | $133.50 | $534 | $1,335 |
| Intercom | $148.50 | $594 | $1,485 |
| Zendesk | $280 | $1,150 | $2,900 |
| HubSpot | $45, plus Professional seats | $270, plus Professional seats | $720, plus Professional seats |
| Zoho Desk | $0, on Enterprise seats | $0, on Enterprise seats | $0, on Enterprise seats |
| Zoho SalesIQ | $0, on Enterprise seats | $0, on Enterprise seats | $0, on Enterprise seats |
| JivoChat | $99, if the module covers it | $99, if the module covers it | $99, if the module covers it |
| UserJot | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Per-resolution tools are the rate times the count, after any allowance: Zendesk's 150 is 140 at $2 after ten included for two agents. Freshdesk is whole packs of 100. Tidio is the smallest pack that fits, 150 and 750, and the ladder ends at 1,000. Smartsupp is 200, 600 and 1,500 conversations in packs of 100. Crisp is Crisp's estimate minus the credits on the plan the team is on. tawk.to is 450, 1,800 and 4,500 credits on the default model, bought as the Growth or Business tier. Chatwoot is credits past the 300 on Startups at one reply per conversation, which is the floor, not a typical month. HubSpot is 50 credits a resolution past 3,000 included.
The two Zoho rows and the HubSpot row are not free. They are the cost of being on the plan that has the AI: Enterprise at $50 an agent on Zoho Desk against $20 for Standard, Enterprise at $25 an operator on SalesIQ against $10 for Basic, and Professional at $100 a seat on HubSpot against $20 for Starter. For ten agents those jumps are $300, $150 and $800 a month before any credits.
Who lets you cap the spend
Help Scout: a monthly resolution limit set by an owner; AI Answers switches off when it is hit. Crisp: pay-as-you-go is off by default, and when you turn it on you set a monthly cap. HubSpot: administrators can set monthly credit limits per account and per tool. Zoho Desk: usage is prepaid into a wallet; whether it auto-recharges is not documented. tawk.to: a top-up threshold and amount you choose, but no documented monthly ceiling. Tidio: no dollar cap, but automatic upgrades can be switched off, which makes the pack you bought the ceiling. Smartsupp: Mira stops at the pack. Front: no documented customer-set cap. Freshdesk: a daily cap on emails handled, no dollar cap. Intercom: a workspace spend limit that switches Fin off when it is hit, not available during the trial, and Fin can be switched off entirely. Zendesk: on the older platform, a configured limit that pauses the AI rather than allow overage, with alerts at 80% and 100%; what accounts on the May 2026 tier model get is not documented. Chatwoot: no dollar cap and no automatic top-up, so the credits you bought are the ceiling. Zoho SalesIQ and JivoChat: not documented.
An AI agent with no meter.
Juno answers from your docs and hands off to your team, on every UserJot plan, with no per-resolution fee.
Juno on UserJot
UserJot is a feedback board, roadmap and changelog with live chat and a shared inbox in the same product. Juno, our AI agent, answers from your docs and the sites you point her at, hands the thread to a person when a question needs one, and files a feature request with the customer's vote once they confirm. She is on every plan, Free included, with no per-resolution, per-conversation or per-credit charge. The price is $0, $29 or $59 a month for the whole workspace.
Free covers three teammates. Starter at $29 covers up to 100 and adds a custom domain, private boards, guest posting and the API. Pro at $59 adds single sign-on, identity masking and white-labelling. Conversations is in beta and free on every plan while it is. Juno answers on chat and email only, so there is no WhatsApp, Messenger or phone, and there is no chatbot builder.
Questions people ask
How much does a customer service chatbot cost?
On the per-resolution tools, $0.75 to $2 for each conversation the AI closes without a person: Help Scout $0.75, Front $0.89, Intercom $0.99, Zendesk $2. On the pack tools, $0.20 to $0.78 a conversation whether it resolved or not. On the credit tools, $0.02 a reply on Chatwoot, $0.09 on tawk.to's default model, about $0.05 to $0.10 a conversation by Crisp's own estimate, and $0.50 a resolution on HubSpot. UserJot includes Juno with no charge per conversation.
What is an AI resolution?
A conversation the AI closes without a person replying, judged by silence or confirmation from the customer. The window and the exceptions differ: Intercom also bills configured handoffs, Front waits 24 or 72 hours, HubSpot waits 72 hours and does not reverse a resolution on a later complaint.
Is any customer service chatbot free?
Juno on UserJot, on every plan including Free. tawk.to gives 100 credits a month, about 33 replies on its default model. Tidio gives 50 conversations once and Smartsupp 10. Chatwoot includes 300 credits a month on its $19 Startups plan. Help Scout waives resolutions for the first three months on new accounts and Freshdesk gives new paid accounts 500 sessions once. The rest are paid from the first conversation or sit on a paid tier.
Which is the cheapest AI support agent?
UserJot, at $0 on every plan. For 1,500 AI-handled conversations a month the AI line is $40 on Chatwoot at one reply each, $99 on tawk.to, $50 to $125 on Crisp and $300 on Smartsupp. Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ charge nothing per conversation but require their Enterprise plans. The per-resolution tools run from $1,125 on Help Scout to $2,900 on Zendesk.
Why is the AI billed separately from the seats?
Because seats scale with your team and the AI scales with your customers. A vendor that bills the AI per resolution earns more when more of your customers write in. The seat is the smaller line on every per-resolution tool once the AI is handling a third of conversations, except Front's two-agent team on Professional, where $170 of seats sits against $133.50 of AI.
