Pricing Index
The AI Support Pricing Index 2026
Published August 25, 2026 · Rates verified 2026-08-21 · ~9 minute read
The finding: published per-resolution rates across AI support vendors span roughly four times, from $0.49 to $2.00 — and the unit is not the same unit. Some vendors bill a resolution, some a session, some a ticket, and at least one bills the same conversation twice. Comparing the headline numbers directly produces the wrong answer almost every time.
The index
| Vendor | Seats (per user/mo) | AI rate | What counts as billable | Free allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relay | Starter $9 · Growth $19 · Scale $39 | No AI usage fee | Seats only | None published |
| Zendesk | Suite Team $55 · Suite Professional $115 · Suite Enterprise $169 | $50/agent add-on$1.50 per resolution | A resolved outcome | ~10 resolutions/agent/mo |
| Intercom | Essential $29 · Advanced $85 · Expert $132 | $0.99 per resolution | A resolved outcome | None; 50-outcome minimum |
| Gorgias | Not seat-based | $1.00 per resolution | A resolution, and a ticket for the same conversation | None published |
| Help Scout | Standard $25 · Plus $45 · Pro $75 | $0.75 per resolution | A resolved outcome | None published |
| Freshdesk | Growth $19 · Enterprise $89 | $0.49 per session | A session, which is not a resolution | None published |
| Zoho Desk | Express $7 · Standard $14 · Professional $23 · Enterprise $40 | No AI usage fee | Seats only | 3 agents free |
| Quickchat AI (range reference) | Not a help desk | $0.50 per resolution | A resolved outcome | — |
| Salesforce Agentforce (range reference) | Not a help desk | $2.00 per resolution | A resolved outcome | — |
Every rate is a published list price read from the linked source, verified 2026-08-21. Nothing here is estimated or inferred, and negotiated enterprise discounts are not modelled because they are not published. Relay is a Switch Labs product and is one row among eight. Run your own volume through all of them.
The three billing units, in plain language
Every vendor in this category picks one of these, and each punishes a different shape of team.
Per seat
You pay per human. Predictable, easy to forecast, and unaffected by volume. It punishes teams with many occasional users — a warehouse where six people touch support twice a week each still buys six seats.
Per resolution
You pay when the AI closes something. It punishes teams whose AI works well, because the bill scales with deflection. This is the unit most people underestimate: the better the product performs, the more you owe.
Per ticket volume
You buy a bucket of tickets and pay overage past it. It punishes spiky businesses: one product launch or one shipping delay pushes you into overage on a plan you sized for a normal month.
Per session (the fourth unit)
Freshdesk sells Freddy AI as sessions rather than resolutions, at $49 per 100. A session is a chunk of AI interaction, not a closed ticket, so one conversation can consume several. Treat any comparison that lines a session price up against a resolution price as broken.
The double-charge cases
Two vendors charge more than once for the same event. Neither hides it, but neither leads with it either.
Gorgias. An AI Agent resolution bills at $1.00 monthly, or $0.90 on annual billing. That same conversation also consumes a ticket from your plan’s included volume ($10 for 50, $60 for 300, $360 for 2,000, $900 for 5,000 monthly, about 16% off annually). Once you are past the included volume, it is charged a third time as overage, at $0.40, $0.40, $0.36, or $0.32 per ticket by tier. A shop doing 3,000 tickets a month with 40% deflection is paying for those 1,200 conversations twice, and for the 1,000 tickets over its tier a third time.
Zendesk. Three separate lines: the Suite seat ($55 Team, $115 Professional, about $169 Enterprise), the Copilot add-on at $50 per agent per month, and per-resolution AI at roughly $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go beyond a free allowance of about 5 to 15 resolutions per agent per month. Note also that the widely quoted $19 Support Team plan is ticketing only and does not belong in an AI comparison at all.
The expiry cases
Freshdesk. Freddy AI sessions are sold in blocks of 100 for $49 and expire at the end of each billing cycle with no rollover. Buy for your peak month and you throw away the difference every quiet month.
Intercom. Fin carries a 50-outcome monthly minimum, so the first $49.50 is charged whether or not Fin resolves anything. For a small team testing AI on a slice of tickets, that floor can be most of the AI bill.
Where flat-rate wins, and where it loses
Disclosure first: Relay is our product, so read this section knowing that.
Flat wins as deflection succeeds. Per-resolution pricing bills you more precisely when your AI gets better. Take 3,000 tickets a month and move deflection from 20% to 50%: at $0.99 per outcome the AI line goes from about $594 to about $1,485 a month, for the same team, for doing support better. On a flat per-seat plan it does not move at all. That is the entire argument for flat pricing and it is worth exactly as much as your deflection rate makes it worth.
Flat loses for very low volume. If you handle 60 tickets a month, you may never reach a meter that would have charged you meaningfully, while a per-seat plan bills every seat regardless. And below four agents, Zoho Desk’s free tier beats every paid product in this index, ours included. Anyone telling you flat pricing is always cheaper is selling flat pricing.
Methodology
- Published rates only. If a vendor does not publish a number, this index says so rather than estimating one. Nothing here comes from a sales call.
- Every rate is linked and dated. Rates verified 2026-08-21. Each vendor row links to the source it came from.
- No ratings, no user counts, no vendor scores. This is a price index, not a review.
- Annual versus monthly is stated where it differs. Help Scout’s seat prices are annual rates; monthly is $30, $54, and $90. Gorgias AI is $1.00 monthly, $0.90 annual.
- Corrections welcome. If a vendor changes a rate or we have read one wrong, the fix lands here and the verification date moves.
Frequently asked questions
What does Intercom Fin cost?
Intercom Fin: $0.99 per resolved outcome, with a 50-outcome monthly minimum. Seats are billed separately at $29, $85, or $132 per seat per month depending on plan.
What is Zendesk's per-resolution price?
Zendesk: about $1.50 per AI resolution on a committed plan and about $2.00 pay-as-you-go, after a free allowance of roughly 5 to 15 resolutions per agent per month. The Copilot add-on is $50 per agent per month on top of a Suite seat at $55, $115, or about $169.
Does Gorgias charge twice for AI?
Yes, in effect. A Gorgias AI Agent resolution bills at $1.00 monthly or $0.90 annually, and the same conversation also consumes a ticket from your plan's included volume. Past that volume it additionally incurs overage of $0.40 to $0.32 per ticket depending on tier.
Which help desk has no AI usage fees?
Relay includes AI on all three of its per-seat tiers with no per-resolution charge. Zoho Desk also does not meter AI resolutions on its published per-agent plans. Every other vendor in this index charges a usage meter on top of seats.
What is the cheapest AI help desk?
Zoho Desk is free for up to three agents, which no paid product beats at that size. Above three agents the answer depends on your deflection rate, because per-resolution pricing gets more expensive exactly as your AI gets better while flat per-seat pricing does not. Run your own numbers rather than trusting a single answer.
Run your own numbers
- Help Desk AI Cost Calculator — all eight vendors at your volume, with a shareable link
- Relay overview
- Per-resolution vs flat AI pricing
- Zendesk alternatives · Intercom alternatives · Gorgias alternatives